Religion Is Power... Absolutely: Thoughts about the Film, The Book of Eli

The Book of Eli: Rated R for language, action violence and some gore

I must admit that while I am still deciding whether or not I liked this movie, I am surprised at the spiritual and religious insight it showed… so unlike Hollywood. Typically, religious or spiritual figures (particularly if they are Christian) are depicted in very two-dimensional terms. They are ignorant or self-serving or tyrannical or insecure or all of the above. Consequently, religion or spiritual belief systems are also presented as a tool of oppression. The Book of Eli certainly has a character that has a strong interest in religion but a jaded use for it (Gary Oldham’s character, Carnegie).

However, the movie’s protagonist (who functions a bit like Clint Eastwood’s ‘man-with-no-name’ in the first half of the film but who is later revealed to be Eli) is a man of sincere if not pure faith. The world has been destroyed in some apocalyptic ‘flash,’ ripping a whole in the ozone layer and driving the few survivors underground for over a year. Many blamed religion for the apocalypse and sought to destroy all copies of “the book.” Eli, however, found the sole surviving copy and heard a voice “from inside” telling him to protect it and bring it “west.” He is a keeper of the true faith (as objectified in Eli’s book), protecting it from extinction but also from those who would twist it for their own selfish gain. Carnegie is such a man, looking passionately for a copy of “the book” because it will be a way to expand his rule from a small town to the surrounding region and beyond. Fairly early on, the film makes clear that while faith… doctrine even… can be co-opted by corrupt men, the problem is not faith or religion, but the human heart.

More than this, the film slowly begins to reveal that the real testimony of the book’s power is not so much in its physical pages as it is in the character it forges in us. Eli even admits that he had lost sight of this fact as he pursued his mission. In the end, and without trying to reveal too much about the end, it is Eli himself who is the book (thus the double meaning of the movie title) because he embodies its teachings. That some of my Catholic brothers would accuse this film of “bibliolatry” (the worship of the book, a common Catholic critique of Protestant theology) really misses this central idea altogether.

There are some things in the end of the movie that are interesting twists or in some cases just confusing (relating to some wounds Eli receives, the nature of the physical book he has been protecting and one other matter that I can’t even mention in the abstract). Some are so distracting that it detracts from the film overall. However, the story of the parallel pursuits of Eli and Carnegie and where their pursuits led them, which are also strangely parallel and yet worlds apart, is worth thinking about and discussing.

For many with low tolerance for violence and foul language, this film may not be for you. If you like unending action, you may also be disappointed. But if you like movies that make you think about the nature of religious faith and its place in society, you will appreciate going even if you don’t like the ending.