I had only known Robert Strauss as one of the funny privates in the movie Stalag 17. I never knew that he had a starring role of his own in his own movie. The sad thing about this is that he died right at the time of the movies release. It's in black and white which adds even more dark contemplation to the mood! I recommend this singularly unique, unusually different film I've never seen its like before! Watch it!

This is not at all what I expected. The film depicts what happens to one man who finds himself as the last survivor of the planet after a nuclear exchange. Emerging from a bunker, where the radiation has killed off everyone else, he comes out of a military bunker, begins his search for other life. This film is especially important today with the Nuclear threat being greater than it has been in 30 years. The hero is washed ashore on some Far Eastern Island, has food and shelter and nothing else, no animals, nothing. Is alone and isolated. I wondered as I watch it, How would I have coped. By the time the film was half over, I had an overwhelming respect and appreciation for my wife, and dog. I don't think I will ever be the same after watching it.

This is a movie about America and generational shifts. The fact that it was originally shot in 1968 should give you a clue. Plot: old-school army veteran is stranded alone on an enemy (communist China) island outpost sometime after nuclear holocaust (presumably). There are several plot-lines which must resolve during the course of the film.The first is, How does a man - any man - deal with absolute loneliness and the hopelessness associated with knowing that no one else exists in the entire world? Of course, this a step or two beyond Tom Hanks' Cast Away, as there is hope for Hanks, even if the pathos at that movie's end is also debasing. For Robert Strauss, the tour-de-force participant and titular "The Noah," the resolution is quite dramatic if entirely expected. I won't spoil the actual progression of Noah's self-awareness or madness, as the case may be, but I would like to comment that it's not as cleverly done as Cast Away. On the other hand, the impact of The Noah is exceptional, and with subtlety.The second resolution must be, How does a World War 2 dog-of-war deal with the modern (for 1968) age? This is handled on several levels, some with skill, some with a ham fist - your view on which are which will likely be tied to your birth year. Those of "the greatest generation" will possibly feel a great sympathy for the lead character, while those of the "hippie generation" could find themselves alternately awed then nonplussed (younger than that, and you'll be lost, except as it concerns fictional empathy). Not that director Daniel Bourla gave Strauss much more material than playing off old audio tapes from history; or that the screen writing called for a narrow range of emotions, from crotchetiness to self-pity. This is the main weakness of the film itself.The third resolution must be the filmmaker's (and thus your) view of America, especially in juxtaposition with communism. Will you be disgusted, cheered, or bored by the "army" of Chairman Mao busts? Where will you fall in the melange of flags, uniforms, culture shifts, and overarching philosophies? I found the movie to be quite schizophrenic in this regard, and that added another stratum of complexity to an already meaty subject. Just to mention one scene, after the "graduation" the "natives" become restless and it appears that a revolution is brewing; the manner in which The Noah attempts to meet this challenge is fascinating but at the same time quite excruciating since there is little doubt on the end-game and therefore not a lot of tension.Other implications from 1968 are apparent here and there: (1) the obvious counter-cultural message from Friday and Anne-Friday; (2) the overbearing war soundtrack; (3) the selection and arrangement of historical excerpts. Most of this is a bludgeoning message and therefore may be disregarded as so much era-centered squealing.On the very plus side, the finale will mark you. It is deeply etching and undeniably disturbing. It is not that it ices a cake, but that it is the cake. We learn in fact that the entire movie was a baking process leading to a product, which is the final few minutes. It will make you judge the rest of the film that much more harshly, but maybe that's good.

I have only seen the last portion of this film on a cable channel about five or six years back (I think it was City College's channel, which frequently runs unusual film courses). I remember when THE NOAH came out in the middle 1970s. There was a review of it in NEW YORK MAGANZINE, and it got panned. But when it was shown on television it was treated with considerable respect.Basically (and ironically, as Strauss died after it was briefly released) it was Strauss's biggest chance to display his own acting skills to their widest. After his two appearances with Billy Wilder and his THE ATOMIC KID with Mickey Rooney, he was basically relegated to small support roles of a comic nature. He did have a recurring part as "Charlie Leech" the private eye who discovers that "Samantha Stevens" (Elizabeth Montgomery) was a witch on BEWITCHED, but he was only in a handful of episodes there. Strauss was always game for acting roles, and was perfectly willing to try carrying an entire film on his own shoulders. Here it was (except for two voices) as the sole human being left on earth after a nuclear war.One recalls the unfolding, unstoppable tragedy of ON THE BEACH, but there the citizens of Australia did have each other to live with until they all died in the end. Here Strauss is on an island, well stocked with food and supplies, and with radio contact to the rest of the globe. But there is no "rest of the globe" to contact. Initially he meets the situation with vague disbelief, then panic. But gradually he determines to face the end of humanity (in himself) with dignity. Our last image of Strauss on film is rather stoical, watching to see if anyone will show up after all, but determined not to give into temptation to make a fast end of it if he can.I wish the film was shown again - it was not as worthless a picture as the critic in NEW YORK MAGAZINE made it seem. And it gave Strauss a fine coda role to his underused career.