Last my wife and I watched The Book of Eli together with another family who were simply excited about this movie. I had seen it before but I kept my mouth shut for various reasons, including the possibility that I might watch something worse.
The first time I watched it I felt the picture was a good piece of escapism but achieved way less than it intended. I had the same feeling last week, only worse. I wanted to post this question here the next day but I changed my mind at the last moment because I thought few people know or care about this picture anyway.
But the question kept nagging me. I like both Denzel Washington and post apocalyptic movies. The script must be the main deficiency of this picture - it is incomplete and incoherent.
It’s been so long since I’ve seen that movie, I can’t remember what exactly bothered me about that movie, but I do remember walking out of the theater thinking “That was not at all what expected!”
Self righteous pretentious bull shit if I remember correctly.
I haven’t seen it since it was in cinemas, but I felt the ending ruined the movie. Eli’s Badass Adventures were fun enough, but the movie crawled to the finish line with pretentious Oscar bait when it needed more of the same.
I liked that movie, but the problem with movies- and I am not sure if it is the modern style, sheer number of movies I’ve seen, memory, lack of emotional attachment to care or what- but I only remember Denzel, Oldman, two women, The Bible, and being blind.
I feel that if you make a movie where the Bible is the truth you need to go all out with the concept. Say what you will about the Left Behind books but Jesus literally coming down from heaven and sending the unbelievers to hell in one, agonising, swoop is a hell of a visual. What happens to the Bible in the end of Book of Eli? It winds up on a shelf in a library somewhere. Nobody gets literally sent to hell. No grovelling atheists begging for mercy at the feet of Jesus. A big fat… meh.
I liked it - it was a good but not fantastic movie. Great sunblasted cinematography, awesome gunfights, a deeper spiritual dimension than your typical Hollywood shoot-'em-up, a nifty twist and, by my count, three Harry Potter castmembers in very different roles.
I enjoyed it. It’s an unusual (and one could argue) a transgressive film for a major Hollywood studio. (SPOILERS FOLLOW) It is a film in which the hero is Christian;, he is, like the Blues Brothers, on a mission from God, he acts like a Biblical prophet of old, and is violent only when he needs to be and essentially a good man (as when he refuses to use a young woman who is offered to him as a sexual gift by Gary Oldman), and he has powers and skills that were apparently granted to him by God so he could accomplish his mission. (Among the few clues we are given to Eli’s back-story is that he was a clerk in a department store, so his ability to fight so lethally despite a major disability doesn’t seem to come from a background as a Navy SEAL or martial artist).
None of the prominent religious themes were hinted in the promotional materials for the film, and it wasn’t targeted at a Christian audience (as films such as God is Not Dead or The Passion were), so it’s an interesting film in that respect. Many religious viewers who might have enjoyed the film could have been turned off by the violence of the fight scenes and the grimness of the post-apocalyptic landscape. Viewers who have no interest in religion or who are actively anti-religion may have responded to it negatively, based on comments on various review sites. So it was an interesting choice for a major studio to release. I think Denzel Washington was quite good in it, and Gary Oldman is good in anything. It’s worth seeing a second time once the viewer knows the nature of Eli’s disability, as clues are offered throughout (as, for instance, how Eli only shoots back after someone has fired at him first.) There are some nice bittersweet moments (Eli in an abandoned building at night in front of his fire, listening to Al Green - on first viewing I thought he was wrapped in thought about a missing wife, on second viewing, he appears to be tired, exhausted in his quest, and longing to be united with God.) and some moments of humor (even the title is a Joycean pun), it’s always good to see Tom Waits, and there are some good escrima fight scenes (choreographed by Dan Inosanto).
The movie wasn’t even that good a post-apocalyptic action flick and then the ending had me wanting to yell “ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??? I SAT THRU THIS WHOLE MOVIE FOR THAT???”
I remember that I had bought the BR for 5 and I was thrilled to sell it for .85 to Zia because it meant I didn’t have to have that crapfest in my house anymore.
I never saw the film, but I did read the plot summary on wikipedia. What struck me as a deal-breaker is that the audience is being asked to believe that this moderately thick tome is a complete copy of the Bible, in braille.
My wife’s copy took up more than two full shelves in her bookcase.
Agree with this. I liked it a lot for what it was; which is to say a future apocalyptic prophetic action film. I don’t think it was especially trying to pander to Christians, per se. Myself, being practically atheist, enjoyed it on a what-if/fantasy level as if God and the bible were real. If all known copies of the bible were destroyed in such a way, how would God ensure the endurance of his Word? The reveal at the end worked for me in that light, as Eli was bestowed with biblicalesque abilities and clearly hedged in God’s favor. I also like that Oldman’s character knew the bible had the ability/words to bend hearts and minds, even for his nefarious goals (as has been proven throughout history).
It also had a kickass action sequence at the old couple’s house.
I liked the parts that were basically Fallout in movie form. Even the demented old cannibal couple were shades of Andale from Fallout 3. And I’m not sure that cannibalism would instantly = neurological problems, it was interesting to see a take on kuru. Otherwise, it wasn’t perfect and I don’t have any huge desire to see it again soon but I enjoyed it even if disappointing at parts.
