"Noah's Ark"*** (out of ****)
The biggest problem with "Noah's Ark" (1928) is its deceptive. When you hear a movie is called "Noah's Ark" you may think it will be based on the biblical story from the Book of Genesis about a man named Noah who builds an ark in preparation of a great flood after he is instructed to by God. This movie however is about World War 1.
"Noah's Ark", like Cecil B. DeMille's "Manslaughter" (1922) and D.W. Griffith's "Intolerance" (1916). is a morality tale attempting to parallel a historical / biblical moment in history with a modern day story, warning us of history repeating itself.
In this movie's case the story of Noah's Ark is combined with a story about World War 1. Just as the biblical flood caused great destruction so too will the war to end all wars. The problem with the movie is it is really over reaching and heavy handed. Can you really compare the two events? Do they lend themselves easily to comparison?
The story of Noah's Ark by itself would have been enough to make a good movie. An anti-war story about World War 1 would have been entertaining on its own. But "Noah's Ark" doesn't evenly split its story and focuses the majority of its running time on the modern day story. With a running time of one hour and 47 minutes (including a seven minute overture and exit music), after setting up the two parallel stories, the movie spends one hour on the modern story before it switches to the biblical story. This prevents audiences from fully understanding the connection between the two stories. Where's D.W. Griffith when you need him?
"Noah's Ark" isn't a great movie because structurally it is clumsy trying to combine two unrelated events but also tries to bridge the gap between silent films and "talkies". Portions of "Noah's Ark" has sound and dialogue while much of it is silent. Clearly this was intended to be a silent movie with sound thrown in to capitalize on the movie's new ability to talk.
To further cause public interest to a modern day audience, the movie was directed by Michael Curtiz, the Hungarian born director of such American classics as "Casablanca" (1943), "Mildred Pierce" (1945) and "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942). "Noah's Ark" was one of his early American movies while working at Warner Brothers. The story was by Darryl F. Zanuck, who would go on to be the studio head of what we now know as 20th Century Fox.
Finally there is the Great Flood sequence which has become part of Hollywood lore. It has been suggested the filming of this sequence, with 600,000 gallons of water used, actually resulted in casualties due to extras drowning and some being injured. Whether or not that is true, the sequence is extraordinary. It is the kind of thing one would find in a Cecil B. DeMille movie. This sequence alone may be enough to make audiences sit through the movie.
In the modern portion of the movie we follow Travis (George O' Brien) and Al (Guinn Williams), two American friends first seen on board the Orient Express near the French border where Travis first notices a beautiful German actress, Marie (Dolores Costello). She has declined the advances of a Russian soldier Nickoloff (Noah Berry) but seems to like Travis. Al on the other hand ends up with multiple flirtations including an inn keeper, Hilda (Louise Fazenda). With Travis love stricken the men decide to stay in France.
America declares war while the men are in France. The U.S. will enter World War 1. With that same sense of false idyllic pride found in King Vidor's "The Big Parade" (1925) the men believe they must enlist. Though Travis and Marie have married and he is worried about her, since she is German, his overwhelming feeling of duty to his country comes first.
Outside of the heavy handed moral preaching "Noah's Ark" also tries to connect the stories by having the actors play dual roles, one for each time period and by having similar events happen in each story. Both stories have a romance, both have outside forces separate the lovers and both feature violence. The performances in the modern story are more effective than the biblical story and draw the viewer in. I am reluctant however to say either George O' Brien (best known for his role in "Sunrise" (1927) by F.W. Murnau) or Dolores Costello (known for being the grandmother of Drew Barrymore) give great performances. You almost get the impression they aren't comfortable filming with sound equipment. Or maybe they just aren't comfortable saying the lousy dialogue that was written for them.
Watching the movie with 20/20 vision the movie's anti-war message becomes unintentionally melancholy. While characters may hope the war and the sacrifice of all those that died may prevent another war like it from ever happening again, a modern audience knows better. Roughly 10 years after this movie's release, Europe would be at war again.
"Noah's Ark" was originally released with a running time of two hours and 15 minutes. Some of the sound sequences in the movie were removed and now we have the one hour 47 minute version. The movie also credits Myrna Loy in the credits. She can be seen and heard in scene dealing with the modern times story.
By default the World War 1 story is more interesting, more time is spent on this story and more character development. This makes it more enjoyable to watch. For this portion of the story I recommend the movie. For the spectacle of the great flood sequence, I also recommend the movie. The over reaching heavy handed message and comparison between the deluge of water in Noah's story and the deluge of blood during the war, is a bit too much for me. The best examples of comparing biblical times to modern times happens at the beginning of the movie when we see the golden calf and people adoring it fade into Wall Street, suggesting greed and love of money are our new gods.
Not quite the strong anti-war film "The Big Parade" is or "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930) still "Noah's Ark" has its moment. Of course, for a movie called "Noah's Ark" it really should have been more about Noah and less about 1914 and World War 1. Its heavy handed, over reaching message may be off putting to some and down right silly to others. If you want to see the story of Noah and his ark, you may have to watch "Noah" (2014) with Russell Crowe. This half silent / half "talkie" version is worth watching for its flood sequence and can also serve as an example of what made Cecil B. DeMille such a good director. "Noah's Ark" is for serious silent film fans not casual viewers.
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