This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Twisted History
Plot Overview
On
Christmas morning, 1762, two children, black & white, in the
hold of a transatlantic sailing ship, are perusing a hymn
derived from (Col. 3:11)
“Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision
nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond
nor free: but Christ is all, and in all” and such like. After
some years have gone by this slave
woman—semiliterate—reads Jefferson's declaration that
“all men are created equal” to her fellow darkies.
DB will oft return to these
two citations as if one were the outcome of the other and deserving
of reflection. Such is a modern myth of the '60s projected back in
time (“Do they truly believe God made all of us
equal?”) England abolished slavery more out of arrival of the
industrial revolution than serious consideration of Negro equality.
The juxtaposition of St. Paul
and Thomas Jefferson was more along the lines of a Donald Westlake
novel in which an ignored author and a desperate one make a deal:
“You have a book and no publisher,” Bryce reminded him. “I have a publisher and I don't have a book” (11).
The book was good, certainly good enough to become his own. (42)
Paul wasn't
fomenting a revolution but that Christians in various stations of
life would get along. Now grown Jeremiah Clem (Joel
Smallbone), a delivery boy for his betters, was told by a
sentry to “go through the tunnel.” He runs into the
master of the house Lord Balfour (Charles Esten) who being a friend
of his late father's greets him warmly, introduces him to his
daughter Lady Elizabeth Balfour (Beth Easdown)—whom he has
the hots for—and allows them a dance. He's being treated as
equal, but he still had to go trough the tunnel. Men's work,
women's work, and machine work were all well illustrated here. Men
were shown hefting 50 pound sacks of flour that would
overwhelm a gal. A water wheel had ground the grain into
flour. Women cooked dough as per “traditional families, where
women did the cooking and men famously didn't know the first thing
about cooking indoors but did all the cooking outside”
(Westlake, 20). On the field of battle, men had to cook. Women did
the washing. There were no washing machines. They had slaves.
The biblical illustration given us in the movie is of David and
Goliath. He killed the giant. He became king and fought the Lord's
battles. He wanted to build a temple, but God wouldn't allow him
because he'd shed too much blood. He was to gather materials and
let his son Solomon a man of peace build it. In the movie Benjamin
Clem (Lucas Leach) the drummer boy wants to kill some red coats
(lobsters) but his Yankee commanding officer Major John Ambrose
(Iain Glen) won't let him. Killing a man diminishes a person. Under
the banner of equality, there are a lot of “diminished”
persons around. When Lady Elizabeth ignores a serviceman's
letter, her slave cum secretary Emmaline (India Brown) takes it
upon herself to respond to this friend from her youth. This
movie does have its share of ghost writers. In the last
scrimmage, there were too many chiefs and not enough Indians.
Ideology
Benjamin mouthed off to the British, so jeopardizing their trade that his mother depended on. His older brother Jeremiah had to go make peace with them. Earlier on the boat a younger Ben disobeyed his father who told him to stay below when a French frigate attacked and boarded them. Jeremy obeyed his dad and looked after his bro. Ben got a mangled leg in the melee and has to wear a brace. He's an illustration of bad karma for opposing his folks. (Prov. 30:17) “The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.” It has an earlier biblical precedent:
To ameliorate man's difficult labor.
Noah's father Lamech had (Gen. 5:29)
“called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us
concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground
which the LORD hath cursed.” Or from novelist Jess Shelton:
“There's a place in the Book tells on Lamech. He got him a
boy called Noah and he says: This boy'll bring us comfort from our
work and from the toil of our hands in the ground the Lord
cursed” (126). Old man Noah's work break was to be respected
by his (Gen. 6:10) “three
sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” They may be formed into two
pairs: the eldest Japheth & Shem, and the youngest Ham paired
with his own son Canaan making the numbers even. Ham also put
himself in jeopardy according to the same proverb.
(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.” When (Jasher 6:40-41) “they all went out from the ark, they went and returned every one to his way and to his place, and Noah and his sons dwelt in the land.” They'd been cooped up together long enough, so now they spread out somewhat according to some preestablished pecking order. God (Jasher 6:42) “said unto them, Be fruitful and fill all the earth; become strong.” To become strong meant, among other things, taking their needed meds when sick, along the lines of, (James 5:14) “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” Children are always getting sick. Here it seemed to be Canaan's turn whose elders would have been his father Ham and grandfather Noah. Oil in Bible times was a medication, as the good Samaritan (Luke 10:34) “bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine,” as was, (1Tim. 5:23) “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.” Grapes grow in the summer, but once they're fermented, the wine can be stored throughout the year. Noah got into the store while setting an example for a work break, establishing period(s) of escape from hard work per Lamech's saying, now near universally observed, as author Ray Loriga notes: “Men, here and anywhere else in the world, tend to seek solace in beer at the end of a workday—” (179).
Noah's drinking humanized him as a bona fide man of history with an extraordinary achievement, not merely a pious religious figure. It was also the occasion to sort out his sons' destinies for many generations to come.
Noah's wife was an on-the-spot agent, who since she isn't mentioned, did well incurring no rebuke. She would have made herself scarce giving Noah some space to relax when he started drinking, seeings (1Tim. 2:9-10) “that women adorn themselves … with good works.” Being a virtuous woman (Prov. 31:27) “She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.” She would not have let grass grow under her feet but would have gone straight to visit Ham to make adjustments regarding their diminished store of medicinal alcohol.
Ham ignoring his mother's caution showed up shortly at Noah's tent to check out the cause. He fell to temptation by mocking his dad to his two brothers, but they would have none of it.
