The Book of Eli (2010) Review

To take a short break from Cronenberg I decided that I would go to the theater to see a mindless action movie. I chose to see Book of Eli and was instead treated to a film with a much deeper meaning behind it. The plot is basically set in the Fallout universe, mostly due to how it takes place in a post-apocalyptic United States, and involves Eli (played by Denzel Washington), a man with the world's last Bible in his possession, as he makes his way across the US on a mission from God. Along the way Eli meets Gary Oldman's character, a man searching for a Bible so that he can fulfill his plans to control the world. This is an incredibly deep realization that without religion or beliefs humanity will live alone and living off of pure animalistic instinct. Most of the people living in this broad wasteland are cannibals and because of this the film is much more terrifying, especially during scenes in which characters realize that the person beside them is just waiting for the right moment to gnaw on their arm. The action scenes are also tremendously awesome, lots of gore being crammed in to a 14A movie, including severed heads and cat killing, as well as dealing with rape and other naughty stuff.

The setting of the film is amazing, creating a terrifying and believable world in which the film takes place. Its haunting atmosphere and foreboding dread evoke incredibly strong emotions due to the state of the world and the horrible events that have occurred. One of the strongest parts of this setting is that the cause of the apocalypse is only ever rarely hinted at, the suggestion provided being that a nuclear weapon ripped open the ozone layer and burned everyone and everything into ashes and dust. One problem I had with the setting however was that the audience can easily tell that the entire film was acted in front of a greenscreen, which detracts from a lot of the scenes in which Eli is just walking through the wasteland.

The major theme of the film is that the Bible that Eli is carrying is humanity's salvation from the horrible state of the world, in which people are cannibals and the world is controlled using shotgun diplomacy. A powerful image near the end of the film is after the fall of Gary Oldman's civilized little town, the final shot includes a man loading his shotgun, him being visibly in control of the town now that he is the fearsome controller of the shotgun. This scene stuck with me because of how its a sad fact that the countries with the most deadly and precise weapons control the world, especially when clashing with the divine powers of religion. The theme of religion being a lost and forgotten concept since every Bible was destroyed preceding the great world war, its a powerful thought that man's salvation relies on religion, despite how it may have caused this war in the first place. Oldman's character only wants the Bible to control people with hopes that he can scare his civilized population into his slaves using his teachings of Hell and Heaven. The biggest twist occurs at the end of the film (spoilers follow; see the movie before continuing), when after Oldman finally obtains the Bible he discovers that it is written in braille and that he cannot read it. I believe that this is symbolic of how he has become a monstrous person and has lost his faith during his quest to obtain the Bible, and thus is not able to understand or see its teachings. Eli himself at the end of the film is shown to be a blind prophet who has memorized the word of God and understands the Bible's teachings. He remembers everything in the Bible and ends his journey by coming across a printing press located at Alcatraz. If my Biblical mythology is correct then the symbolism of Alcatraz, also known as the rock, is thusly a place of refuge created by God (or something along those lines). Without a lot of knowledge about the Bible I don't believe I took everything I could away from this film, as everything has some kind of Biblical interpretation or meaning.

The Book of Eli was an incredibly powerful story that although based heavily upon religion still applies to modern audiences and shows the power of religion in the world. I could go on for a long time about the symbolism in the film, but I believe that this is a film that should be experienced in order for a viewer to interpret it in their own way. Any individual person can take whatever meaning they want from it, which is one reason I found it to be such a strong film. I was able to argue with my friend about the symbolic imagery in the film for a long time after we experienced it, so I heavily recommend for people to see it and take their own spiritual opinions from it. It also includes enough asskicking and decapitations to satisfy anyone in the mood for an action flick, but I do hope that everyone takes away a little something more.

Rating: 7/10