Movie Review: The Book of Eli
Believe in Hope on book of Religion
Genre: Action, Adventure, Religious, Drama, Fantasy
The film is essentially an extremely well-shot action drama embellished with some fine performances by Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman. We might have seen many such movies in this genre like “I am Legend”, “Water World”. It can be characterized by similarities in the style, but this movie is so unique in its own way because we may discover a compelling story filled with new year’s best action taunt and biblical references than any other major motion picture in recent years. The Book of Eli draws inspiration from three sources: The Western, The Road movie, and the Superhero action film.
After nuclear war, devastated land of America with lacking adequate water and food for all human kind faces humanitarian crisis. On the other hand, Eli (Denzel Washington) has been walking west across for 30 years with the only surviving copy of the St. James Bible, on his way to the sea. I haven’t walked it myself, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t take that long. “How do you know you’re walking the right way?” he is being asked. “Faith,” he says, a reply that takes on added resonance later in the film. His mission is to find a safe and civilized place for the holy book. One of Eli’s adventures includes meeting and taking on the ruler of a small town, Carnegie (Gary Oldman) let him pass through the ravaged, brutal landscape, especially when he is himself desperate for the book which will help him rule over the world with the power of faith. Imagine what happens next.
A man who can be expected to keep or follow through with his promises or intentions and hope.
In Denzel Washington Interview for “The Book of Eli”, reporter asked what really got to you to act in this movie. He answered that he was been motivated by original script and attracted towards spiritual aspect of it and ultimately, the film to himself was hopeful.
The film meets the criteria of “faith-based movie”. The term “faith-based movie” denotes a modern breed of religious film that strives to be inspirational while remaining grounded in its own social values. Religious traditions provide their adherents with explanations for the meaning and purpose of life and include ethical analysis for the situations in which their followers find themselves. If you are a person who doesn’t happen to share that same faith base, then you may be little disappointment at the end as me. Now this one’s truly a surprise. It is the first full blown Hollywood film which narrated the story as bold as brass about religion. Mainstream films have by and large been secular and non-theocratic, keeping religion out of the fray unless it’s a biographical film like The Passion of Christ. But the Hughes Brothers not only advocate a return to Christianity, they also showcase it as the only religion that can form the basis of any civilized society. For, 30 years after the end of the world, the only surviving bunch of erudite men realize they can rebuild civilization only after retrieving the Bible and reprinting it. In fact, even the rogue despot (Gary Oldman) knows he can expand his rag tag empire with the power of the Bible alone.
However, he also knows laying his hands on it isn’t going to be easy, since the book-keeper happens to be the invincible Eli (Denzel Washington). In every script, the writer has to create one character (or a set of characters) that the audience will root for or hate. This special character is known as the main character, often referred to as the protagonist. He or she will be the character with most obstacles and normally the one with most screen time. Much as he would try to label Eli, himself as just another man, Carnegie knows that Eli is the new age messiah who cannot be felled by bullet or slayed by a sword. All his efforts to extract the book from the fearless traveler end up in vain as Eli is not only adept in reciting the verses from the Holy Book in a faithless world, he is equally skilled in the art of man slaughter. And why not? For the post-apocalyptic terrain is one of the hell of place, hounded by cannibals and brutes. Definitely not a nice place for a sweet young thing like Solara (Mila Kunis) who is determined to be on the road with God-like Eli. She needs to escape the terror reign of Oldman and his oddballs who have already reduced her blind mother (Jennifer Beals) to a bundle of nerves. The characters are well defined without deviating from original story and there is a surprise about them, which helps to make the film even more enjoyable.
The overriding religiosity of the film and the salutation to the West as the bowl of civilizations might put off many an Oriental viewer. But don’t let this detract from the viewability of the film which is essentially an extremely well-shot action drama, embellished with some fine performances by Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman as high-powered adversaries. A Stunt Choreography is the one of the arts where instructor teaches fighting style to actors and direct the action sequence without any risk to crew members. Eli is well-armed, and handy with the weapons he has accumulated; he can bring down the occasional cat or bird for dinner. Those scenes are extremely well designed in the movie, especially in the bridge scene, He was using his sense of hearing and smell which is my favorite scene, action is crisp and kinetic and does not rely on fast cuts and editing-room assembly to make the fights seem fast and furious.
They retain their action-flick instincts and they divebomb the camera though combat scenes full of fire and gore. Well captured visuals in the movie to highlight the best detail in some scenes when Carnegie and his goons surrounded him, and Eli makes a clicking sound with his tongue, it’s echolocation to know how many enemies he’s up against. If you pay attention you can see that he only fires when fired upon hinting that he is using sound to aim and not relying on his vision but Redridge (Ray Stevenson) was standing still and pointing gun towards him. At this point he realizes that Eli is blind, even I did.
Talking about visuals, I don’t necessarily mean good special effects, although that is nice. I am referring to great cinematography. In my opinion, cinematography plays a very essential element in the creation of a great film. Not only does cinematography help to enhance the mood, but it can also define it. Personally, I am a fan of very distinctive and balanced cinematography. For example, Often, post-apocalyptic movies are filmed using desaturated color, but The Hughes Brothers take this technique to an extreme that results in The Book of Eli having a specific aesthetic. It’s virtually black-and-white. There are times when a little color is allowed to peek through, as if to remind us that the movie isn’t really monochromatic, but it might as well have been filmed with the same stock utilized in the ‘30s and ‘40s. It is effective and evocative and makes the bleakness of the world seem more forceful and immediate. There are some stylish shots, such as an early fight scene which is presented almost entirely in silhouette — black figures seen struggling against a bright backdrop. The almost complete absence of dialogue for the first 15 minutes allows us to focus on the visuals, and it gets The Book of Eli off to an uncommonly strong start. Unfortunately, the good will purchased at the beginning doesn’t last all the way to the end.
The back story is muddled. The movie transpires 30 years after a cataclysmic event depopulates most of the planet, but the movie is unclear about the specifics. On several occasions, a “war” is referenced, and in one instance, the implication is that the conflict was motivated by religion (hence the mass burning of Bibles by the survivors). The flash-blindness of some characters is consistent with what can occur from observing a nuclear blast. However, there are no indications of radiation sickness and the general pattern of destruction seems more consistent with a general global disaster. There’s also an odd passage of dialogue about the sky opening up and the sun coming toward the Earth. Ultimately, as in most post-apocalyptic movies, the cause of humanities near extinction is irrelevant, but it would be appreciated for the subject to be approached with a degree of consistency.
The Book of Eli provides audiences with a parable advocating faith as the path through darkness. The script feels like it’s an iteration or two shorts of a final draft. For about 3/4 of the running length, the movie holds together reasonably well — there are some hiccups but those are the sort of things one expects in a post-apocalyptic movie. There’s also an undercurrent of dark humor that occasionally surfaces, as in a scene featuring a cameo by Michael Gambon. The Book of Eli is a decidedly mixed bag and not the most distinguished entry into the rapidly growing genre of which it finds itself a member. At times this film seemed to be an attempt at combining the wonderful Mad Max and Samurai films, but it doesn’t come close to the greatness of those movies. It cannot be described as unbelievably bad. We can watch at least one time if we really match for its sentiment and end twist. Well any one of them anyways.
