Behind the Scenes: “Noah”
Posted on March 7, 2014 at 10:30 pm
Tablet Says The Best Movies Are Religious (Even If They Are Not Bible Stories)
Posted on March 5, 2014 at 3:55 pm
In the midst of the silly battles over “Noah,” Liel Leibovitz has a superb piece on the Tablet website about how the best movies always have a religious component.
As is often the case when we strive to talk seriously about popular entertainment, we’re asking all the wrong questions. Rather than fretting about whether Hollywood gets religion—it does, gloriously so, and to great effect—we should wonder why, given its stratospheric success with religious-themed films, is Hollywood so reluctant to give its audiences what they so clearly desire.
This, first and foremost, is a question of definitions. Who’s a religious person? And what kind of film might he like? To hear marketers, in Hollywood and beyond, tell it, a religious person is someone whose cultural horizon begins with Genesis and ends with Revelation, some sort of sniggering simpleton who grows suspicious unless his entertainment features swords, sandals, and the heroes he’d read about in Sunday School. This lazy and skewed approach is no less offensive than the efforts to market products to women simply by slapping on pink packaging, and no less ineffective: Women, like religious people and members of minority groups and the young and the old and people with terrible nut allergies and anyone else who was blessed with the breath of life, are complex and nuanced people whose tastes and predilections run far deeper than a single, simple note.
I like the way Liebovitz understands that movies like “Groundhog Day” and “2001” are religious movies because they engage us in the deepest questions of meaning and purpose. People of faith — whether those who are confident in their beliefs and affiliations or those who are seeking a better understanding of our connection to the infinite — are drawn to stories that explore those themes, and not just reiterations of Bible chapters.
In the 1950’s and 1960’s, Bible stories were a staple in Hollywood, with big, star-studded, prestige movies like “King of Kings,” “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” “The Bible,” “The Ten Commandments,” and “Song of Bernadette.” It is interesting to think about why that changed. There are a lot of theories and the answer probably encompasses most of them. The controversy over “Noah” is at least one indicator of at least one of the reasons. As mainstream audiences have shown less interest in explicitly religious films, those who strongly identify as observant are
This year, in addition to Son of God and “Noah,” we will also see Christian Bale as Moses in “Exodus.” I hope that both self-described faith-audiences and those who do not define themselves that way will give these films a try — and look for the spiritual themes and inspiration in whatever movies they attend. The wonder of the Bible is that it gives us so much to ponder, and it can be a joy to share the way it speaks to each of us, even if those ways are different. I hope these films get more people interested in reading and discussing the Bible and considering its lessons more deeply.
Responding to the Complaints about “Noah”
Posted on February 25, 2014 at 4:09 pm
As I noted earlier, Variety reported the results of a bogus survey as though it represented legitimate concerns from the faith community about the upcoming film, “Noah,” starring Russell Crowe and directed by Darren Aronofsky. It is always disappointing when a small portion of the Christian community perpetuates the worst stereotypes too-often assigned to all believers, coming across as shrill, prejudiced, and thin-skinned, far more interested in finding reasons to be offended than in demonstrating compassion, humility, and grace. We saw that this week in The American Family Association’s calling on its members to protest a “profanity-laced” television commercial with only one bad word: “hell.” And then there is this silliness, yet another bad example of people who devote more energy to telling other people whether they qualify as Christians than paying attention to their own behavior. A good refresher for those who claim to be victims of bigotry is this essay from a United Church of Christ (UCC) minister and fire station chaplin. Basically, if you can worship in the place and manner of your choice and your only objection is that you cannot control the behavior of other people, you are not the subject of discrimination.
This hypersensitivity is just one reason it is so difficult for Hollywood to produce films that honestly portray people of faith or stories based on the Bible. The New York Times’ Michael Cieply, a movie producer-turned reporter, wrote a piece called “Can God Make it in Hollywood?”
Once, studios routinely made movies with overtly religious themes for the mainstream audience. Classics like “The Ten Commandments,” “Quo Vadis” and “A Man for All Seasons” — each of which was nominated for a best picture Oscar — were box-office winners with a wide range of viewers. But after years of neglect or occasional hostility, the question now is whether Hollywood can still find common ground with religious audiences.
That is borne out by stories like the one in Variety, based on a survey with a biased question put to people who had not seen the movie. So it is very reassuring to see this excellent piece by Steven D. Greydanus in the Catholic Register, titled Everybody Chill Out about the “Noah” Movie.
There’s a lot of room in the biblical story for interpretation and imagination, and anyone who’s been thinking about this story as long as Aronofsky has is likely to have some interesting insights into it.
It is well worth reading in full. As noted before, unlike some of the people who are complaining about “Noah,” I will wait to report on the movie after I have seen it.
Should Faith Audiences Like the New “Noah” Movie?
Posted on February 19, 2014 at 3:59 pm
Russell Crowe plays Noah in a new movie from director Darren Aronofsky (“The Wrestler,” “Requiem for a Dream”) and co-starring “Harry Potter’s” Emma Watson and Oscar-winner Jennifer Connelly.
Variety reports that a group called “Faith Driven Consumers” conducted a poll finding that 98 percent of their tiny, self-selected group were not “satisfied” with the movie. However, none of those polled (or those conducting the polling) had actually seen the movie, which is still in post-production. Furthermore, the members of the Faith Driven Consumer group may not be representative of the faith community or even those who do not so identify but will be interested in the movie because it is a big, effects-driven historical epic with an exciting story and two Oscar-winning stars. Most important, the poll is severely flawed because of the way the question was posed: “As a Faith Driven Consumer, are you satisfied with a Biblically themed movie – designed to appeal to you – which replaces the Bible’s core message with one created by Hollywood?” Even assuming that they are correct about the Bible’s core message, since they have not seen the movie it is close to bearing false witness for them to frame the question this way. And it is highly disrespectful for the commenters on this bogus story to ignore the fact that it is not just Christians, much less some subset of Christians, who have an interest in the story of Noah, who is an important figure in Jewish and Muslim texts as well.
It is likely that the movie will be very respectful of the faith-based audience and present the story of the man who followed God’s direction in a way that will be meaningful to believers and inspiring for those who are open to it. But I will not judge it until I see it, and I will report back then.