The Book of Eli Review

"The Book of Eli" is a film starring Denzel Washington that takes place in a futuristic setting. By reading that, you probably think that the movie is full of futuristic technology, but that is not the case. In fact, it is the quite the opposite as the world has had a major event happen that has turned the world in to something of the past. It has been 30 years since a nuclear apocalypse tragedy changed the world. Kids and young adults that have been born in this era do not know what a television is, the Internet, do not have cell phones and don't even have books to read. The world has actually turned kind of barbaric, and there is no law enforcement. Some people have settled in villages and others are drifters who wander around robbing and killing people to survive. In fact, Eli himself is a drifter who will do whatever it takes to survive. At the very beginning of the movie, we see this as Eli hunts a strange looking cat to delight his tummy for the day. Unlike many of the people in the world, Eli does not convert to cannibalism like some of the population.

After his cat meal, we learn that Eli is a lonely drifter who is on a mission traveling west. During his traveling, we learn that Eli can certainly take care of himself when a supposedly helpless woman tries to set him up by asking for his help. Eli says that he smells the bad guys that are hiding and waiting to mug him, rob him and eat him. When attacked, he beats them all up.

In need of water, Eli's journey takes him to a small village. After bartering for water, Eli is sitting around waiting for his water in a bar. Some thugs then start trouble with him, and he ends up beating up all of them. Carnegie, who is in charge of the village, notices what a good fighter Eli is but notices something else that is even more important to him. He likes the fact that Eli is literate like himself. Unlike the younger generation, many of the older people like Eli and Carnegie are literate as they were around before the nuclear apocalypse tragedy.

Carnegie welcomes Eli to stay with them at the village for free where he will be well taken care of. He gives Eli nice room to stay in and has his wife, Claudia, caters to him during the night by offering food and making sure that he is comfortable. When Claudia enters his room, Eli takes interest and notices that Claudia is blind. Eli lets her know that he is staying the night, but he cannot permanently stay as her husband wants. Claudia tells her husband this and he gets angry. Carnegie ends up telling Claudia that he is going to have her daughter, Solara, seduce him so he will want to stay. Solara goes into Eli's room but finds that Eli has no sexual interest. He tries to kick her out, but she pleads to him that Carnegie will hurt her if she goes back out there. Eli sees what is going on and lets her stay. While in the room, Eli gets to know Solara better and reads his book. He even says a prayer with Solara.

The next day, Solara is pressured by Carnegie to tell him what kind of book Eli was reading. She does not know much but tells him that in the front of the book there was a cross. Realizing it is the Bible, Carnegie has an even bigger interest in Eli. There are no more bibles in the world, and Carnegie has had his men searching for that book for a while. He knows that if he has that book, he can begin many other villages and take great control of the world.

Eli sneaks out of his room and is strolling along his way away from the village when Carnegie and his men approach him. They want the book, but Eli will not give it to them. While walking away, they shoot at Eli and the bullets graze him a few times. As if he is being protected, he does not get hurt. He then stops for a second as if he could not believe that he had just been shot. He turns around, pulls out him weapons and starts shooting all of Carnegie's men. During the gun battle, he hits Carnegie in the leg and injures him.

As he gets away, Solara tries to go with him so she can show him where Carnegie gets the clean water for the village. She shows him the town's water supply but wants to travel with him. As they leave the cave that they are in, Eli traps her in there because he does not want her to travel with him in such a dangerous world. Eli tells her that he was really delighted to meet her and wishes her the best.

When Solara gets out of the cave and is walking, she sees a women that appears helpless and is pleading for help. Solara goes to help her, but when the lady realizes that Solara is a woman, she pleads for her to leave. It is too late though as it was a set up and thugs come out of hiding and beat Solara up. Eli happens to be around and protects Solara by killing all of the bandits. While traveling together, Eli tells Solara that he has been traveling west for the past 30 years. He tells her that he has the only bible that exist and has been told by a voice to take the bible to the west coast. Even though it sounds crazy to Solara, she finds it fascinating.

Eli and Solara end up seeing an isolated house. They walk up to the front door even though there was a sign that said no trespassing. While on the porch, a trap door beneath them activates and they fall in a pit. An elderly couple then have their guns drawn at them from above. The woman seems to take a liking to them and invites them in for some tea. While in there, Eli realizes that the elderly couple are cannibals and quickly realizes that it would be best for him and Solara to leave. As they are leaving, Carnegie and his men pull up as they have been hunting them. A gun battle arises, and the elderly couple get killed while Eli and Solara are captured. Carnegie and his men take the bible from Eli and shoot him once to die and take Solara back with them.

Solara escapes from the truck that she is in by attacking the driver and having it crash. She throws the driver out and drives the truck back toward the house and finds Eli walking. They then continue their journey west even though Eli no longer has his bible. Carnegie has it so he does not care about capturing Eli or Solara anymore.

Eli and Solara make their way to the Golden Gate Bridge and then row their way on a small boat to Alcatraz. At Alcatraz is a group of people who have an intent on saving and preserving everything that they can from the old world. Guards pull out their guns on Eli and Solara as they approach. Eli states that he has a King James Bible in his possession. Eli sits down with Lombardi, the leader of the group and tells him to get a lot of paper and a pen. Eli then starts dictating the bible from Genesis to Revelations.

Back at the village, Carnegie discovers that the bible that he has is in Braille. Only those who are blind are able to read Braille and although Carnegie pleads to Claudia to read it to him, she will not. Carnegie then realizes his leg wound is bad and that he is going to die.

Eli also ends up dying, but he is able to successfully dictate the whole bible. The printing presses then start up and many copies of the Bible are printed. Lombardi then places a copy between the Torah and Qur'an. Lombardi offers Solar to stay there where she will be safe, but she declines and decides to head back home with Eli's possessions.

"The Book of Eli" started out kind of slow for me. I was going to turn it off 20 minutes into the movie. There was something that did not make sense to me in the movie, but I guess it did not really matter. When Eli first walks into the village bar, they look at his hands and state that he is alright and is not one of them. After the completion of  the movie, I still do not know who them is. Did I miss something?

Even though it is not a biblical movie, those who do not like biblical movies will not like "The Book of Eli." The main theme of the movie is that a man is on a journey that is being guided by God. The movie shows that a man of faith can do anything when guided by God.

It is shocking at the end of the movie when it is revealed that Eli is blind. This really shows the miracles that God can perform. It is an example of a man who has all odds against him completing the task that God has given him. Those that are atheist will probably not have an interest in this movie. Of course, this does not mean all atheist.

Some things made more sense in the movie once it is found out that Eli was blind. For example, when he was walking away from the village after escaping from him room, he did not even run or budge when they were shooting at him. When the two bullets grazed him, the confused look now made sense. Also, it is no wonder he did not pay attention to the no trespassing sign in front of the elderly couples house.

I liked "The Book of Eli" - I would not say that it is a must see movie, but I always love movies with a shocker at the end of it. Also, I love that a movie was made with God being a subject in the movie without it being a storyline of the Bible. Well done movie that most people would enjoy.

Rating: 6.8