Disclaimer and Explanation: For those who have not seen the movie and wish to do so, I recommend that you do not read this post as many details of the plot including its resolution will be revealed. This post is written with the substantial input and co-authorship of Eric Emeott.
Is the Bible the most important book in world history? Do its truth claims mean more to human existence than anything ever written? Even more, could God have possibly revealed himself truly through the occurrences of history and the resulting record of the Bible?
These are the questions that the movie The Book of Eli addresses with intriguing results. The story is set in Western America in a post-apocalyptic world where we see a man (played by Denzel Washington-we don’t know his name is Eli until the end of the film) on a journey of survival. He is rummaging for food and water as he goes about killing smaller animals. It is not until a little later that we realize this man is on a mission, a mission to the West, where some unknown salvation awaits.
On his journey Eli encounters many obstacles. Naturally, he runs into bandits and looters, but his biggest enemy is a man named Carnegie who knows the power of his mission. That mission is not just that Eli will get to the West, but that he will get this book to the West. Carnegie knows that power of this book: “It’s not just a ___ book, it’s a weapon aimed straight at the hearts and the minds of the weak and desperate.” Carnegie and Eli are thus set at odds for the remainder of the movie.
What is in this book that is so important? The careful observer will know 10-15 minutes into the film. That’s because Eli recites the book’s contents often, and as the movie goes along his references go from more obscure to more overt. By the middle of the film, Eli recites the 23rd Psalm to his companion. It is at that point we realize that Eli is carrying the world’s last known Bible, as all the world’s Bibles had been destroyed in the war that wrought the apocalypse. People blamed the war on the Bible and its followers, and so they were destroyed (Does that mean this is the first insidious message from Hollywood that the Bible and Christianity aren’t responsible for all the world’s known atrocities?).
Without giving away the end of the movie or it’s more nuanced conflict, I do want to note how much this movie is bathed in Christian symbolism. Eli has apparently been traveling for 30 years or so, and much of it in the American West desert, which harkens Moses and Israel. By the end of the movie, Eli finally gets to leave that desert and get to the West, where he has to cross the Bay and get to Alcatraz where salvation awaits. This moment harkens Joshua and Israel’s entrance into the Promised Land by crossing of the Jordan River. Eli eventually is accompanied by a girl named Solara as they shepherd the Bible to the West, which harkens Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem with the Christ-child in womb. And without giving away too much of the plot, a major motif is how we walk by faith and not by sight.
Furthermore, the movie is bathed in Scriptural references. Eli quotes Genesis before a major bar fight. Eli quotes the Sermon on the Mount to explain his giving away of the book. And on top of Scripture, Eli also prays throughout the movie.
The movie also plays on a profound light and dark motif, but you’ll have to wait until the end to really discover why. Let’s just say it relates to faith and sight. Of the 3 nights we are with Eli, we only physically see him wake up twice. However, both of these times he is sleeping in shadows/darkness and it is beams of sunlight that actually move into the darkness that are the actual things that wake him up for him to continue on his journey. In addition to this, we often see him look up into the sky, directly at the sun as if he is looking for direction. The sun always sets in the west and that is where he followed it, to the west. I think the sun is somewhat a representation of God. It led him on his journey, it woke him up constantly, and people were always wearing sunglasses if they were in the presence of the sunlight.
But by the end of the movie, Eli makes it to the Promised Land, Alcatraz. Alcatraz is essentially a haven for world culture and civilization. It includes a major library and a printing press. And it was God who told Eli to go there so that the Bible could be preserved.
Some of the negatives of the movie include explicit violence, although violence is not glorified by the film. Eli only and ever fights out of self-defense. There’s also some strong language and some minor sexual themes. The biggest negative is that once the Bible is re-printed, its lasting image is placed on a bookshelf by the Quran, which seems to devalue the Bible to some degree by comparison. But the Bible is in the center of that shot, and much bigger than the Quran. Perhaps the writer is making a comparative statement of importance and worth in world history?
But these negatives aside, every person who wants to deal with the seriousness of religious claims should see this movie. While the movie never explicitly mentions the chief and central point about Christian truth-claims (namely that of Jesus’ death and resurrection and atonement in the place of all humanity), it piques the mind enough to find out for oneself. But I do not want to devalue this message. It’s why the book was written in the first place.
