‘Eli’ has that “love it or hate it” feeling

In the Bible, the Book of Revelations depicts the day of reckoning for all mankind. The text preaches that in time, all life as we know it, ends. Then there came “The Book of Eli”.
Picture Denzel Washington as a cross between a gun-slinging Clint Eastwood and a vigilante Jesus, and you might begin to understand his character in “The Book of Eli”. The film, brought to you by the Hughes brothers, (“From Hell,” “Dead Presidents,” “Menace II Society”), was written by Gary Whitta, an English screenwriter as well as video game designer and journalist.
The film is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, 30 years after what the remaining survivors of an all-out nuclear war call “The Flash.” The scenery is bleak: gloomy, sweeping clouds overcast a desert landscape and nuclear fallout dusts the sad testaments to humanity. Only broken bridges, toppled buildings and mounds of rubble remain. A lone road-weary man on a mission from God walks across this desolate ruin of America to the west coast armed with only his gun, an iPod and a very precious leather-bound book.

We never really know the character of Eli. He is devoutly religious but of questionable morals. He can hack-and-slash looters with effortless samurai finesse, but when a gang of bikers mercilessly beat and bully two innocent travelers on the road, he turns a blind eye. This butt-kicking prophet of God witnesses the deconstruction of a liberal, luxurious America to a grim, demoralized civilization. He witnesses the worst in humanity: violence, rape, looting and unjustified inequality. He is both pessimistic and optimistic in views; he believes in God but is not so naïve to disregard human error.

His travels and need for a repowered battery bring him to a decrepit town in the desert, where a self-designated tyrant of the town, Carnegie (Gary Oldman) uses his knowledge of the time before the war to take advantage of the people. He even bullies his blind wife Claudia (Jennifer Beals) and prostitutes his teenage stepdaughter Solara (Mila Kunis). He has charged his henchmen of highway bandits to bring him one book with which he can “sway the people” and even influence all of humanity. This book just so happens to be in Eli’s knapsack.

The following conflict that ensues between the power-hungry Carnegie and prophetic-driven Eli revolves around this one book. It is perhaps the most influential, most circulated book of humanity: a King James Bible.

The film is a stylistic crossover of stark science fiction and glorified American West, supplemented with fears of future nuclear war, gun-slinging shoot-outs, and action-packed sequences of guts and glory.
Even Whitta’s gaming influence comes into play with the rampant if not blatantly ridiculous scenarios of gore and choreographed fighting. This crisscross between genres and styles is both the film’s best and worst feature, depending on your taste.

This post-apocalyptic epic concludes with an illuminating plot twist and a somewhat open ending. Even when the screen goes black and the credits roll, we are still left sitting in our chairs with questions as to how humanity rebuilds itself even with the legacy Eli left behind.

So what is the true meaning behind “The Book of Eli”? Is “The Book of Eli” a social commentary on a modern world of spiritually-starved atheists? Is it a simple action-packed, gun-slinging modern western film? Or is it just another movie to be added to the slew of hyped-up though forgettable doomsday films?

Maybe it’s a matter of reading between the lines in “The Book of Eli”. Maybe it was the simple symbolism of a man finding peace and fulfilling a promise. Since its release over the holiday weekend, “The Books of Eli” has received mixed reviews, but critics and theatergoers can seem to agree on one thing: you either love it or you don’t.

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