Netflix: ‘Noah’ Not A ‘Movie Based On Real Life’ — Biblical Drama Relabeled After Complaints

After viewers submitted numerous complaints to Netflix, Noah appears to have been removed from the category “movies based on real life.” The complaints began a week ago when a Reddit user noticed how the movie was categorized and shared it with Reddit atheists. Now “based on real life” no longer appears in the Netflix description.

It began when Reddit user leonardovaz posted on Reddit, sharing a screenshot of the misplaced movie.

It garnered a fair amount of attention on the atheism subreddit, and it seems, in the Netflix inboxes. Today, Reddit user Gallitzen shared a screenshot of his own, declaring that the movie had been recategorized.

Of course, Netflix uses several categories and descriptors for each movie, so seeing Noah in a different category didn’t necessarily mean that it was no longer in Netflix’s “based on real life” categories. To find that out, it’s necessary to check the movie’s own page on Netflix.

Here’s what Netflix’s Noah page says about the movie. Under “genres” several descriptors are listed. “Based on real life” isn’t one of them.

It does indeed appear that Netflix no longer categorizes Noah as a “based on real life” movie. (The company had not yet responded to emails at publication time; when and if they do, this information will be updated with their response).

Does this mean, then, that Netflix has decided that Bible-based movies are not reality, though? Far from it.

Under Netflix’s “Dramas Based On Real Life” category, we find other Bible-based and Christianity-centered movies, including Son Of God and The Book Of Esther.

Numerous others are not categorized based on reality or lack thereof, but placed in the “faith and spirituality” category. This includes the Bible miniseries, Apostle Peter and The Last Supper (which is, incidentally, also listed as a ‘biographical drama’), Mysteries of the Bible, and The Passion Of The Christ — along with dozens of others.

Without an official response from Netflix, the most likely case here is that movies are added to the database by Netflix employees, individuals, who place each movie in several categories that strike the individual as most appropriate. Perhaps one person defines Noah as a drama based on real life, while another doesn’t consider whether a Bible-based story is based on real life, but instead categorizes it with thoughts of the spiritual impact.

Most likely, when a number of complaints about a category are received, an employee considers whether the complaints are accurate — a number of people asking for Bible stories to be moved to the “fantasy” category would surely be considered a trolling effort and ignored, but many customers simply asking for one movie to be moved from the “based on real life” category was considered and accepted as reasonable.

Neither the initial categorization nor the recategorization of this movie, which, incidentally, was quite controversial among Christians as well, appears to carry any intent to offend or discriminate against any group of viewers. Netflix’s Noah categorization is almost certainly just the product of many hands organizing a large database.