{"id":54505,"date":"2026-08-14T07:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T11:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=54505"},"modified":"2026-08-13T20:08:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T00:08:33","slug":"the-bootleg-files-in-search-of-noahs-ark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/14\/the-bootleg-files-in-search-of-noahs-ark\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: In Search of Noah’s Ark"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 945:<\/strong> \u201cIn Search of Noah\u2019s Ark\u201d (1976 nonfiction feature from Sunn Classics). <\/p>\n

LAST SEEN:<\/strong> On YouTube.<\/p>\n

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: <\/strong>Three different VHS video releases.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:<\/strong> Out of circulation for many years.<\/p>\n

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:<\/strong> None. <\/p>\n

If you were going to the movies back in the 1970s, you must remember Sunn Classic Pictures, also known as Schick Sunn Classics. This small Utah company happily littered movie theaters in with films that promised to unlock the secrets of cryptozoology, paranormal activity, historical conspiracies and the more opaque corners of Biblical text. Each film produced by this Utah-based company was distributed with a blaring, carny-worthy marketing campaign that saturated local television stations and newspapers with bombastic advertisements that greatly exaggerated the depth and scope of the presentations. The company also four-walled the theaters where their films played, thus giving them a generous share of the box office.
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The 1976 \u201cIn Search of Noah\u2019s Ark\u201d was one of the company\u2019s most financially successful releases, bringing in $55.7 million from North American theaters \u2013 and that was a damn good haul for a time when ticket prices averaged around $2.00. Sadly, \u201cIn Search of Noah\u2019s Ark\u201d was not only one of the company\u2019s worst films, it was also among the most boring nonfiction feature films that I\u2019ve ever seen. I hate to say that I started to doze off while watching it.<\/p>\n

Please note: I am calling this a \u201cnonfiction film\u201d instead of a \u201cdocumentary\u201d because too many of the alleged facts in this production are either incorrect or heavily skewed to push an agenda. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn Search of Noah\u2019s Ark\u201d was based on a book by David W. Balsiger and Charles E. Sellier Jr. that insisted the legendary vessel described in the Book of Genesis was intact atop Mount Ararat in Turkey. In fairness, this is not a hare-brained idea \u2013 as far back as the fourth century, there were theories about Noah\u2019s Ark surviving atop this great peak.<\/p>\n

However, the problem with the film is that it insists that the Bible is an irrefutable historical text, which means that the tale of Noah and his ark must be accurate. Yet the film\u2019s depiction of the ark seems to contradict that notion.<\/p>\n

The most entertaining part of \u201cIn Search of Noah\u2019s Ark\u201d (albeit from the point of unintentional humor) shows Noah and his family building the ark and bringing aboard its animal passenger list. We never see the grand parade of the planet\u2019s wilderness arriving in pairs, but instead we get a scraggly number of animals coming in one at a time. There are a few animals that were not native to Noah\u2019s domain in present-day Iraq, including a racoon, a brown bear, and a chimpanzee. The latter animal is used for comic relief in rounding up the chickens for the ark and later slapping dough for the human crew\u2019s gluten fix. <\/p>\n

While the ark is being built, the film presents a small number of Noah’s neighbors who stand around and laugh uproariously at Noah and his family. Clearly, these people had no jobs, no meals to prepare, no homes to attend, and no hobbies. <\/p>\n

The film admits that flood legends similar to Noah\u2019s tale exist in other cultures. But it doesn\u2019t mention that \u201cThe Epic of Gilgamesh\u201d had a near-identical legend that preceded the story of Noah and might have inspired it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Search of Noah\u2019s Ark\u201d insists that the Great Flood of Genesis must have occurred because fossilized oceanic sediment has been found amid mountain peaks. But, of course, that doesn\u2019t prove the sediment found its way up the mountains because God flooded the planet. <\/p>\n

Indeed, proof is in very short supply in this film. Tales of explorers and curiosity seekers who ventured up Mount Ararat to find (and, in one case, walk upon) Noah\u2019s Ark have no serious confirmation. And some anecdotes, such as Russian aviators flying over Mount Ararat in 1917 and confirming the ark\u2019s presence, have been widely dismissed as phony.<\/p>\n

The film tries to drive home its points with a series of interviews with experts on the subject. But by the closing credits, it is obvious no one has produced any photographic or confirmed physical evidence that Noah\u2019s Ark is atop Mount Ararat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Search of Noah\u2019s Ark\u201d is not helped by having one-time New York disc jockey Brad Crandall as the on-screen narrator. A professorial individual with a heavy beard, dark rimmed glasses and stentorian voice, Crandall looks the part of a serious narrator. Unfortunately, he is a dull physical and vocal presence. He steamrolls through the narration with nary a nuance to his recitation. Indeed, it is a shame the producers couldn\u2019t have coughed up a few more buck to have Orson Welles as the film\u2019s host \u2013 he was genial on-screen ham and had the vocal gift of creating alchemy with leaden narrative text.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Search of Noah\u2019s Ark\u201d was the subject of a VHS video release on three different labels, but to date a commercial DVD\/Blu-ray has not occurred. Copies of the film are available in unauthorized YouTube uploads, but a fully restored digital home entertainment release is probably as elusive as Noah\u2019s Ark itself.<\/p>\n