“The Book of Eli” is a film ruled by its religious conviction. So in the opinion of a secular critic such as myself, it’s hard not to consider elements of the film to be laughably ridiculous. Now in my defense, there are films about religion and/or faith that I’ve enjoyed immensely (example: Martin Scorsese’s brilliant The Last Temptation of Christ), but this is not one of them.
[Warning – SPOILERS] The film begins with a wanderer named Eli who walks on foot across a desolate post-nuclear America. Eli is played by Denzel Washington who looks a bit too heavy for someone who exercises all day long, has very little water to drink, and is forced to eat hairless cats for sustenance. After eating the kitty, he happens upon a group of hooligans who try to kill him for water and/or whatever else he may possess. Eli pulls out a large knife and quickly dispatches every bad guy, superhero style. Soon after, he wanders upon a derelict town where he attempts to get his battery recharged (literally, in order to power his iPod) and his water canteen refilled. The people of this lawless town are ruled by Carnegie (Gary Oldman). Oldman, an actor who in my opinion can almost do no wrong, creates the most interesting character in the movie; which, sadly, isn’t saying much because he isn’t given great material to work with. Carnegie is your standard bad guy who is in a quest to find what is supposedly the last copy of the Bible. He feels that quoting scripture is going to give him the power to have greater control over the people of the town and, in turn, territories beyond. I should point out that it is explained that in this post-apocalyptic world, all of the survivors banded together thirty years ago to burn every copy of the Bible because it is believed that the Bible was the cause of the nuclear annihilation in the first place. How all the survivors of the earth were able to communally decide to do this is beyond me. How did they contact each other to discuss this? And what about language barriers?
Anyway, as Eli is waiting for his water canteen to be filled he has an argument with another bad guy. This leads to another scene of SuperEli killing everyone with speed and dexterity. I think there are certain actors who just can’t do certain things. For me, I don’t think Denzel Washington plays a bad-ass very well. There’s something about his acting style, personality or whatever that just makes it hard for me to see him as believable. Now don’t get me wrong, I do think he’s a good actor in some movies, but not ones like this. I don’t think he ever should have won the Academy Award for “Training Day.” It should have gone to Ethan Hawke, who gave a much better performance in the same film in a role infinitely more complex. But I digress… Carnegie is pissed that Eli’s killed so many of his men, so he jails Eli when he won’t agree to work for Carnegie. Later that night Carnegie sends the young Solara to have sex with Eli in order to convince him to join up. Solara is played by Mila Kunis, whose eyebrows are a bit too plucked and shaped for someone in this post-apocalyptic hell. Solara discovers that Eli has the mystical last copy of the Bible with him and he teaches her how to pray. She does this without question, even though her character really would have no idea what the heck he’s talking about.
The next day Eli escapes. It is not explained how he escapes, so let’s just consider this Miracle #1. Eli is going west, you see, because he has a feeling that is where he needs to bring the Bible. Solara chases after him and Eli reluctantly agrees to let her join. Carnegie and his men join the chase as well; yet they seem to have a hard time catching up even though they are driving vehicles. Eventually Eli and Solara happen upon a still-intact house out in the middle of nowhere. They go to investigate and find an older couple (“Harry Potter” alumni Michael Gambon & Frances de la Tour) living there. After realizing that the older couple are cannibals, Eli and Solara attempt to leave. Their escape is cut short as Carnegie and his men suddenly arrive. A massive gun battle ensues, killing many of the bad guys, as well as the older couple. Eventually Eli is trapped and once he surrenders his Bible Carnegie shoots him in the stomach. Carnegie and the men take the Bible and Solara and head back to town. Through outrageous circumstances Solara escapes with a vehicle. She arrives back at the house to find Eli is missing. She finds him walking west. Apparently, he is not dead. We’ll call that Miracle #2.
