Still, these very public qualms faith-based viewers had with Noah, and then Exodus: Gods and Kings’ own subsequent criticisms raises a fair question: can the Biblical Epic be resurrected? ended up cutting over half an hour out of the film following an anemic premiere-the complaints that Aronofsky’s approach to the material was not biblical enough or that he spiced up the story by making a minor Genesis character (Tubal-cain) into a villainous, war-loving Ray Winstone seem quaint. Long before Russell Crowe’s Noah had a vision of God and a whole lot of H2O, burgeoning Californian studios were also seeing the signs, golden calves or otherwise.įrankly, compared to the drama Curtiz’s Noah underwent-three extras allegedly drowned during the shooting of the flood scenes (John Wayne was also on the set that day), talking sequences were reshot after the success of The Jazz Singer, and Warner Bros.
Of course, despite the controversy surrounding the already infamous director Darren Aronofsky ( Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan) and his over-budgeted take of the Bible story, as well as Ari Handel’s graphic novel, it ultimately remained a tale as old as the movies. As all good stories find themselves passed on from one generation to the next, it is almost shocking that, save for the ridiculous The Bible: In the Beginning… (1966), there has not been another big budget go at Noah and his majestic ark until Russell Crowe grew the big bushy beard for Noah. I’m of course referring to Noah’s Ark, the 1928 early talkie directed by Michael Curtiz, the man who would go on to make such Hollywood masterpieces as The Adventures of Robin Hood(1938), Casablanca (1942), and White Christmas (1954).
The movie is big, the movie is controversial, and the movie costs so much that the studio is demanding multiple edits of the picture for the most effective commercial appeal. At this point, the genesis of the Hollywood Noah’s Ark adaptation is almost as famous as the biblical flood narrative itself: a legendary director takes on one of the Bible’s most famous Old Testament stories from Genesis, one with an angry God, an angrier flood, and a lot of requisite special effects that are essential to pull off the proper disaster.