So is the Bible the most important book in world history? Do its truth claims mean more to human existence than anything ever written? Even more, could God have possibly revealed himself truly through the occurrences of history and its record in Christian Scriptures?
To those questions, The Book of Eli gives a resounding “yes.”
Is the Bible the most important book in world history? Do its truth claims mean more to human existence than anything ever written? Even more, could God have possibly revealed himself truly through the occurrences of history and the resulting record of the Bible?
These are the questions that the movie The Book of Eli addresses with intriguing results. The story is set in Western America in a post-apocalyptic world where we see a man (played by Denzel Washington-we don’t know his name is Eli until the end of the film) on a journey of survival. He is rummaging for food and water as he goes about killing smaller animals. It is not until a little later that we realize this man is on a mission, a mission to the West, where some unknown salvation awaits.
On his journey Eli encounters many obstacles. Naturally, he runs into bandits and looters, but his biggest enemy is a man named Carnegie who knows the power of his mission. That mission is not just that Eli will get to the West, but that he will get this book to the West. Carnegie knows that power of this book: “It’s not just a ___ book, it’s a weapon aimed straight at the hearts and the minds of the weak and desperate.” Carnegie and Eli are thus set at odds for the remainder of the movie.
What is in this book that is so important? The careful observer will know 10-15 minutes into the film. That’s because Eli recites the book’s contents often, and as the movie goes along his references go from more obscure to more overt. By the middle of the film, Eli recites the 23rd Psalm to his companion. It is at that point we realize that Eli is carrying the world’s last known Bible, as all the world’s Bibles had been destroyed in the war that wrought the apocalypse. People blamed the war on the Bible and its followers, and so they were destroyed (Does that mean this is the first insidious message from Hollywood that the Bible and Christianity aren’t responsible for all the world’s known atrocities?).
Without giving away the end of the movie or it’s more nuanced conflict, I do want to note how much this movie is bathed in Christian symbolism. Eli has apparently been traveling for 30 years or so, and much of it in the American West desert, which harkens Moses and Israel. By the end of the movie, Eli finally gets to leave that desert and get to the West, where he has to cross the Bay and get to Alcatraz where salvation awaits. This moment harkens Joshua and Israel’s entrance into the Promised Land by crossing of the Jordan River. Eli eventually is accompanied by a girl named Solara as they shepherd the Bible to the West, which harkens Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem with the Christ-child in womb. And without giving away too much of the plot, a major motif is how we walk by faith and not by sight.
Furthermore, the movie is bathed in Scriptural references. Eli quotes Genesis before a major bar fight. Eli quotes the Sermon on the Mount to explain his giving away of the book. And on top of Scripture, Eli also prays throughout the movie.
The movie also plays on a profound light and dark motif, but you’ll have to wait until the end to really discover why. Let’s just say it relates to faith and sight. Of the 3 nights we are with Eli, we only physically see him wake up twice. However, both of these times he is sleeping in shadows/darkness and it is beams of sunlight that actually move into the darkness that are the actual things that wake him up for him to continue on his journey. In addition to this, we often see him look up into the sky, directly at the sun as if he is looking for direction. The sun always sets in the west and that is where he followed it, to the west. I think the sun is somewhat a representation of God. It led him on his journey, it woke him up constantly, and people were always wearing sunglasses if they were in the presence of the sunlight.
But by the end of the movie, Eli makes it to the Promised Land, Alcatraz. Alcatraz is essentially a haven for world culture and civilization. It includes a major library and a printing press. And it was God who told Eli to go there so that the Bible could be preserved.
Some of the negatives of the movie include explicit violence, although violence is not glorified by the film. Eli only and ever fights out of self-defense. There’s also some strong language and some minor sexual themes. The biggest negative is that once the Bible is re-printed, its lasting image is placed on a bookshelf by the Quran, which seems to devalue the Bible to some degree by comparison. But the Bible is in the center of that shot, and much bigger than the Quran. Perhaps the writer is making a comparative statement of importance and worth in world history?
