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The Book of Eli Movie: A Christian Review

Book of eli review

Before I watched the movie, The Book of Eli (official website), I read a few one-sentence reviews/comments about it but didn't read any full reviews or synopsis.  I wanted to be as unbiased as possible.  However, the previews do make it look like a remake of Mad Max.

I'll try to review without revealing too much to spoil it.

The story starts almost painstakingly slow but when the first fight scene comes, you understand this movie is going to be action packed.  The movie is rated "R" mainly for the violence and a few "F"-bombs that are dropped.  Obviously the writer(s) wanted to depict reality...and profuse use of profanity is reality (heard teens lately?)  There are a few implied rape scenes but no private parts are even hinted.

The surprise that comes in the movie is what actually the "book of Eli" is.  Typically, Hollywood would invent some fictitious, long lost book of hidden knowledge, so removed from reality as not offend.  But this movie makes no qualms about what the book is -- it is the Bible, specifically the "King James Translation" (don't worry, that is revealed early on, so I didn't ruin it for you).

I don't think I can go into much more detail without giving too much away, however the plot is Eli, played by Denzel Washington as Eli is on a journey west.  Eli is hiding and protecting the Bible from others who want it, to use for evil purposes.

I think I'd like to see if there is any information why Denzel Washington decided to play this role. Is Washington an avowed Christian?

Also, I'm curious how this movie is going to be received by non-Christians.  Maybe I'll link to some of that a little later.

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"I think I'd like to see if there is any information why Denzel Washington decided to play this role. Is Washington an avowed Christian?"

^^^^ Please read this article. It answers your question:

 http://www.christiancinema.com/catalog/newsdesk_info.php?newsdesk_id=1237

 Excerpts:

"What got Washington interested in this particular film initially was his son John David, who is one of the producers. "He has pushed me to do three films. In this case, he really got his teeth into this story," Washington said in a recent interview. "He's a very, very spiritual young man and a unique individual. He got behind it and he wouldn't take 'No' for an answer."

"I spent a lot of time going through the Bible to find passages that Eli could quote at appropriate moments," said screenwriter Gary Whitta. "Denzel found a bunch as well because he's a Christian man. He'd come into script meetings with the script on one hand and the Bible in the other. He found all these parallels, and had Post-it™ notes all over the place because he'd been up all night finding these things."

Denzel Washington Info

Wow, thanks Eddy, that link does indeed answer many questions I had about the film.  I really urge people to go to the link offered by Eddy and take a quick read.  This is so inspiring.  I especially appreciated theses two quotes:

  • "This is the age-old battle over everything being subjective,
    especially when it comes to a book like that. It shouldn't be, because
    it's right there, but people read into it what they want to read. They
    take out of it what they want to take out of it."
  • "Whether you believe it or not," said Whitta [the screenwriter], "the Bible is who we are. It's been a cornerstone of civilization for 2000 years, and the battle over that ideology, I thought, is a really interesting one."

Thanks again Eddy!