Summary
- Noah expands upon vague elements of the Book of Genesis to create a more detailed, dramatic narrative.
- Changes such as leaving Na'el behind contribute to Noah's controversy among religious audiences.
- Aronofsky adds embellishments like The Watchers and Zohar to visually enhance Noah's story.
Darren Aronofsky's The standout cast of Noah helped carry its relatively simple Old Testament story into success, even if the film made some dramatic changes to the original parable.
Many of director Darren Aronofsky's changes to Noah's original story are the result of the Bible's brevity. The Old Testament could be rather brief in its descriptions of certain people, events, or concepts, with much of the background context for many aspects of the pre-Christianity world being lost to time or translation. Aronofsky was content to expand upon many vague elements of Noah's tale that were only ever briefly mentioned in the holy book. Noah's varied changes and additions to the Book of Genesis helped cement its place as one of the best biblical epics ever made in recent memory.
Noah
- Release Date
- March 28, 2014
- Runtime
- 138 Minutes
- Director
- Darren Aronofsky
WHERE TO WATCH
Darren Aronofsky's Noah is an epic biblical drama starring Russell Crowe as the titular character. The film tells the story of the legendary man chosen by God and the ark he builds to save his family and the world's animals from a great flood. Jennifer Connelly, Emma Watson, Ray Winston, Anthony Hopkins, Logan Lerman, and Douglas Booth round out the rest of the main cast.
9 Noah's Family Was More Developed
The Bible only made ing mention of some of the film's characters
Noah was sure to fill out its cast by expanding greatly upon certain of Noah's family only ever briefly alluded to in the Bible. For one, Noah's father, Methuselah, was given actual character traits and mystical abilities, not to mention his grandfather, Lemech, who died much earlier in the film compared to the Bible story. The film also fleshed out Noah's partner, naming her Naamah, who the Bible merely refers to as "Noah's wife". Jennifer Connelly's portrayal of this character gave her far more agency than in the ancient creation myth.
8 Na'el Wasn't On The Ark
Curiously, the film makes Noah more selective of his engers
There are fewer instances in which Aronofsky's Noah actively did the opposite of the original Bible story rather than merely iterating on glossed-over points, but the director wasn't above making straight-up changes to the Christian canon. In the film, Noah leaves Na'el for dead, despite the implication of a budding romance between her and Ham. Meanwhile, the Bible didn't name Ham's wife but did clarify that she was indeed among the Ark's engers. Overt changes like this to the core narrative likely helped contribute to Noah's controversy in early test screenings, especially among religious audiences.
Aronofsky's Noah was based more so on his own graphic novel of the same name.
7 The Watchers Are Expanded Upon
The Biblical giants of legend are given names and forms in the film
The Bible made ing reference to creatures like The Watchers, remarking "There were giants in the Earth in those days" when referring to Noah's ancient time. Aronofsky's film expanded upon these beings, with massive rock monsters known as The Watchers roaming the Earth in service of the Almighty. Fantastical embellishments like these remind the viewer that Aronofsky's Noah was based more so on his own graphic novel of the same name, which further mythologized the tale of the Ark with science fiction-adjacent elements.
6 God's Warning Is Much Less Direct
Noah's impetus for building the arc is far more vague in the film
In Noah, Russel Crowe's character received mysterious visions of the oncoming flood via vague prophetic dreams and initially struggled to make sense of the terrifying sensation of drowning. However, in the Bible, God was far more direct in telling Noah what he must do and when the great deluge would arrive, making it clear in no uncertain that there would be a flood, and it would be up to Noah to save all the terrestrial life he could. Not only that, but God even gave Noah exact dimensions and building instructions for the Ark.
5 The Seed Of Eden Explains Noah's Lumber Supplies
The Bible makes no such effort to justify Noah's raw materials
Darren Aronofsky saw fit to explain how Noah could've possibly gathered enough raw materials to construct the massive Ark, penning an explanation for how he was able to attain so much lumber. In the film, Methuselah presented Noah with a seed from the Garden of Eden, capable of instantly sprouting an entire forest overnight, thus providing his son with the necessary materials to build the famous ship. Beyond adapting the Bible into a movie's third-act structure, this moment served to further connect Noah's story to that of Adam, alluding to the rest of the Book of Genesis.
4 Noah Gets Drunk For A Definitive Reason
The Bible is less clear about Noah's intoxication
One of the most uncomfortable episodes in the story of Noah came right after the great flood finally ended, and Noah found himself drunk well past the point of cognition. The Bible never directly explained why Noah drank to such a degree, with theories ranging from trauma over witnessing the death and destruction caused by the flood to simple merrymaking after having survived such an ordeal. Regardless of the reason, the point of the story was originally to simply warn of the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption.
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In Darren Aronofsky's Noah, an explicit reason is given as to why Noah consumes so much wine. In the film, Noah became separated from his family after he nearly murdered his grandchildren and chose to isolate himself, drowning his sorrows in an early form of homemade wine. Just like in the Bible, however, Ham stumbles upon his father's naked, inebriated state. Whereas Ham simply leaves to travel alone in the film, in the Bible, Noah woke up "and knew what his younger son had done unto him."
3 Tubal-Cain Is Inserted Into Noah's Story
The evil descendant of Cain wasn't as big of a threat in the Bible
To give his adaptation a tangible antagonist beyond God's wanton destruction, Aronofsky iterated on the Bible's mention of Cain's descendants, identifying one as the Tubal-Cain. While Tubal-Cain is described in the Bible, complete with ancestry to history's first murderer, he isn't related to Noah's story at all. The film posited Tubal-Cain as a stowaway aboard the Ark, who hid among Noah's impressive CGI animals and nearly managed to kill Noah by turning Ham against him, leveraging his son's frustration with Na'el's death for his own purposes.
2 Isaac’s Story Is Given To Noah
Aronofsky conflates two biblical tales
The tense father-son dynamic between Noah and Ham in the film came to a boiling point when Noah nearly killed his grandchildren, misinterpreting God's will to believe that the divine intended the complete erasure of humanity. Noah ultimately stopped himself from delivering the killing blow on his twin granddaughters, unable to carry out what he believed to be God's plan. In reality, this near-sacrifice was more similar to the Binding of Isaac, another Genesis excerpt in which God commanded Abraham to kill his son as a test of his faith.
1 The Addition Of Zohar
2014's Noah added a MacGuffin to the Bible
The Hebrew word "Zohar" did appear in the Bible, best translated as "splendor" or "radiance". 2014's Noah instead made Zohar a physical material, a mineral with fantastical properties mined from the Earth. Like the infamous Unobtanium from Avatar, Zohar was used for many incredible purposes in the film, working as both a light source and even a modern-day pregnancy test. Of all the changes to the original Bible story, Zohar's introduction proved Aronofsky wasn't afraid to add science fiction elements to Noah, far from a one-to-one retelling of the Book of Genesis.
Zohar is also the name of the Kabbalah's foundational text, also referenced in Aronofsky's 1998 film Pi.
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