The Book of Eli (SPOILER ALERT)

Janan and I had an incredible weekend (we had no kids). We stayed in a nice hotel here in Columbus and just enjoyed the time together without any stresses or other concerns. Saturday afternoon we decided to go watch a movie. I had heard some good things about The Book of Eli from some Christian bloggers I follow, and I thought, even though it had an “R” rating, maybe it would still be worth the watch. And it WAS!! For the most part it was a clean movie. There was no nudity, no sex, but it did take the Lord’s name in vain ONE time. Other than that (and a little of some other crude, uneducated language), the movie was GREAT, and it had a great message.

The movie takes place 30 years after a nuclear war that wiped nearly everything out on the planet. There were only a few who survived (when I say few, I mean probably a few thousand) the nuclear blast. Most of the inhabitants were post-war born. Eli (played by Denzel Washington) was one of the survivors.

During the war, the Bible was demanded to be burned. And supposedly every Bible was burned, not a single one left on the earth. Then we find out that Eli had the only Bible left. There was this other man (who had survived the blast) who was trying to rebuild cities, but he couldn’t get the people to do what he demanded. He thought, if he could get his hands on a Bible, than the words of the Bible would motivate the ‘weak’ people and he could control them using the Word of God. Through some events, this man finds out that Eli has the last Bible. He tries to get this Bible from Eli through force, even trying to kill Eli. But Eli wouldn’t give it up. Eli claimed he heard the voice of God and it led him to this Bible. The voice told him to take it west, and it would be safe. So Eli was on this journey and protected this Bible with everything in him. This man trying to take it from him threatened to kill this young woman that Eli cared innocently for. That forced Eli to give it up, but the Bible was an old Bible with a lock on it. This gave Eli and the girl a chance to get away while this man thought he had what he had been looking for. The girl, Solara (played by Mila Kunis) asked why Eli gave up the Bible. He replied that he had spent all these years protecting and reading this book, but hadn’t applied what he had learned from it, which was to do unto others, MORE than you do for yourself. When the Bible-stealing man gets the Bible back to a ‘locksmith’, he opened it and to his surprise, it was in braille. You see, the nuclear blast had blinded most people who survived it. Eli didn’t appear to be blind, but he was. He claimed he walked by faith and not by sight. Solara and Eli finally arrive ‘west’ which happened to be San Fransisco. They found people at Alcatraz. Eli said this was the place that the voice had told him the the Bible would be safe. The people at Alcatraz had rescued books, music, artifacts, etc. from the previous world, but did not have a Bible. They had a printing press about finished and they planned to start printing books to educate the people again. The man in charge penned the words of Eli’s mouth, which was the Word of God. And the Bible was again ‘safe’.

I know this review was unorganized, but I just had to get everything out as quick as it came to memory. It’s a GREAT movie, and I would recommend it to everyone (if strong language offends you, be sure to rent it when it comes out and use a TV Guardian).