We\u2019ll have two Movie reviews tonight for our opening night for Friday Night at the Movies. We welcome discussion on the movie and on the review, and we welcome more reviews of the same movie. So here we go \u2026.<\/p>\n
One Pastor\u2019s Eye on\u00a0The Book of Eli<\/i><\/p>\n
By John W. Frye<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Who would have imagined a 21st<\/sup>\u00a0century movie made about The King James Version of the Bible? Denzel Washington\u2019s\u00a0The Book of Eli\u00a0<\/i>puts the 1611 Bible dead center in the story. The tag line of the film: \u201cSome will kill to have it. He will kill to protect it.\u201d This is a \u201cbattle for the Bible\u201d like I have never seen. Having seen the film [spoiler alert], I am trying to find a way to synchronize its message\u00a0with anything<\/i>\u00a0in the Bible.<\/p>\n Should we be glad a man named Eli (means \u201cmy God\u201d) risks his life and slaughters many people in order to get the only surviving Bible to a printing press so that others can have access to it? The story opens 30 years after a global, nuclear holocaust; a holocaust sparked by warring religions. Survivors are living in the grim, chaotic and violent remains of civilization. Values are altered so that KFC wet wipes are exchanged as currency and water is extremely scarce. Eli (played by Denzel Washington) is \u201ca walker\u201d who is commissioned by \u201ca voice\u201d to head west to deliver the literary treasure in his possession. In the story, Eli is the good, yet stunningly violent guy. The Christian Science Monitor review labels Eli \u201ca pacifist warrior\u201d meaning that Eli is a peaceful man unless provoked. Eli\u2019s nemesis is Carnegie (played by Gary Oldman) who is collecting books in his desperate search of copy of the Bible. Carnegie, the bad guy, wants the Bible because he believes he can use it to keep ignorant, bewildered people in sheep-like submission to his power. Carnegie seeks to capture the Bible faithfully carried and zealously protected by Eli. With Carnegie and Eli, we are presented with a post-apocalyptic Satan and a very uncharacteristic, gun-slinging, knife-wielding Messiah. Is\u00a0The Book of Eli<\/i>\u00a0a postmodern, cinematic\u00a0Pilgrim\u2019s Progress<\/i>? I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As a viewer I got caught in the story, eager for Eli to As a pastor, I have questions. Can a Christian person be a The Golden Rule? That\u2019s it? Eli is protecting the Golden The Bible is not about the Golden Rule. The Bible presents
\n<\/p>\n
\nfulfill his quest with \u201cthe book\u201d and fearful that Carnegie would succeed in
\nhis evil pursuit to seize \u201cthe book.\u201d Because this film is about the Bible, it
\nis not like Frodo trying to get the (one) ring to the Cracks of Doom. Eli and
\nCarnegie are human beings who, for different reasons, are obsessed with the
\nBible. If Eli is a metaphor for a committed person who is willing to die for
\nthe Bible, then I would rest easy. But Eli convincingly demonstrates that \u201che will
\nkill to protect it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\npacifist until provoked and then become a killing machine? Does walking by
\nfaith and not by sight have room to use keen hearing to kill the enemies of
\n\u201cthe book\u201d? Eli is blind. There is a telling line in the movie when Eli
\nconfesses that he spent his life protecting the Bible only to realize that he
\nmust live<\/i> its message: to treat
\nothers as he wants to be treated. This confession comes after massive bloodshed
\nfrom his killing expertise.<\/p>\n
\nRule? This is where I felt the let down. The passion for the story
\nevaporated.\u00a0 <\/span>That, and the ending when
\nthe newly printed Alcatraz edition of the King James Version is placed next to
\nthe Koran. I wonder if Denzel, a professing committed Christian, really wanted
\nthis ending or was it the Hollywood, politically-correct thing to include? Or,
\nis The Book of Eli<\/i> sending a
\ncontemporary message to those who terrorize others in the name of Allah that
\nthey, too, will be terrorized by those who love the God of the KJV? I don\u2019t
\nknow and I hope not.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nnot a rule, but a Person\u2013the Prince of Peace. The Bible does offer a love like
\nno human love and that love has a name: Jesus the Christ. The closest the movie
\ncomes to any relationality about the God of the Christian faith is when Eli recites
\nthe opening verses from Psalm 23 to Solara, a young female devotee of Eli\u2019s.<\/p>\n