- The Washington Times - Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Darren Aronofsky, the director of “Noah,” took to CNN to defend the pro-environmental view he presented in his movie, saying that the leading character did, after all, save the animals, not the babies.

To CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, he said that Genesis is decidedly a biblical book of environmentalism. And he’s only taken that theme and put it on the big screen.

“Noah is out saving the animals,” he said, Mediaite reported.

“He’s not out saving innocent babies. He’s saving the animals. He’s saving creation. In Genesis 2:15, the first thing that God tells Adam to do is to tend and to keep the garden. It’s right there in Genesis. So it was very clear to us that there was an environmental message, and to pull that message out of it, we think, would have been more of an editing job than just presenting what was there.”

Mr. Aronofsky, a self-professed atheist, has also described his film as “the least biblical biblical film ever made” to The Telegraph. And he calls the leading character of Noah played by Russell Crowe the “first environmentalist.” Meanwhile, an early reviewer also reported to The Independent that the word “God” is not mentioned once in the movie.

During the interview on CNN, Mr. Aronofsky also promoted his views of climate change, saying that the world is currently “living the second chance that was given to Noah,” while speaking of the dangers of the atmosphere that were just outlined by the United Nations.

• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.

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