This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Plot Overview
Technically, since we're all descendants of Adam and Eve there's at least one drop of blood in common for all of humanity. For that matter there was a restart after the flood of Noah, to wit, (Gen. 9:18-19) “And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.” From Shem come the Semites, of course. Writer Bodie Hodge holds forth that: “Generally, from the Middle East in the land of Shinar (modern-day Iraq, where Babel was), Japheth's descendants went north toward Europe and Asia, Ham's went toward Africa, and Shem's remained in the Middle East” (183). Hodge reiterates that “As a general trend, Ham is the father of many peoples in Africa” (122). Dr. Ide adds, “Ham sired four sons: Cush (translates as ‘black’) … and Canaan the youngest” (62).
After the flood one day, Noah took some leisure time, stripped down, and got drunk in his tent where he was discovered by his youngest son Ham who complained about it to his two older brothers (Gen. 9:20-23). Ham was perturbed that his father had gotten naked without setting about to procreate as God commanded—Yes, Noah sired no more children after the flood. Ham also didn't like his father taking a recess from rebuilding the wrecked world. Noah's rejoinder was along the lines of, “Oy vey! You want we should have children and work harder? Okay, your little ones can be slaves to your brothers'. Oy vey!” (Gen. 9:24-27).
Javan was (Gen. 10:2) one of the sons of Japheth. According to Hodge, “Javan is the Hebrew name for Greece.” (165) “Genesis 10:5, immediately after recording the sons of Japheth and specifically Javan, mentions that these people were spread out as the ‘coastline’ people. These were the maritime peoples, or people who went by boat” (166). Historian J.M. Roberts tells of, “the hidden pervasiveness even today of Greek influences in our collective life — in art, politics, science—” (23). When Noah said, (Gen. 9:27) “God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant,” he was envisioning a worldwide culture inclusive of Shem and Japheth's descendants (with Ham's including Canaan in a servant class.)
According to Roberts, “Among the … first Greek- speakers, [t]hese warrior peoples, the Achaeans … already in possession of the techniques of chariot warfare, settled in fortified strongholds on sites which were sometimes those of future Greek cities. Athens was one.”
“One raid which showed the vigour of the Achaeans passed into legend as the Siege of Troy, and mobilized forces from many cities and islands. It probably occurred in about 1200 bc. This seems to have been one of the last great Achaean successes.” (18) One may compare this story of the Trojan Horse for renown to the story of David defeating Goliath in the Bible.
The Odyssey is according
to Roberts “one of two great epics” of Greek poet
Homer. “It tells the story of the wanderings, adventures and
heroic deeds of an Achaean captain as he slowly makes his way home
after [Troy] had fallen” (35). Here re-branded
Ulysses the captain becomes Odysseus (Matt Damon) king
of Ithica whose patient queen Penelope (Anne Hathaway) awaits her
husband's return while pursued by suitors aplenty coveting the
throne. Her growing son Telemachus (Tom Holland) in peril of
assassination goes looking for him. The movie deftly mixes palace
intrigue with the original phantasmagoric embellishments
of storytellers who in an age of chariots never got far from home.
Ideology
Is Penelope's husband
still alive? Who knows? It's pretty dangerous out there at best. At
any rate the apostle Paul advises the widow, (1Cor. 7:39) “The wife is bound
by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be
dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the
Lord.” The Jews had a custom called levirate marriage. If a
woman's husband being an eldest brother died and they were
childless, she was obligated to marry his younger brother, or
in a pinch some other near kinsman, to continue the former's line.
The Jews in Corinth had asked the apostle Paul if any of that
carried over to Christianity, and he replied no, that the widow was
not owned by her former husband's family, that she had as open
season on men as did a single girl. “Only in the Lord”
means she had to court with holiness in body and spirit. That might
be hard to do if she were on loving terms with her ex's brother(s)
in which case it is but a small step to sexual intimacy. Although
levirate marriage is not so common today, we get an intimation of
this issue wherein dozens of suitors were hanging around the palace
of whom Penelope was under pressure to take her pick. A start of
friendly intimacy might lead in her humanity to jumping the gun,
contrary to maintaining her purity in the Lord.
Her situation was complicated by the arrival of a beggar in rags who wanted to throw his hat into the arena. At that time & place, “Zeus's law tells us to treat strangers as we wish to be treated, because they might be gods in disguise.” That corresponds to Christians' obligation to, (Heb. 13:2) “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” If in her circle entertaining him, she gets to know him and like him, there's a real possibility they will get hitched (in the Lord.) Also he need not be a Christian for that to happen. Christians are supposed to be (Heb. 10:25) “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.” If he assembles with Christians who get to know him, then he's no longer a stranger, is he? But if he's not a Christian, he'd be forbidden to join their assemblies as per, (2Cor. 6:14) “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: ...” applied to Christian groups but not to marriage where she's free to choose whomever.
Production Values
“” (2026) was
directed by Christopher Nolan. Its screenplay was written by
Christopher Nolan being a take on the source material of Homer. It
stars Matt Damon, Tom Holland and Anne Hathaway, with a good
supporting cast. The leads themselves were terrific. A black
woman was cast as Helen the world's most beautiful woman, not that
we could make out her face in her brief indoor appearances. She's
the daughter of Zeus, not the slave-cast, offspring of Noah. Here
as in history she's a shadowy figure. Beauty in this picture is
represented by Charlize Theron playing the nymph Calypso with a
face that would launch a single raft.
MPA rated it R for violence and some language. It featured a moving score. fast-paced editing, great costume design, and memorable monsters. The sound, set pieces, and special effects were resplendent, and it largely avoided CGI. Runtime is 2 hours 52 minutes.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
A siege is a dicey business, but we were mostly dealing with the aftermath and home front issues. The Greeks knew how to write plays. We get some of that here. It had good action and drama with scary monsters and spells.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Edge of your seat action-packed. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Five stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Drunken Noah scene depicted in a Civil War vintage woodcut, made after a drawing by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (German painter, 1794–1872) from his archive, published in 1877, and more recently by iStock.com/Getty Images. Used under license.
Hodge, Bodie. Tower of Babel: The Cultural History of Our Ancestors. Green Forest, AR: New Leaf Pub., 2013. Print.
Ide, Arthur Frederick. Noah & the Ark: The Influence of Sex, Homophobia and Heterosexism in the Flood Story and its Writing. Las Colinas: Monument Press, 1992. Print.
Roberts, J.M. A History of Europe. New York: Penguin Press, 1997. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org