[Mod note: Adding spaces to get spoiler out of mouseover preview field]
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Was he blind the whole movie?
Yes, they kept giving hints throughout the movie, like his sense of smell and fighting in the shade under the bridge.
By the way, if you can, edit your post so you can add a bunch of spaces/carriage returns so that your spoiler doesn’t show up on the mouseover preview from the thread listing
Aha! So that’s the twist everyone’s been talking about.
I probably won’t see the movie but I’m curious – does the twist help or hurt the movie? Did you go “Awesome!” or “WTF?”
AuntiePam, it’s a mixed bag. I saw it once and was more focused on the wasteland setting of the movie than his specific body gestures. From what I remember, he gestured as though he could see, looking right at people rather than his head turned slightly to let his ears have more of a direct line of hearing. If the pacing didn’t bother me, I probably would’ve enjoyed the movie more and not nitpick as much.
Also when I first saw the trailers, I immediately thought, “This is Fallout 3 lite.”
And if since Fallout 3 was Fallout lite, that means that this must be as if Fallout went on a crash starvation diet.
From what I understand, this movie is not about Archie’s younger son, so I’d prolly be disappointed.
The article I saw on it said it was a reworked remake of Zardoz.
So does that mean Book of Eli is the film equivalent of Kate Moss?
I totally forgot about the mouseover…and to leave the spaces because of it.
I’m really sorry if I ruined the movie for anyone.
It just made me want to go watch it again; I picked up no clues at all during the film, until almost the end, when they show that he clearly has cataracts. I didn’t notice that at ALL the rest of the film, so…I’d like to see it again, knowing he’s blind.
Oh, and I don’t nitpick films when I see them the first time. That fourth wall is absolute during the whole film, to the point I will look at it later and go ‘wtf, why did I like that?’ on rare occasion; I just give myself up wholeheartedly and, it seems, I turn off the part of my brain that rejects anything at all regarding the film.
So…I am not surprised that I missed other subtle clues, but the cataract thing? I really don’t think I’d have missed that…did I miss that?
I was wondering how long it was going to take for this to make it to Der Dope. I didn’t notice it until the cataract close up towards the very end. I have not seen the movie twice, but played all I could remember back in my head (the mark of a good movie is that it demands instant mind replay) and I think that this is a correct observation. But I always suspect with heist movies and ones with twists like this, that there is a twist within the twist. Anyway, I don’t yet know what it might be.
I’ll have to rewatch in order to see what he couldn’t have done without sight or help from God/his voices in his head.
A more interesting question is whether he was crazy or guided by God or some other supernatural force and/or protected by same. Certainly being gut shot with a .45 like that is usually going to be fatal within an hour if not immediately.
Oh, and when did Solara figure it out or know? Did her mother?
I just saw the movie yesterday. I’m a pissed off atheist. They tricked me with their whole “God” thing.
OK, I’m kidding. I liked the movie. But that whole blind thing took me for WTF? too.
I’d have to assume from the movie that he was guided by God because he did way too many things that require sight. For instance, when he told the old man in the “battery charge’n” store to take his finger off the trigger.
Not to mention he was beyond a crack shot.
His “I have about 500 bullets” pistol was pretty much one shot kill in the city shootout
I was WTF too, but in this one instance didnt the guy already have his finger off the trigger? I thought he gave Eli kind of a what the hell? look. Maybe remembering wrong tho.
Definite WTF for me. I thought he had just gone blind from walking down the highway after being left for dead at the farmhouse without his shades. Then a friend of mine I was with said “Well then how could he have been reading that bible the whole time.”
I thought it was a pretty big cheat, but it can easily be explained away by saying Eli’s hands were always being guided by god, which is essential to having faith to begin with so I guess it fits the movie. I think if I did watch it a second time though I’d be rolling my own eyes an awful lot each time Denzel did something that would qualify as superhuman for a sighted person.
I did like the message of the movie, though, about worrying so much about protecting ideals that you forget to live by them.
If it was that way, that probably was a big ‘hint’ that wouldn’t make any sense until the end. 
I started figuring he really was protected by SOMEthing when he first got shot in the back of the neck…and nothing happened. I kept waiting for it to be revealed that he had some kind of super-uber neck armor, but that didn’t happen, so…
I wonder if this movie will get the nod of approval unlike “Avatar” :rolleyes:
Please don’t do something like this again. The spoiler boxes really aren’t so hard. I had the movie spoiled by an innocent mouseover of your thread.
I didn’t pick up on it, but a friend with me said he thought about it towards the beginning and then promptly dismissed it by things he did. I think on rewatching anything super-human will be explained by God forcing his hand (guiding…not sure the word) Although I do remember a line of his to Solara, [paraphrased] “It’s like something I know, but didn’t know”.
I liked the movie. I bought into the whole pacing of the movie which I think is a turnoff for some people. I thought Oldman was pretty generic but that’s way above average for ‘regular’ actors. And Titus Pullo certainly delivered (Ray Stevenson).
All in all - a fun post-apocalyptic action movie.
Just to avoid confusion for everyone else: Jennifer Beals is not Jessica Biel. This caused all sorts of confusion after the movie for my group 
:(:(:(:(