I have been MIA for a while now. I could blame it on any number of things, but I will keep the excuses to a minimum. I have been busy moving (including packing and unpacking), as well as it being a busy time of year at work, but that's no reason to completely neglect the blog. I genuinely have had little inspiration to write, and I am hoping that will change soon.
Tonight, I saw the movie Noah. Let me start with this-it is a movie based on a story in the Bible, but there is some poetic/artistic license taken. That being said, I thought it was very well done. It is a great portrayal of the story, and I believe it shows some dark things we always like to gloss over in the story of Noah. We typically look at all of the good things, but we forget the real reason for the flood-the darkness God saw in the world.
I rather liked much of how they chose to portray certain aspects of the movie. I felt it was true to the story, even though there were some changes made in the story. Huh?! How can it be true to the story AND have changes? Well, in my opinion, the changes that were made did not detract from the overall story. For example, (without spoiling anything), they show Methuselah dying in the flood. If you read closely in scripture, you can see that Methuselah died the year of the flood, but no where in scripture does it indicate that he died IN the flood. There are plenty of other things, but some of them are mild spoilers. They wouldn't ruin the story for you, because I am sure most of you know the general story anyway, and the pieces I thought would be worth mentioning aren't major "plot" points.
**spoilers below**
One that really deviated from the scripture is that Ham and Japheth did not have wives that came on the Ark with them. Scripture clearly states that Noah, his wife, his sons and his sons' wives came on the Ark. Um...Mr. Director/Screenplay writer, I think you missed a little bit. Actually, I think he did that on purpose, because it allowed him to write in an additional subplot.
**spoilers over**
I hope that doesn't ruin the movie for you if you read that and haven't seen it. :)
Another thing I have already noticed in looking at the scripture is that Noah's sons are always listed in this order: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. That's the birth order represented in the movie. However, upon reading into the story of Noah's nakedness/drunkenness, Ham is the one who discovers Noah naked, while Shem and Japheth are the ones who walk backward to cover their father up without seeing him naked. (Maybe a little prudish, but those were different times...?). Anyway, the scripture indicates that Ham is the youngest son. Genesis 9:18-25 says, "The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan). These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth. Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father's naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked. When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, he said, 'Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.'"
So...that indicates to me that Ham was the youngest. Not sure why he is mentioned before Japheth, then. Just a thought. The director/writer obviously felt Ham wasn't the youngest due to always being mentioned second, because he was portrayed as the middle child in the film.
Can I also just mention how amazing Emma Watson was in the movie? She is such a great actress! I didn't even think about Hermione the whole movie!! That's saying something, especially for an actress who I only know as Hermione! :)
So, whether you've heard good things or bad things about Noah, go see it and "judge" it for yourself. I think there are so many aspects of the story we don't know because scripture simply doesn't tell us that we can't say the writer/director was wrong in his portrayal. We just don't know. So, take it for what it is-one person's (or group's) opinion on the story. Sure, it's flawed. But my portrayal would be flawed, too. So would yours.
:)
