marshalskrieg The Noah is a tale of humanity's sole survivor after world war three. We find our 'protagonist' (the term barely applies) alone on an island beach, he is an old dog US soldier. Soon he succumbs to the agony of total loneliness, and this is the film- we are exposed to his delusional and hallucinatory world, made up mostly of nostalgic political/military themed reminiscences. This is the last movie role for Robert Strauss (a sturdy character actor who was all over the silver screen during the 1950's). Strauss is the only actor in the movie, a challenge that he pulls off superbly. The film was made in Puerto Rico in 1968, was never theatrically released, and was first seen in 1975- this is a very obscure film.The beginning and ending suited me nicely, be sure to look for the various cultural icons that are generously sprinkled throughout (The famous Rita Hayworth WW2 pinup poster, busts of chairman Mao, etc.) The ending does contain suspense and a haunting moment, but I don't think anyone under 35 yrs of age will 'get it'. I gave The Noah five out of ten stars because this film needed to have about 15 minutes edited out, its a tad boring or tedious sometimes.

ottfried This is one of these movies that linger.Following the total annihilation of the human race only one person appears to be alive. An old soldier, close to retirement, when the bombs start falling, escapes across the sea and finds himself on a deserted island, filled with derelict motor vehicles and empty military barracks showing a history of both chines and Japanese occupants.Loneliness creates an illusionary friend, whom he can be responsible for (and boss around), and by mistake he also makes a woman, who turns out to despise him. When his friend and the woman couple, he evicts both from his house (his mind).Then he makes a boy, and in quick succession more children, a whole school class, and education system and a graduation day, where he sends all of his students out to (re)populate the earth. But it soon turns out they make a mess of things - rather than coming to him, their teacher, for advice, they just squabble and murder one another. So he lays down simple rules - basically the stone tablets of Moses, but voiced as the simple man he is. But his children pay him no heed.From then on everything just goes downhill - his creations recreate all that went before his arrival to the island; the final third of the film sees The Noah, as his first friend called him, marching around the island trying to bring control at least to his illusionary military troops, while the recordings of global warfare and unrest rack his mind to the point, where he COMMANDS the silence be.He retracts to his bunk in the barracks, and silence falls on his world, the minute he closes his door. Here he discovers that the radioactive warning tag that he carries on his uniform has gone black. The rain was radioactive, and now he has no other mission but to wait for death.THIS is a brilliant movie! Forget the Biblical allegorical stuff and view it in a larger perspective: Whether messages came from a Maker or not, men translated the messages into words. I.e. Men made the world in their image - they made what they already were. The singular human being will always create the world in his own image - his loves, his fears, his longings, his desires, all that man makes is himself.The Noah tries to make a new world, and tries to take control of this new world, because this is how he is brought up - he tries to delegate responsibility and is disappointed; he tries to take full control, and is disappointed; he relinquishes responsibility and is disappointed; he closes his door on his creation, his fellow men and all their disappointments, and all he gets from all and everything he did, is death.A very poignant and eternal message: You are what you are, and so is your world. All changes must then come from within. We are human beings from how we deal with the perception of our world. The perception is the world - that is the weak and the strong point. There is no one reality, no right reality - only different views of wild wild nature.If you are not well versed in Roman languages, or the imagery of WWII and the Cold War, you'lld do best in getting a subbed version, so as to enjoy the cultural commentating embedded in the use of German, French, Italian, Spanish and other war commentators as well as people on the street in wartime.This is not an anti-war movie, as some might think - it's a film about reality.

j_chy I think that someone was trying to be allegorical. They Failed.The first 2/3 of the film are mildly interesting as Noah invents friends and something resembling _DRAMA_ shows up, you almost feel as if maybe a _PLOT_ might ensue. There are nascent _CHARACTERS_ and some minor _CONFLICTS_ hinting that a larger conflict could occur. (Protagonist is up the tree, we know that rocks can be thrown at him.. and we are eagerly anticipating the first volley...) But then....nothing happens.The final third of the film degrades into a cacophony of a history-buff's self-serving game with an audio tape recorder. All links to plot, allegory, drama, character, conflict, and sanity are severed. Maybe this is supposed to represent Noah's ever-less-grounded state of mind, but the degree of his grasp on reality was well-established earlier in the film and the noise becomes as annoying as a Phillip Glass composition.Now to 2 small details worth mentioning: 1)There are some weak humorous points such as Noah's ability to construct a latrine or Noah's resemblance to one of the Marx Brothers. 2)The in-your-face allusion to The 10 Commandments was out of place and over the top.

Vangelis-K Truly remarkable. A one-man film that held my full attention for almost two hours. The storyline is deceptively simple given the complexity of the issues raised: the sole survivor of a nuclear holocaust tries to cope with his new reality by reconstructing, piece by piece, an imaginary civilization based on his memories, fears and desires. It is this illusion that will eventually bring him to face his utter loneliness and powerlessness. Rendered in stark B/W photography, densely punctuated with historical references (including authentic voice recordings of the protagonists of 20th-century history), 'The Noah' is the kind of film that challenges the viewer to see it again and again, each time discovering something new. But where can it be found? I saw it at a CUNY-TV showing years ago. To my knowledge there has not been another TV showing and there is no VHS or DVD of it anywhere.