Here’s a movie I never heard of until we watched it today: The Book of Eli, starring Denzel Washington (2009). I read it was highly successful when it opened, but I suppose the eco-doofus epic, Avatar, grabbed most of the headlines at the time.
Anyhow, if you haven’t seen this movie–hey, what’re you waiting for? You gotta see this! It’s about the Word of God, about a hero who walks by faith and not by sight, it’s about redemption… and the best movie I’ve seen all year. Yeah, I know it’s three years old. So what? Rent it!
I don’t want to do anything to spoil the story, but you’ll see from the box that it’s about Denzel Washington making his way across the wreckage of a post-apocalyptic America, in the Mad Max tradition. But of course it’s much, much more than that. If you’ve given up on the idea of movies grounded on the Christian faith, Eli will blow you out of the water.
As an aside, I don’t think we need a thermonuclear holocaust to turn our world into a wasteland. Insane public policies will surely do the trick. Today’s global civilization depends on the continued success of the United States economy. Trash the American economy, and the whole planet turns into North Korea… only worse, because even North Korea today gets a tiny trickle of prosperity.
But never mind–just go out and rent this movie.
I have seen this twice, and it truly GREAT as you say Thanks, Paul
Paul Herbert : family of Zimmerman sui juris sovereign living soul, holder of the office of “Bexar County Sheriff” Inhabitant on the land of Texas republic
I wish there were more movies like this, don’t you?
Hate to rain on your Book of Eli parade: after the usual gratuitous violence, the Bible ends up on a shelf beside other religious books (the Koran is one, if I remember correctly), as one of many great works. The version of the “restored” Bible is the King James Version. This is simply Hollywood’s standard message – the Bible is quaint and nothing special.
I can’t say your point is unreasonable; I just didn’t see it that way. I focused on Eli, although blind, overcoming insurmountable barriers by the power of God’s word which he was carrying. Rethinking the ending of the movie in light of what you’ve said, it now strikes me as something which Hollywood tacked on to defuse what would otherwise be a powerful message. I was strongly moved by what went before the ending. It would have been better had they simply finished with the revelation that Eli was functioning as a living Bible and let it go at that.
Thanks for your observation, which has given me food for thought.