Book of Eli

[WaLkAwaY]

I had really been looking forward to this movie. Was excited as I went with some firneds I don't normally get to see. I lasted about 15 - 20 minutes I decided I did not like it and we all agreed to leave.

 

I might try and watch it again I don't know. Made me sad I really like Denzel too.

[Pushkatu]

I found something similar:

 

[Birrii]

It's not even in the cinemas in Norway >:(

You make me jealous people!

[jaysus]

SPOILER WARNING!!!!!!

 

imo it sucks... dunno but i have grown a total antipathy vs denzel wahington, he always plays such morons...

the film starts so promising even tho it has denzel but piece by piece we realize its a total farce, well either it is supposed to be a satirical movie or its so utterly retarded that i miss the words to describe it...

 

imagine you play fallout whilst cursing your enemies with prayers, playing it for 30yrs, devoting your life to it,

all good, but once you get the geck you are shocked as you realize it does absolutely zip, you can only use it to enslave mankind... sad point is that denzel knew all that from the beginning and still pushed on

 

he even goes so far as to state that the book was the reason for the apokalypse and yet deems it so utterly important that he risks his life on the way claiming that it will save mankind,

on the way he even totally forgets the whole idea behind the book he carries round all the time aswell as giving a damn bout innocents and people that need his help...

 

why i think it might be thougt to be a satire, well for one do we have these 2 great actors which dark already named, then we have a black muslim who wants to save a chrsitian holy book who washes his balls with KFC wet napkins, which gets explicitly shown, either as product placement or as a very bad stereotype, i dunno

this guy is so faithful that he even memorizes the whole bloody book but totally forgets what he memorizes and doesnt act the slightest bit according to his belief

 

on the plus side are some nice shots of a wasteland, a nice atmosphere to begin with and some pretty neat even tho not spectacular action, and i must admit until i started to grasp that weirdness going on this movie i actually thought it might become enjoyable

 

in total i would say this film leaves many questions to be asked, but not questions a witty movie opens up but questions on wether the director actually thought his movie through and didnt just want to make some shitty fallout meets the pope crap...

 

this movie simply made no sense at all to me, sry... its sole thought seems to be that mankind is a bunch of wild animals without the saint james bible which is utterly insane nonsense or it would never have been written in the first place

 

denzel showed once more that he can only play pseudo moral praising jerks... maybe thats his real character aswell

 

sry if this resume is kinda disorganized and chaotic but thats prolly the intention of the movie, to confuse critiques so much that noone will understand what they say...

 

if you want a truly falloutesque movie go and watch "a boy and his dog" (public domain by now, theres a link to it somewhere here in the forum)

[Dark0ne]

I think your review is extremely "on the surface", Jaysus. This is an extremely spiritual film that can be assessed on many levels. Unfortunately many people watch it expecting an action film and leave disappointed that they got a film they actually had to think about and dig beneath the surface.

 

 

imagine you play fallout whilst cursing your enemies with prayers, playing it for 30yrs, devoting your life to it,

all good, but once you get the geck you are shocked as you realize it does absolutely zip, you can only use it to enslave mankind... sad point is that denzel knew all that from the beginning and still pushed on

 

he even goes so far as to state that the book was the reason for the apokalypse and yet deems it so utterly important that he risks his life on the way claiming that it will save mankind

 

My interpretation of this was that mankind scapegoated religious texts, such as the Bible, as a cause for the start of World War 3 and instigated a mass-burning of them (ala Nazi Germany). This satires the modern world where religion is blamed for a lot of things when it isn't religions fault, it's man's interpretations and corruption of the text that causes such pain. Indeed religious texts possess the power to commit the greatest of goods but also the greatest of evils and this is what the director was trying to get you to think about.

 

 

on the way he even totally forgets the whole idea behind the book he carries round all the time aswell as giving a damn bout innocents and people that need his help...

 

Think about what the director/writer is trying to portray by adding that scene where the raiders are dragging away the woman to presumably rape and inevitably eat her and Eli is saying "stick to the path, stick to the path". It's meant to be ironic. It's meant to be hypocritical. It's meant to be relevant to contemporary issues. Eli is walking his path, and not the path. It's extremely ironic and it puts a human side to a somewhat supernaturally powerful character (referenced later by Gary Oldman saying "he still bleeds").

 

 

black muslim

 

Did I miss something? Did the film make out Eli was a muslim?

 

 

book who washes his balls with KFC wet napkins, which gets explicitly shown, either as product placement or as a very bad stereotype

 

I loved the fact KFC wet-whipes were used as currency in the town. Worth more than almost everything except clean water.

