Finally Saw Eli

1. It’s very much worth seeing, although it’s far from the best movie ever made. The best Christian movie ever made remains TENDER MERCIES. But Bob may be right and I may be wrong. It could be that the movie’s teaching style doesn’t correspond to my learning style.

2. JWC was right to have observed that the brilliant and (comparatively speaking) erudite tyrant played or overplayed by Oldman wanted the Bible for its rhetorical power. Its words are weapons, he says, to control the weak and desperate. And those words will mercifully alleviate his ruthless cruelty. If he can do some persuasive talking he can do less killing while indefinitely expanding his power over people. But I’m confused, I have to say, because when was the last time a tyrant actually used the words of the Bible in that way? They sure weren’t the words of the 20th century tyrants. And the words of the Koran are a somewhat different kind of weapon. There’s also some sense that the tyrant was deceiving himself about why he wanted those words. The longing in his eyes when he thought he was finally about to read them seems to be more about freeing himself from the tryannical impulses dominating his soul. That, of course, was a genuinely Christian moment. At that point, not to give too much away, he learns he should have been nicer to his wife.

3. Of course Denzel does his usual great job, and his character is a nice variant on how amazing grace transforms the blind. Tht he received a revelation that gave his life purpose, an indispensable purpose, is presented as both real and moving. He knows he will complete his mission and can’t be stopped by any or all forces. That does kind of muck up the battle scenes, where he does all manner of precision killing that can’t be explained naturally. We know in advance—because he says so—that he’s getting out of that house alive, despite the fact that the tyrant’s little army has enough firepower to level it many times over. And only the hand of God explains why it doesn’t occur to someone to just shoot him in the head.

4. The Bible ends up in the hands of a little band of intellectuals closeted on Alcatraz working to preseserve all the books and music essential to human civilization. I like the emphasis that the future of civilization depends on books or that renewal will occur a lot, lot quicker with them. But it was deflating to see the Bible placed on the shelf as one essential book among many, right there next to the Koran and so forth. It’s not clear whether or not the Bible is THE book for us all, although there are several special reasons why it’s the only book for Eli/Denzel.

5. The Bible, we learn, came a lot closer to disappearing entirely than the other essential books, because there was a concerted effort after the catastrophe to destroy every copy. Nobody was out to get, say, Shakespeare. It seems that the big war was blamed on the Bible, but it just isn’t explained why.

6. Why did God empower a man to preserve the King James version of the Bible in particular? Attention is called to that fact more than once.

7. The details of the war are a little too politically correct for me. It seems to have been a nuclear exchange that knocked a huge hole in the ozone layer. It was direct exposure to the sun that did most of the destruction of life. Virtually all vegetation disappeared. And anyone who didn’t get underground and stay there for a year died. Lots of people were blinded. Still, the people around 30 years later seem pretty healthy all things considered, even though most or all of them apparently have never eaten their vegetables. Cats, dogs, birds, and mice managed to survive. And although water is extremely scarce, there seems to be plenty of gas for the motorized vehicles that are miraculously still running. In general, the movie, although arresting and profound in some ways, isn’t really distinguished by exacting attention to detail. It’s above my pay grade to figure it all out, but a lot more care was given to symbolism—Biblical and otherwise—and nods to many other films.

ONE MORE ELI POINT: The movie is actually quite Christian on what it means to see. It’s quite possible for the blind to see in the most important way without the sense of sight. And biological eyes aren’t that precious; smell and touch can compensate. (The movie, meanwhile, attentively shows us that people with eyes don’t really know how to smell [or touch].) Before the catastrophe, Eli says, people had too much and didn’t know what was precious. The Christian point explored is what it really means to be wounded.