You dropped your religion in my post-apocolypse
I detest almost all Christian films. They lack budget. They lack quality actors (we can thank Kirk Cameron and that ‘other’ Baldwin brother for that). They lack depth. They just lack.
Christian films today conjure up thoughts of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ or that abominable Left Behind series. Neither a great premise for the new Denzel Washington movie Book of Eli.
But the new movie doesn’t fit the standard mold and until about an hour into the film I was not even sure it was the Christian movie so many “cool pastors” had been Tweeting and blogging about. In fact, this incredibly entertaining, ultra-violent, post-Apocalyptic story of a lone wanderer named Eli (Denzel Washington) setting about headed “west,” defending the mysterious book in his possession at all costs is one of the boldest and most random faith-based films to ever come out of a major studio.
Eli is carrying a copy of the last KJV Bible on the planet (we figure this out since it has a large, golden cross on the front), since all other religious texts—including Torahs and Korans—were rounded up and destroyed 30 years prior to the “great flash.” Eli believes he’s heard the voice of God telling him to bring the Bible to an unspecified place in the West, but a ruthless ne’er-do-well named Carnegie (played by the always bewildering yet charming Gary Oldman) knows that if he gets his hands on the precious book, he can distort its teachings and have total control over the minds and spirits of the people who live in his empire of revived, Old West-style towns (please hold all Pat Robertson jokes until the end).
With Eli joined by Samara (a bit out of her element Mila Kunis), a Carnegie servant, the race is on between the duo and the tyrant’s small army of thugs who, with their questionable hygiene, maintain final control over mankind’s destiny. And that means Washington – in true Hollywood style – will slice, dice, sever or shoot anyone who gets in his way. Oh, and did I add shoot with a bow and arrow? Yeah, he does that too!
I don’t want to say this is going to be a Sunday School favorite or the next hot sermon series making its rounds on the mega-church circuit as Oldman and his boys spew the F*bomb rather literally and the violence is reminiscent of something out of Tarantino’s catalogue. But to its redemption (pun entirely intended) the movie also features a few prize moments in which Eli reads the Bible privately while praying or recites particularly vivid Scriptures.
The Book of Eli clearly credits the Bible as the one book above all that can change the world. And of this there is left no doubt. Oldman is bad. Washington is good.
So thank you Hollywood. Thank you for The Book of Eli, a film that delivers on hardcore action while still delivering a poignant message.