 

 

this guy is so faithful that he even memorizes the whole bloody book but totally forgets what he memorizes and doesnt act the slightest bit according to his belief

 

This is an obvious satire of so called "religious people" who say they are Christian/Muslim/Jewish etc. but really only mean they believe in the Christian/Muslim/Jewish god but don't actually walk the faith. You can read the book, you can have the faith, but if you don't walk the path then are you really Christian/Muslim/Jewish? You talk the talk but you don't want the talk. That's what the film is trying to make you think about, and indeed I don't believe Eli ever makes reference to being Christian/Muslim or of any religious faith.

 

 

------------

 

From talking to others who have watched the film I've noticed a rather common trend. Christians and otherwise philosophical thinking individuals have really enjoyed the film and the ideas it presents. (Sweeping statement ahoy...) Atheists and people who only like to look on the surface haven't understood it or thought it was some Jesus-Creepers/God-Squad/Bible-bashing extravagaza and haven't understood it.

 

After doing English and Philosophy at A Level I really liked this film. Both allow me to delve deeper and better analyse the perhaps hidden undercurrents of the film that might be missed by some who've come to switch off and watch a slide-show for 2 hours. Perhaps having had a Christian upbringing I'm able to pick up on a lot of the hidden messages and the relevant Bible passages and books, such as Job, which was my favourite and most intriguing (and relevant) book of the Bible, that made the film a much deeper experience for me, despite not being a Christian myself.

[WaLkAwaY]

It's not even in the cinemas in Norway >:(

You make me jealous people!

 

Really? How much time difference goes on between movies being released to theatres in Europe and the US? Or is it certain areas of Europe? Or am I being ignorant and Norway is not considered part of Europe? I know the movie Taken came out in Europe before the US by about 6 months I think. Also I never payed attention to your sig I always thought it was a picture of you, because it looked so life like then I realized it was anime or something. Cool though.

@Jaysus: I liked your review.

Think about what the director/writer is trying to portray by adding that scene where the raiders are dragging away the woman to presumably rape and inevitably eat her and Eli is saying "stick to the path, stick to the path". It's meant to be ironic. It's meant to be hypocritical. It's meant to be relevant to contemporary issues. Eli is walking his path, and not the path. It's extremely ironic and it puts a human side to a somewhat supernaturally powerful character (referenced later by Gary Oldman saying "he still bleeds").

 

Basically what that scene showed me was societies unwillingness to help a woman who is being raped or make it seem as if "it is not my problem", (Deindividuation: The reflection of personal identity and the erosion of the sense of personal responsibility that can arise when one is part of a group. In society, it is the response of an individual to see someone stranded or needing help and assuming that someone else who has seen what they have seen has already called for help. In society while in a group it is the "seeing someone needing help and assuming others have already or will do it why should I get involved attitude") if they were trying to get a point across there are hundreds of ways to be ironic without having to use rape as the example. It is not expected that anyone who has never experienced rape would understand what it is like to see something like that. It is like the victim blaming that goes on in society, "Well why was she there", "If she hadn't dressed that way she would not have gotten raped", "why didn't she just leave", "what was she doing in the park at night". Basically to someone who has been raped, all those questions that people ask is like a slap in the face or saying "you deserved it", and the people asking them do not see the deep wounds their words leave as we already feel ashamed and blame ourselves for what happened to begin with.

 

So let me share where my mind went. Eli sits up on the overpass as they show the woman being dragged and they open the image in your head that yes she is going to be raped, I think that is a pretty fair assumption based on the actions of the gang. So how long does it take to rape her? How many guys? How many times? I never saw them cut a piece off of her to eat I saw them get back on their motorcycles and leave and I saw this also through the character of Eli's eyes. So say it took 30 minutes to rape her. So Eli "staying on his path" even if he did not watch listened to her scream, listened to her pain for 30 minutes and did nothing to help as the worst thing that can happen to a woman happens. I can understand if the character were to fear for his/her life and then just did something to divert their attention but here you have a character who obviously can take out 6 motorcycle people. I do not see how this helped the film in any way and like I said could have been done using something else to get the point across. We already know it is the wasteland and rape is going to happen, just like we know that characters in movies do not hold their bowel movements for the entirety of what the time line of a movie is but they don't show it. People get the assumed we don't need the visual.