Back in town Carnegie finally opens the Bible, which had been locked like a child’s diary, to discover that it is written in Braille. (Apparently Eli reads Braille? And, considering how thick the Braille pages are, how can the small book be the entire King James Bible?) Meanwhile, Solara and Eli continue west. (Yes, he’s still alive.) Eventually they reach San Francisco. Somehow Eli knows that they need to go to Alcatraz Island. They get in a boat and Solara lets Eli row…even though he has a bullet in his stomach. On the island is a group of seemingly more civilized people who have a printing press and want to make copies of the Bible. Since he no longer has his copy, Eli recites the entire Bible to them. Yes, you read that correctly, he dictates the entire contents of the Bible to them, word for word. While he does this, they apparently decide he’d look better with a shave because they remove all the hair from his head and scalp and put him in a nice robe. One might assume they’ve done something about the bullet in his stomach, but it’s not clarified. Anyway, once he finishes his recitation he dies. They invite Solara to stay on their civilized island, but she grabs Eli’s big knife and decides she’s going to go out and be a warrior for God.
There are a couple of things this movie is trying to say: 1. A world without the Bible (ergo, without God) is a lawless, despicable hellhole. After all, the people of the world have had 30 years since the abolition of the Bible to become civilized and they have not. 2. Only the Bible (God) will bring peace to the world. (Ironically, the Alcatrazians were civilized and peaceful before Eli arrived, which disproves the movie’s own theories.) Now, I ask, how different is the filmmaker’s role from the proselytizing Carnegie planned on doing? And how are we to correlate the extreme violence in the film with its message of peace (particularly, Solara’s ultimate decision to kick-ass for God)? This film is propaganda at its worst.
I’ll agree the movie was a bit far fetched. But the movie was never intended to be used as a teaching tool. It’s not like it was ever intended to be a piece like The Road. As far as the braille. Yes he can read it. He can read it because he is blind. To answer the obvious question…he was blind before the war,born blind. Remember the odd exchange between Eli and Solara’s mother in the room? He wasn’t ignoring her, they were both blind and he couldn’t get a feel on her. That is why it seemed like he was being rude with her. But when two blind people enter a room they throw each other off because they use different cues to clue themselves to when objects and people are around them. Sighted people do specific things when they enter a room, a blind person is keyed into that. Solara’s mother basically said out loud what Eli was thinking. HUGE CLUE. He also asked her was she blinded by the war or by the sun after. When she said she was born blind and adapted easier than most, you see his face. That was another major clue to the fact he was blind. There is no way he could have learned to read braille after the war, there were no books. There was no one to teach him. Eli was always blind. Where once I was blind now I see? Sound familiar. The movie is all metaphor. Depending on how deeply you want to go, you can glean almost anything from it. He said that the voice led him to the book. That’s the miracle. The only surviving copy of the Bible is in Braille under rubble and the voice leads a man who was born blind to it. There are stretches in the movie. But its a little more intelligent than you make it out to be. Look a little deeper next time. You seem to be one of those people that automatically dismisses religious themes. The only thing Christian about The Last Temptation of Christ was the title. That movie had nothing to do with the Bible. I am not religious. But I do believe that to be intelligent you have to be aware of, and well versed in all points of views and beliefs. You can’t dismiss something because it isn’t your point of view. Go back and see the movie again with an open mind and keep an eye open for some of the things I said. There are many more clues than that. The talent of this film was in the writing. I validate your opinion,but I think that it is ill informed.
First of all, I read this after I saw the movie and it is a perfect summary of the movie. EXCELLENT
Question: If all the bullets missed Eli in the first gunwar, why did the bullet from Carnegie penetrate Eli’s body? Where Carnegie’s troops just missing by mistake?
Question2: Is there going to be a Part II to the “Sherlock Holmes” Movie?