But these negatives aside, every person who wants to deal with the seriousness of religious claims should see this movie. While the movie never explicitly mentions the chief and central point about Christian truth-claims (namely that of Jesus’ death and resurrection and atonement in the place of all humanity), it piques the mind enough to find out for oneself. But I do not want to devalue this message. It’s why the book was written in the first place.
So is the Bible the most important book in world history? Do its truth claims mean more to human existence than anything ever written? Even more, could God have possibly revealed himself truly through the occurrences of history and its record in Christian Scriptures?
To those questions, The Book of Eli gives a resounding “yes.”
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9 comments:
Just saw it. Great review, Dave & Eric. One thought:
"Eli only and ever fights out of self-defense."
It seems that his self-defense carries justice with it. I'm not necessarily disagreeing with what you are saying. I just got a sense that as Eli fought each time, the movie-makers were trying to give the viewers not only a sense of defense but justice. E.g. the killing of the bandits--he went back to slay the man whose hand he had cut off. There must be significance to the important names, too.
Eli = Hebrew, "My God"?
Solara = obviously a light/sun reference
Carnegie = a benefactor-type who was going to "save America"
I agree with the Quran thought. But hold that in tension with the fact that there were several indications that the words of the book were somehow meant for the whole world's betterment, even transformation. Could that be a subtle hint of the uniqueness of that Word? Not sure.
Also remember Eli's early sermonette to Solara about the "previous world." He said something to the effect of, "People got by with a lot more than they really needed." Contrast this with all that Eli had. A few provisions, but really all he had was the Bible, and that was sufficient. "Man shall not live by bread alone..."
It was disappointing to see that the Bible's "destination" was not a place where it would be accepted and transform a hungering community (which is what I expected from the way Eli talked about his call and destiny). Instead, the book was placed in a library with other "important books that will help the world remember itself and rebuild itself." It did seem devalued there.
Anyway...great movie. It seemed like it could be summarized by:
"The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our Lord stands forever."
Z
Thanks Zac,
I think your additional thoughts are well-reasoned. Great to pick out the name significance too. I thought of Eli the Priest in Samuel's time but he wasn't such a faithful dude- you were right to go straight to the meaning, though.
I also liked your summary. That really is the theme.
I enjoyed the Book of Eli and have now seen the movie twice.
Zac -- I appreciated your breakdown of name meaning. I think another interesting name attributed to one of the movie's characters is CLAUDIA.
Claudia - St. Claudia who was venerated by the ORDER OF LIGHT. Their symbol is the "Halo of the Sun," hence the connection to the character Claudia's daughter, Solara. Another interesting fact about St. Claudia is that her feast is "The Feast of Giving" and the character Claudia debuts when she comes down to give Eli food and bathing water.
I strongly disagree with both of your opinions about the destination of the Bible in "The Book of Eli," and with your opinions on the appearance of the Quran. I think that the fact that the Bible's presence in the library strengthens a theme that you seem to have missed (I will elaborate later).
I also find it uncanny that you took offense to the presence of the Quran, but did not mention that the Torah was also included in that closing shot, but I digress.
The fact that the Bible's destination is a library truly illuminates one of the movie's most important motifs: literacy & knowing. Carnegie has an opportunity to manipulate the people (by using the messages in the Bible) because the people are not literate. Secondly, when the character Eli reflects on what he has learned from reading the Bible he states, " do more for others than you do for yourself... that's what I got from it." This line stuck out to me because it subtly suggests that the Bible is meant for each individual to read and for each individual to draw upon the messages/lessons that are most pertinent to their path of righteousness. It illuminates the fact that so many people have moved away from taking the time to read the Word for themselves and rely on receiving sermons from the pastor, or rely on receiving guidance from their rabi or iman (I mention pastor, rabi, and iman in an attempt to be unbiased for i feel that the messages in the movie were universal, hence the appearance of all three monotheistic texts in the closing scene. Literacy = empowerment. Illiteracy is another form of living in the darkness or living in ignorance.
