Want religion? Read the Bible

Religion is a fact of life. This is plain and simple; so why are critics suddenly opposed to how movies based on religious texts are depicted? This all comes down to how scripture is interpreted.

I believe that movies based on scripture don’t need to follow the text exactly. Just as historical fiction takes creative license with historical events, movie makers should be able to take creative license with scripture.

Certain movies are meant to depict life and act as a microcosm for the societies they represent. One of the greatest aspects of movies is that they are able to retell historic events for the education and enjoyment of audiences. However, many people feel that directors in Hollywood are more interested in making films for strictly entertainment value, rather than to be truthful to the Bible or to the original story.

On March 28, the movie “Noah” was released in theaters nationwide and it got a great deal of backlash from viewers.

Viewers felt that the film was far too fictional and that Hollywood exploited the religious text. “Hollywood has an agenda and that’s to sell films and make it exciting, not necessarily to convey historical accuracy nor to convey theological values,” says Rabbi Steven Weil, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union.

Artistic license was taken by director Darren Aronofsky, and as religious scholar Reza Aslan said, “If you wanted to make a biblically based Noah story it would be 10 minutes long … if you’re going to approach this topic, you have no choice but to expand on it, to make things up, to create a narrative out of it.”

I agree completely with Aslan. The director of “Noah” did not change the story and did not include false events, so what is the harm in adding a few details to make the movie more appealing to an audience?

Directors in Hollywood want to get reactions and discussions from their films.

Hollywood cannot be a land of solely romantic comedies. Movies of historic events, religious texts and controversial topics are vital to Hollywood and in order to make those movies appealing to the audience, artistic license must be taken and details must be added.