Yeah, even if it were just the New Testament, it wouldn’t be luggable.
Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t start this thread simply because I didn’t like the movie. The impulse to initiate this was the fact that I wanted to like the picture (due to strong pros already mentioned by some of the people who were kind enough to have a reaction) but I felt something was lacking.
Now, I must mention the fact that I’m a book guy. I worship books. I only own a TV because I enjoy documentaries, half of which I only listen to. I only watch movies that people still regard as valuable two or three years after they have been launched. I watch newly launched movies only when my family drags me along. Plus, I may love movies that only 10% of the critics find worth seeing,
After this digression, which makes some sort of weird introduction to what I’m going to say now, I finally mention a little thing that I find inadequate in The Book of Eli, but which leaves some of the audience at least disappointed.
The post apocalyptic world through which Eli travels west to reach his goal is an illiterate society, where few, if any, people read. What the script fails to notice is that in the absence of an active written cultural life, oral lore takes over in the form of songs, stories, chants, etc. Forget the fact that with six billion copies printed so far it would be virtually impossible for the Bible to become a rare book even after a nuclear war. If, by some weird “twist of fate”, all these copies did disappear, people would still be able to utter a prayer, which believers learn before they read the biblical text. Thus, the moment when Solara, at first, and Claudia, subsequently, learn how to comfort themselves through prayers due to the encounter with Eli, who is one of the few people who still read on a daily basis, seems quite unrealistic to me. I can understand the effort to make the audience feel the importance of the “Book”, but for believers religion is not primarily a scholastic experience.
In the beginning was the resonant word. The book came only later.
I liked the movie well enough, but as an atheist I don’t even understand the idea of objecting to the movie on the basis that it promotes religion. I don’t believe in ghosts any more than I believe in god, but I love ghost movies.
IIRC, didn’t the movie suggest all books, including the bible, were all destroyed or burned for some reason? While a global, nuclear holocaust wouldn’t nearly wipe out all books, certainly a concerted effort to destroy all written or recorded information would do some serious damage. Granted there’s some suspension of disbelief in the idea that all but one (Braille) copy of the bible has been destroyed, but that’s the premise of the movie that asks you to take as a given, as with all speculative fiction.
Going with that premise, the story certainly follows. I agree it’s not one of the best films I’ve seen, and I see dozens, if not hundreds of films a year, but it had a tidy story to tell and very competent direction & acting. IMHO, if asked to pin down “what was missing,” I’d be hard pressed to say, other than the story felt spread a bit thin, and they depended a bit to much on plodding action for filler.
I can’t remember for sure, but I think there was a line from Oldman that people blamed “religion” for the war that started the apocalypse, so mobs of people searched out Bibles and destroyed them. As it appears most of the major cities were destroyed in the nuclear apocalypse, that would account for how hard it would be to find a Bible. The film is set in 2043, so younger people would likely never have been exposed to it.
Realistically, it is possible to memorize a whole Bible word for word. Harry Lorayne, a memory expert, did it in the 1970s.
From IMDB, a list of the clues that Eli was blind. I didn’t catch any of these on the first viewing:
Hints to Eli’s condition are shown throughout the movie:
In the opening fight, he cuts the man’s hand off after being pushed. Also he lures the rest of them in to a dark tunnel before fighting them.
He has extraordinary hearing and sense smell.
At one point, after staying the night at the nuclear cooler’s ruins, Solara asks Eli how does he know which way to go, to which he replies “We walk by faith, not by sight”.
He doesn’t put on his sunglasses right away when walking outside, like everyone else does (he even appears to be staring directly at the sun).
In several scenes sounds of babies, shooting guns, movement and sometimes almost insignificant sounds is emphasized.
He searches the shelves of the first house he checks (in the beginning of the movie, before he finds the dead body) by running his hand through it.
When he finds the dead body hanging it is very clear that his shock is caused by the doors falling off the hinges, not the sight of the dead person. He even feels the body before being sure of what he is dealing with since he can’t see anything.
Just before finding the doors hiding the dead body, he runs into an end table with his thigh, as if he didn’t see it.
As he walks along the highway with Solara, he silences her so that he can hear better the bird (“dinner”) flying above them.
At George and Martha’s house, he kicks forward by the first step of the stairs to the porch with his boot so he knows where it is.
He never fires his weapon first, needing to hear the sound of shooting at him to identify the location of his target.
His use of a shotgun as a primary weapon means that accuracy is not as critical, allowing for him to aim via sound rather than sight.
When Eli and Solara approach the cannibals’ (George and Martha) house. As they approach the steps, you can hear a brief clicking sound. Eli is using echolocation to “see” what is ahead of him.
George asks Eli about the No Trespassing sign, “Can’t you read the sign?” Eli responds, “Didn’t see it.”
When paying for his trickle charge, he opens a zippo lighter and passes his hand over the flame to ensure it indeed was lit instead of seeing the flame.