 

Some people are going to pick apart my post whether they post themselves or keep it ot themsleves who knows. Just know that I see where I did not explain certain things or go into certain things that probably need more clarification and possibly I do not tie in my facts as neatly as I should have... I just assume that everyone on these boards is an intelligent person and able to gather what I am trying to say without me having to right it out in APA format.

[jaysus]

i also liked the fact that he wasnt a perfect saint, gave him a human side of failure as you nicely explained dark

 

well if it was the intention of the director to make eli look like a lunatic, blind for everything but his goal then this scene was quite powerful

 

they didnt eat her btw, cannibalsm was frowned upon in this world as we can see when eli is asked to show his hands again and again (the bikers being some of the notorious "keep the order" guys who enforced that) or when he says "their hands are shaking, they ate all those people" later when they meet the old couple.

the hand shaking is a syndrom of the Kuro illness which is gained by eating human flesh (check google for a detailed explanation on how that works im too lazy :P, basicly modified proteins screw your nervous system)

 

the reason for the apocalypse is not clear but it seems to have been a meteor instead of a war as we can see on the craters and the void of military equipment

hence the people blamed god i assume

 

eli being a muslim is shown at the very end when he dies and gets the ritual washing, shaving and the white clothpiece to wear, thats a typical muslim fashion to care for the dead or dying

however according to the koran that is actually irrelevant as every believer of the book wether old testament or new, or very new (koran) is a follower of said book and hence "musr" or a muslim (also means egyptian) (not that every so called muslim would know or believe in that)

 

however, my big problem with this movie is really that it depicts every one in this movie as retarded except gary oldman, he knows where the real purpose of the book lies, leading and keeping people under control...

the rest thinks its the holy book that will save mankind but its not, thats why i found this whole movie so utterly unsatisfying and hard to watch

for a critical reflection of mans mind about religion it doesnt express itself strongly enough, for telling that that faith is important for mankind it fails to deliever, for telling that religion is only good for death and destruction aswell as enslavement it barely makes a stand

 

the movie simply doesnt make itself clear, its just a bad and incoherrent story of a lunatic human society in my mind, it had some good points which could have been buildt upon but that chance was missed, its good however to spakr some discussions like this one :P

 

My interpretation of this was that mankind scapegoated religious texts, such as the Bible, as a cause for the start of World War 3 and instigated a mass-burning of them (ala Nazi Germany). This satires the modern world where religion is blamed for a lot of things when it isn't religions fault, it's man's interpretations and corruption of the text that causes such pain. Indeed religious texts possess the power to commit the greatest of goods but also the greatest of evils and this is what the director was trying to get you to think about.

 

but these books were written by man, man who had the goal of leading people, and just as machiavelli did, did these people know that people are best kept in line with fear, imo religion never did any good at all, never, just as wars never did any good, religion is a shackle nothing else, sorry if that sounds offensive but im sick of being respectful towards things which show no respect towards others and thats what these 3 religions do... christians are atheists too, atheist of the god mars or jupiter, they dont believe in thor nor vodan! how can they claim that this is the only true god? however i dont think we should discuss religion here, or well i think we should, but i also think that this may lead the forum in a state of madness until mankind finally gets a brain...

 

anyway, i made my mind up long ago that there is no deity in the sky or wherever, god if you want is simply the whole of nature, including us, the stars, rocks and bees... the ultimate goal for all being is to become one again and hence god, the planets or black holes are closest to this goal and are a step ahead of us as they merged with many other things yet whilst we still linger alone(though we merged from alot of other things yet too just on a smaller scale)

 

and just btw, i believe in no deities but the one i mentioned above, nature, and there is no magic about it.

i had a christian moral upbringing myself as most europeans prolly did (though i didnt get an education bout christianity till i went to a west german school where it was compulsory),

i tried to get all sides right from the start and as im not baptized i had the chance to choose my courses freely, catholic (school), protestant (school), muslim (best friend(s)) and buddhism (soka gakai and gf) aswell as a profound philosophical education (took till the end of my schooltime too) gave me at leats a tiny insight into religion, human mind and belief i assume

the only religion i liked (which officially is not even one) of these 4 was buddhism as it combines science with believe instead of outing science as wrong even tho science wonderfully applies to the bible for example aswell if one forgets about all those vaguely interpetable stories of sodom and gomorah as i sarcasticly like to call "eye for an eye" "i kill half my people cause they like to party" "die damn philisters" and "lets wander around another 20yrs so everyone dies who knows how life was before i told em how to worship my glorious and holy naked feet" (moses)

 

i still think that best fallout like movie is "a dog and a boy" ;)