"The Book of Eli" a Post-Apocalyptic Salvation

Very Interesting ! Sounds Good , I Need To Check This Movie Out .

Saw the movie last night. As one reviewer noted, it seems like an old Samari movie where Eli plays the role of a warrior mystic.

The Bible plays a multi faceted role in the movie.(1) It is blamed for the destruction of civilization that preceded the time of the movie by some 30 years. As a result of that destruction all but one copies were supposedly destroyed.(2) A sleazy mobster / community organizer wants to find a copy to use to control an unruly ghetto.(3) Eli clings to it as a magical talisman.(4) Eli eventually "delivers" it to a library that is recollecting lost scraps of our civilization where it is placed between the Torah and the Koran.

Though set in the future, the atmosphere seems very much like Old Testament justice.

Eli's morality forbids him form having sex with prostitutes, stealing from women and shopkeepers, and cannibalism, but it doesn't stop him from killing in self-defense or grave robbing.

Though he has a heart, he doesn't often act to save others, nor is he very compassionate.

Does anyone think Eli was blind? I've read that on another site and I mentioned it in the movie to my wife but she said "no, he couldn't be."

alan wrote:

Does anyone think Eli was blind? I've read that on another site and I mentioned it in the movie to my wife but she said "no, he couldn't be."

It seems like the producers wanted us to believe that he was blind at the end of the movie, but although he had a heightened sense of smell and hearing, he didn't seem to be blind.

SPOILER: Yes - are you meant to believe he is blind. In the end scene when he is sitting at the table reciting the Bible from memory they zoom in on his eyes and you can tell he is blind. That is the reason his senses are so heightened (as well as some special help from the Bible). However, my main question is was he born blind or blinded from the war? That is what I am anxious to find out. Any clues?

HE was blinded during the war hence all the burns on his back and him mentioning the Flash... also this is why it took him 30 years to travel from the east coast to the west... Even Blind faith cant make you that good it took the years of traveling and his Faith to make him as badd ass. notice in the beging when he fights the first group of hi jackers he backs up into the shadows. where he is comfortable.

What is strange is that throughout the movie his eyes are in perfect condition and they move around like healthy eyes yet they appear to be damaged or have that blind look to them. It was rather confusing. Oh yeah I forgot to mention the scenes when Denzel is "reading" the Bible. He was using light to read. Why? It was Braille. I loved the movie but I felt it had a few plot holes. Overall it delivered an amazing message.

...yet they appear to be damaged or have that blind look to them *at the very end of the movie*

Jackson from Chattanooga wrote:

What is strange is that throughout the movie his eyes are in perfect condition and they move around like healthy eyes yet they appear to be damaged or have that blind look to them. It was rather confusing. Oh yeah I forgot to mention the scenes when Denzel is "reading" the Bible. He was using light to read. Why? It was Braille. I loved the movie but I felt it had a few plot holes. Overall it delivered an amazing message.

What was the message? No sooner had he delivered the KJV than it was placed on a shelf with other religious books. The boss of the little town wanted to use the Bible to control people (a bad use?) and rebuild the town (a good use?). The group at the end didn't want the Bible so they could usher in a new Jerusalem, they wanted it because it was part of the literary heritage of our world.

What message did you get? I suppose that Eli's abilities is a testament to something similar to the power that Joshua had. What else?

It seams that nobody notices unbelievable similarity of Book of Eli with game Fallout 3.
During entire movie I believed that I was playing the game (much better graphics thou):)
I really wouldn't be able to tell was the movie a MOD for Fallout or game was advertisement for the movie :)

Never the less, movie is more than great, I have never seen movie that managed to transfer post apocalyptic atmosphere so well...

Book of Eli was great.
Does anyone know of any other good post-apocalyptic films coming out?
I was able to find:
The city in the sky,
An Italian film.
Vanishing on seventh street
with Hayden Christensen and John Leguizamo.
Directed by "the Machinist" Brad Anderson
The divide
http://www.thedividethemovie.com/
Eastern Army
A post-apocalyptic Danish film.
Does anyone know anything about these films
or others that are coming???

i thought it was ok. i think it had more potential though. if it was in the hands of a better director.

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Clinton in Ontario wrote:

<quoted text>
What was the message? No sooner had he delivered the KJV than it was placed on a shelf with other religious books. The boss of the little town wanted to use the Bible to control people (a bad use?) and rebuild the town (a good use?). The group at the end didn't want the Bible so they could usher in a new Jerusalem, they wanted it because it was part of the literary heritage of our world.
What message did you get? I suppose that Eli's abilities is a testament to something similar to the power that Joshua had. What else?

We saw one copy placed on the shelf. No telling how many more were printed with the printing press. Hard to tell what they did with it. Just throwing that out there.

It's a US film, and we are often told that Americans don't get irony, let alone use it. This I cannot believe. Such a simple condition of humanity surely must be understood by everyone. But, even if it wasn't written ironically, surely someone at the studio must have spotted it.

When Christianity first hit the world it did so with murder and bloodshed and burning and destruction.

And, guess what... second time around, courtesy of Eli, the very same things. There's the irony.

Not for Eli the gentle path of Buddah, or Ghandi, or Jesus. No, for our Christian Eli it's bloodshed and fire and death all the way.(I distinguish hugely between Jesus and Christianity. If Jesus knew what evil has been perpetrated in his name, I don't think he'd be best pleased.) Just what you need as you struggle to break your way out of the Apocalypse... a book, written by men who lived thousands of years ago offering narrow-minded, provincial, deadly moralities, hatred of women, and more murder and bloodshed. Thanks a bunch, Eli.(Maybe his physical blindness is allegorical.)

I felt cheated at the end. Being an athiest, I objected to being made to hang around for the full length of the film only to discover that all he had to offer the world of re-born humanity was the bible. Such a disappointment. So many other books that have helped humanity, sent it along a kinder, more tolerant path could have been presented.

The only meagre pleasure was, as others have stated, that the library guardians appeared only to view the memorised book as a piece of memorabilia rather than anything of value; a bit like collecting chewing gum picture cards - attaining the full set being the goal; the individual pieces having little import of themselves.

Notattosonme, you really don't understand Christianity. It was not born by "murder and bloodshed and burning and destruction," unless you're thinking of what was done to Christians. No, it was born with persecution. Christians were ostracized and even brutalized. They practiced the dictate of their Lord, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that despitefully use you." There have been many who have done much evil in the name of Christ, but his true followers have blessed the world in countless ways.