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| "It's gonna rain..." Noah (Russell Crowe) guards the Ark against raiders. |
by Andy Nowicki
As
audacious, ambitious, heterodoxically-conceived Biblical epics go, Darren
Aronofsky’s new movie Noah somewhat
recalls The Last Temptation of Christ,
Martin Scorsese’s 1988 adaptation of the controversial Nikos Kazantzakis novel.
Both
films were subjected to a pre-release drubbing by conservative Christian
groups, who in each case complained of disrespect for Scripture and overall
theological untenability (though the deluge of condemnation rained down upon Temptation—which featured a doubt-plagued
and carnally-tormented Jesus—easily
drowns out the contemporary Noah imbroglio, a fact
which I daresay ought to demonstrate to right-wing pagan critics that
Christianity, far from being a radically “egalitarian” monstrosity, is hardly without its hierarchy of heroes).