I don’t know if you were asking the question of me or of the reviewer. Probably the reviewer, but I can answer your question. So I apologize if this seems arrogant or too forward. The bullets missed him in the first war because he was under God’s protection. The bullet from Carnegie pierced his skin because God lifted the protection from him. The reason why? Eli had memorized the Bible. He was close enough geographically at that point to make it there with the information in his head even though he was mortally wounded. At the end of the film you here Eli praying one last time. He thanks God for letting him rest. He was tired, he wanted to die, and God gave it to him. Remember, the voice told him to go west and make sure the book made it there safely. It wasn’t necessarily talking about the physical book. It was more important that the information get there. It was also a lesson to Eli getting shot, to be selfless and do more for others than yourself. He said something to that effect to Solara. If you understand Christian mythology, that whole situation was very biblical. God works in mysterious ways. As the saying goes.
As far as Sherlock Holmes 2. They are in talks about it. No official script has been written. The ideas are out there. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law have said they would be interested if approached and the story was well done. No formal deal has been offered or signed for the writing of, or hiring any actors for the second film. Right now it’s still in the brainstorm stage. Which basically means, anything could happen. The budget for the film was ninety million, the movie has grossed over three hundred and fifty million world wide so far. It definitely made a profit. Thus making it more likely that they will greenlight a sequel. I heard a rumour that the movie was originally conceived as a trilogy. Don’t quote me on that piece of it, I don’t know if that information is reliable. I hope I helped you out Charles. If I overstepped my bounds I apologize.
You are a bad critic to be compared to Knolls.
Although this movie sucked you rant on Denzel Washington was a diatribe. Finally learn how to spell without I and you will be able to pass 11th grade English.
Ha, original reviewer got owned! You wrote an 1,100 word review about the Book of Eli and failed to use the word “Blind” a single time.
How about the fact that the Biblical Character Eli is Blind? Booooooooooom.
Watch the movie a second time and look for all the clues.
Maybe you can write a review of the 6th Sense and leave out how Bruce Willis was dead.
It would seem this reviewer isn’t too good at his job. Evidently he didn’t catch on to the fact that Eli was blind.
Well Denzel most certainly should have won an oscar for training day, and probably Ethan should have won one too. You call this movie propaganda, yet its not really about politics, put forward the notion that man needs god or at least the concept of god isn’t propaganda its a notion. You confirm you enjoyed the last temptation of christ, which speaks to your own hypocritical view. The last temptation of christ is indeed a good movie, yet the point it puts forward ie that christ was not without sin, could be deemed propaganda by your own standards, what you really mean is you agree with the message of the latter and dont like the message of the former as it tends to affirming the worth of god.
As for violence, Eli is not presented as christ without sin he is presented as an almost an old testament prophet though he doesn’t actually preach. You don’t need to profess christianity to understand how significant the bible is as part of human history – it is the basis of western civilisation for a start. Put it this way, I’d shoot Oldman and every one of his men to protect the last copy of the bible.!If you feel nothing when you hear the opening words of genesis then your pretty much walking dead already..
The movie amazed me. Eli has been blind since birth. Eli is a propogandist, in a miraculus way. His whole life, since the “flash” has been his dedication to God and the mission God has set him on.
No matter what sewer man makes for himself (or herself) God sends us a way through it and a person to lead. Like all Biblical Hero’s Eli gives his all to see that God’s people receive His message. I enjoyed the movie and thought it was inspirational.
Lisa Parnell Christiansen
I think the first reviewer was right on the money for someone who is a film maker. As a Flimmaker we look for things that are not consistant, not believable and are simply laughable. And we either decide that the audience will look past the fact that they drove West for a day or two…with what gas??? And the many other little, “bleeps” along the way. In exchange for a great heartfelt tale. Or we simply edit, rewrite or scrap the project all together. By the way the first review was long but I laughed my head off because he was right! Some of the stuff was really reaching.
But the overall tale was good. I never considered that he was blind and still don’t because blind people do not move with ULTRA confidence. But here again maybe God gave him special ULTRA powers. Hehehehe, sorry gotta laugh because if this was any other movie without a God presence we ALL would be laughing.