STORY:
The Book of Eli is about a man (Denzel Washington) who lives in a world where people forgot what it is like to be human. With no authority, in either law or morality, the world became a cold and selfish place. There was some kind of war, (that Eli believed was started by people who tried to destroy the book) which left the world in a post apocalyptic state. Eli had a story that was bigger than just survival. He received a call from God to take the book (yes, it is the Bible) and go west until he finds a place where the last remaining copy of the King James Bible belongs. The past 30 years of his life have been about this journey. God told him that he would make the journey with him and protect him along the way.
Along the way he runs into a man played by Gary Oldman who is a Mussolini type leader of a small community. He is searching for the book as well. Only he plans to use the book to control people by “using the right words”.
The story revolves around Eli’s quest to move the Bible west. Throughout the movie Eli’s character learned that it was more important to follow what was in the Book than simply protect it. In fact, I took it to mean that he learned that the best way to preserve the message of the book was to live the message. Along the way he met a girl named Solara, played by Mila Kunis, at the community who wanted to follow Eli and escape her life, “there was nothing for me back there.”
The story is about a man protecting truth, making mistakes, on a journey. I have seen a lot of movies this year, this was definately the most powerful story in theaters in early 2010.
Watch Denzel Washington talk about the move “Book of Eli”
CHARACTERS:
Eli felt like a regular guy at some moments and a super-hero at others. His super-power; faith.
Mila Kunas did a great job of playing a woman struggling to get out of her situation.
And Gary Oldman’s character of Carnegie was a bad guy that you genuinely wanted to see defeated.
CONTENT:
The Book of Eli earned the R-rating. There were scenes of graphic violence and people taking advantage of each other. There was a lot of violence but I would not consider it to be gore. Maybe you’ve seen the movies with the blood squirting and spurting, I would not put this in that category. I would say it was brutal. It was a reminder of how cruel humans can become when left to their natures. In my opinion the violence did not take away from the spiritual truth of this movie, but it was rated R. This is the most explicitly Christian movie I have seen since the Passion of the Christ.