The licensor's alternate image text explains Noah, “When he drank some of the wine, he got drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness and told his two brothers who were outside. Shem and Japheth took a garment and placed it on their shoulders. Then they walked in backwards and covered up their father's nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so they did not see their father's nakedness (Genesis 9:21-23).” They covered the old man to prevent him from catching a chill in the mountains as it was no longer summer. Ham showed disrespect to their patriarch.
Ham had put himself in jeopardy
according to, (Prov. 30:17)
“The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey
his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the
young eagles shall eat it.” The man of God is a spiritual
father and the carrion birds would get the leavings from the apex
predator, along the lines of Thackeray's poem,
Timbuctoo:
In Africa (a quarter of the world) Men's skins are black, their hair is crisp and curled And somewhere there unknown to public view A mighty city lies called Timbuctoo There stalks the tiger, there the lion roars Who sometimes eats the luckless blackamoors All that he leaves of them the monster throws To jackal, vultures, dogs, cats, kites and crows (27)
There's a parity of eye loss and
servitude given in (Exodus 21:26) “And if a man
smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it
perish; he shall let him go free for his eye's sake.” Ham and
his line—represented by Canaan in his lineage—could be
given servitude rather than mutilation. This would be in keeping
with the sentiment of Job in, (Job 31:7-8) “If my step hath
turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and
if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands; Then let me sow, and let
another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.” In that
picture above we see Ham after disregarding his mom's caution,
checking up on his dad, getting carried away by an eyeful of the
dishabille inebriate, and gesturing with his hands to his brothers.
If he were to “sow, and another eat” and his
“offspring be rooted out,” that would mean becoming
a slave and his offspring being carried away in slavery.
Perhaps Mrs. Noah persuaded (2Peter 2:5) “Noah a preacher of righteousness” to go easy on his son. As described by prophetess Ellen G. White, “The unnatural crime of Ham declared that filial reverence had long since been cast from his soul, and it revealed the impiety and vileness of his character. These evil characteristics were perpetuated in Canaan and his posterity, whose continued guilt called upon them the judgments of God. ¶On the other hand, the reverence manifested by Shem and Japheth for their father, and thus for the divine statutes, promised a brighter future for their descendants. … ¶The line of Shem was to be that of the chosen people, of God's covenant, of the promised Redeemer. Jehovah was the God of Shem. Through him would descend Abraham, and the people of Israel, through whom Christ was to come. … ¶And Japheth ‘shall dwell in the tents of Shem.’ In the blessings of the gospel the descendants of Japheth were especially to share. ¶The posterity of Canaan descended into the most degrading forms of heathenism. Though the prophetic curse had doomed them to slavery, the doom was withheld for centuries. God bore with their impiety and corruption until they passed the limits of divine forbearance. Then they were dispossessed, and became bondmen to the descendants of Shem and Japheth.” (48–9)
The Bible's
account leans towards the service option. (Gen. 9:24-27) “And Noah awoke
from his wine, and knew what his younger son [Ham] had done unto
him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he
be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem;
and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he
shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his
servant.” When Noah woke up, he blessed as a pair the lines
of his two respectful sons and cursed Ham's line—pairing
Ham with his youngest son Canaan as was Noah's wont to go by
twos—giving them servitude to his other two sons'.
(Jasher 73:35) “For the Lord our God gave Ham the son of
Noah, and his children and all his seed, as slaves to the children
of Shem and to the children of Japheth, and unto their seed after
them for slaves, forever.”
Ham's youngest son Canaan is the particularly noted recipient of the punishment. More germane to modern times is perhaps the lineage of Cush, Ham's oldest son (Gen. 10:6,) Cush meaning black in Hebrew, having settled in Africa, some of his to become in later years African slaves. Researcher Bodie Hodge confirms 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).
Production Values
“” (2026) was directed by Ben Smallbone and Joel David Smallbone. It was written by Richard L. Ramsey. It stars Joel David Smallbone, Lucas Leach and India Brown. Their acting was good given the preposterous material meant as much to conform to political correctness as to historical accuracy. The physical ages of some of the actors does not always match their parts.
It was rated PG–13 for war violence
and some bloody images. It's a lightly played musical with period
music that retains its currency. The setting looks more like bonny Ireland
where it was filmed than the untamed country it represents—which one
might do well to consider before traipsing off to an uncharted north
country. Runtime is 2 hours 9 minutes.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
The prayer conforms to the premises of
the plot more than to any objections of historians, but I'm sure
God can sort it out. This is a touching movie dealing with
conflicts of family, friendship and loyalty. I was touched. A
good family picture but requiring explanation in parts.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Decent action scenes. Suitability for Children: Suitable for children 13+ years with guidance. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Good for Groups. Suspense: A few suspenseful moments. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture is taken from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Print. 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.
The Book of Jasher. Translated from the Hebrew into English (1840). Photo lithographic reprint of exact edition published by J.H. Parry & Co., Salt Lake City: 1887. Muskogee, OK: Artisan Pub., 1988. Print, Web.
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.
Loriga, Ray. Surrender. Copyright © 2017 by Ray Loriga. English copyright © 2020 by Carolina De Robertis. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Pub. Co., 2020. Print.
Shelton, Jess. Hangman's Song. Copyright © 1960 by Jess Shelton. Philadelphia: Chilton Company, First Edition. Print.
Thackeray, William Makepeace. Memoirs of a Victorian Gentleman. Copyright © 1978 by editor Margaret Forster. London: Martin Seckler & Warburg Limited, 1978. Print.
Westlake, Donald E. The Hook. Copyright © 2000 by Donald E. Westlake. New York: Warner Books, Inc., 2000. Print.
White, E.G. Noah, Another Storm Is Coming. © 2024 by Remnant Publications, Inc. Coldwater, MI: Remnant Publications, 2014. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org