When I read this statement from a devotional this morning,
it reminded me of The Princess Bride and of Buttercup’s unwavering faith
that Westley would come rescue her:
"Take
the risk that your prayers might be powerful,
That love may in fact be the strongest thing of all,
Worth giving all you have that it might be known."[1]
That love may in fact be the strongest thing of all,
Worth giving all you have that it might be known."[1]
The strength and worth of taking a risk for love is not an
unusual plot or an unusual message. This is what we grow up believing, that true
love exists and we will find it and everything will work out in the end. The darkness of Noah seemed to say the
opposite of The Princess Bride’s “all will be well in the end”
message. In Noah life is excruciatingly
difficult, love is brutal, and God seems not to hear or answer prayer. As I think about the devotional statement,
though, I wonder if Noah does ultimately have the same message, just in a
darker package. Buttercup’s faith in
love holds strong throughout The Princess Bride, and Noah’s wife’s faith
in love does the same throughout Noah.
Although Noah is based on the Bible, God is barely
more explicitly present in Noah than he is in The Princess Bride.
In Noah, the characters may be
talking to God, but they just as easily might not be. Grandfather Methuselah could represent
God. In The Princess Bride,
Miracle Max is a bit like God, and a bit like Methuselah. But providence is evident in both
movies. In The Princess Bride
Fezzik and Inigo decide to act at just the right time to find and save Westley. In Noah the boat strikes a rock at
just the right moment to end the fight between Noah and the stowaway. We tend not to talk about providence much
anymore, but it still means God’s hand at work.
In the end, of course Westley and Buttercup are reunited and
live happily ever after. Noah and his
wife and their children do the same. Although
the consequences and outcomes are dramatically different, both movies show the
ideas from that devotional statement—risks taken based on faith, and that love
is what triumphs.
We know from the Bible that God is love and God is all
powerful. Powerful love is evident in
both movies, although expressed in tremendously different ways. So although I don’t like the grittiness of
Noah, I can see how it really does have the same message, whether the
filmmakers intended it or not.
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