Lastly, I will return to the closing scene... I thought that the closing scene was beautiful. It shows the Bible being placed on a shelf and being sandwiched between the Torah and the Quran -- the books, therefor, are shown in order of how they were revealed to man. Although "The Book of Eli," seemingly has a litany of Christian themes and motifs -- there are tons of subtle motifs that can be traced to any of the monotheistic religions. To reference a few: Eli (is a Hebrew name) and at the end of the movie Eli is shown fully shaven and in a white robe (this process actually completely mirrored an Islamic burial). The ending seems to suggest that there are many paths to righteousness...
-GNS
O... might I also add that "San Francisco" was named after Saint Frances of Assisi.
Saint Francis of Assisi is noted for being inspired to live a life of poverty and simplicity after hearing a sermon on Matthew 10:9.
Similarly, Eli talks about the "old world" and states, "people had more than they needed. they didn't know what was precious."
This subtly illuminates the value of living off of basic necessities or living a life of poverty versus that of luxury. Such a life allows one to develop pertinent values versus superficial ones.
-GNS
The holy Quran was on top of all the books if you watch its the small book on top, and on the side as well of the bible.
the movie should have been about the holy Quran its the only book that's is memorized by hart and the only book that to this day inspires man, not even the pope knows the bible, the only people i can think off who know the bible by hart are Muslims example Deedat and Zakir Naik.
but you pagans will never acknowledge that the holy Quran is The book like no other from God(swt), even the maker of this movie placed it on top
Thanks for your input Anonymous (though I hate anonymous comments and think they are without guts). Your argument could be summarized as follows:
Only books that are memorized should be memorialized. Only the Koran is memorized. The Bible is not memorized. Therefore, the Koran should be memorialized and not the Bible. And thus the movie should have been about the Koran.
But your argument misses a pretty major point: the actual contents of each book. Who cares whether one memorizes a book or not? I've read and memorized many portions of the Bible as well as other books. If one of those books was Dr. Suess, it wouldn't make the book great, as you say.
To summarize the Muslim position, you have a prophet who entered a cave who claimed an angel spoke to him and dictated to him the words of Allah (eerily similar to Mormonism, by the way). By historical accounts, this prophet first thought it was a demon who spoke to him. He mainly wrote down peaceful stuff about people of the book- other Jews and Christians. It was nice stuff, I guess, but it was removed from historical veracity. It was a mere collection of sayings.
Then this prophet received opposition, primarily from Jews, about his religious beliefs. Then apparently Allah started to dictate to him some harsher tones. Words like jihad appear in the text. But again, these are collections of sayings and removed from historical narrative or verifiable truth.
The Bible on the other hand, is a completely different document, showing how God has actually intervened in history. It's account, particularly in the NT, can be proven true or false, and to date there is no compelling reason to think Jesus' life, his followers lives, didn't actually happen as described.
I would expect a Muslim argument to rely upon human effort: the memorization of Scripture is what makes something great.
But the contents of the Christian Bible are different: God embarks on a journey to rescue humanity from death and corruption to save them and bring them back to Himself so that they can spend eternity with Him.
It is the contents of the book that make the Bible a much greater message than the Quran.
This movie is about the Bible not the Quran. Yet your comments belie that you feel quite intimidated by the Quran as you have to compare the two and even go as far as to say the bible was bigger in size at the end and in the center of the shelf. That really is petty. Did you know that Muslims wholeheartedly believe in Jesus and a central tenant of Islam is that God sent scriptures to Moses, David, Abraham and Jesus? Muslims believe in the All-Compasionate God who sent his message to all the great prophets, including the Bible to Jesus ("Injeel" in Arabic). Islam is very inclusive to the truth of God. Islam invites you to open your mind and heart to the truth of God rather than worship just the culture you grew up around.
Nice but i agree, it should have been about the Quran, which is memorized by heart by muslims all over the world and is the last of the books from the One God; while the other books have changed in scripture over time, the Quran hasnt changed.
The movie was great!
I was happy to see that at the end the Bible is placed alongside the Towrah and Quran.
I wouldn't like to go into comparing which of the books is the greatest.I think such attitude is a little childish.
Its time we learn to look at what all of us have in common rather than talking about differences.
Its kind on the part of the director of the movie to have shown a symbolic acceptance and importance of the other religions of the Hebraic race.
Thank you,
Anwar Bashir.
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