Birds enter the ark in “Noah.” The film stars Jennifer Connelly as Naameh and Russell Crowe as Noah.By Pam Grady
There is an ark with animals boarding it two by two, a great apocalyptic flood and the builder of the big boat, driven by foreknowledge of the catastrophe. Everyone knows the story, taken from the Bible’s book of Genesis and now spun into Darren Aronofsky’s “Noah,” starring Russell Crowe and opening in the middle of Lent.
The writer/director is not promising that it will please the faithful, declaring in one interview, ” ‘Noah’ is the least biblical movie ever made,” and telling the audience at the film’s recent Mexico City world premiere, “It’s a very, very different movie. Anything you’re expecting, you’re wrong.”
Maybe “Noah” will turn out to be as provocative as Aronofsky’s comments seem to promise, or maybe not, but it does underline that biblical dramas are not one-size-fits-all. Some only the faithful will embrace, others even the secular (and sometimes only the secular) can love, and then there are those that, because of their spectacle and star power, have wider appeal.
This seems like a good time to look at some of them. This list barely scratches the surface of a genre that has its roots in the silent era. Here are nine movies that represent a sample of the celebrated and the obscure, the famous and the infamous, the pious and the irreverent.