Book of Eli

Denzel Washington plays a lone man named Eli on a journey west. We never fully understand his ultimate destination, just that he's headed west across a barren wasteland that used to be the US. The world has been devastated by a war and some sort of event that "split the sky in two", and is now pretty much entirely a dusty, dry, wasteland. As he continues on his journey we learn more about him and find out that he has a book in his possession. This book he believes will help bring about the restoration of mankind to the way things were before the war. The book he has in his possession? The BIBLE. Eli says that he is on his journey because a voice that he believes to be God's told Eli to bring the book to a place that is ready to receive the message within the pages of the Bible. Along the way he comes to a town where there is a man named Carnegie that wants what Eli has. Carnegie, however, wants the Bible for his own personal gain. Both men believe in the power of the Bible, but Eli wants to use it to save the people, Carnegie wants to use it to rule the people. Eli has to fight his way through Carnegie and his men to reach his destination if he wishes to save the Bible from falling into the wrong hands.

Going into the movie, I didn't really know what to expect. Up until yesterday I didn't even understand what exactly the story was even about. I knew that Denzel Washington's character had something in his possession that was supposed to help humanity in a post-apocalyptic world, but I never could tell from the commercials what exactly that was. I figured it was some sort of book (duh) or manuscript from the title, but was surprised with what book Denzel Washington had in his possession. I never would have guessed the Bible.

Once I heard that the Bible was the centerpiece that the story surrounds, I have to be honest: I pretty much expected the movie to somehow make fun of, or maybe screw things up to make Christianity look bad. I HAVE NEVER BEEN HAPPIER TO BE PROVEN WRONG. This is a great film that surprisingly doesn't make fun of Christianity; in fact in some ways it actually seemed to me to praise Christianity. I most DEFINITELY recommend this movie. Not just because it praises Christianity, but the fact that overall this is just a great movie. One of Denzel Washington's better performances. I would say the same for Gary Oldman. I loved him as Gordon in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. He does a great job as Carnegie in this film.

Word of warning though: This is rated R for a reason. There are multiple scenes of intense fighting, with several characters being killed by a) being decapitated; b) stabbed; or c) being shot in the throat or chest with an arrow. Those scenes can get pretty graphic. You also see two or three close-up shots of a man who gets his hand cut off by Eli. The language is pretty rough too, including at least 10-15 f-words. Not as rough as it probably could have been, but still enough for it to earn an R rating.