The Book of Eli

I know this review is quite late but I just wanna share my insights about the movie.

The Book of Eli revolves around the importance of a book which the surviving inhabitants of Earth after a great tragedy is fighting for. In the future times where rights and respect are forgone and the land has been desolate that food and water is the most important thing, the book is seen as a weapon of control. The book that is the center of the movie is the Holy Bible. Religion is seen as a weapon of getting people with no hope to hope in the person who possess the Bible.

It so happens the surviving people and the generation born after the tragedy has no means of education thus the old people who survive the tragedy are the only ones who knows how to read.

Eli, the main character played by Denzel Washington, was the only person in the entire world who posseses the last copy of the Holy Bible. After the tragedy it has been his mission to bring the Bible to the west side of USA. He has traveled mostly on foot. The story started to roll when Eli came to a town headed by Carnegie, portrayed by Gary Oldman, an ambitious man who wanted to start an empire by controlling water source. He is also one of the surviving persons who believed that the Bible will give him power to control people thus he keeps seeking it by hiring men to go to abandoned cities searching for books.

Eli didn't cooperate and left the town and Solara followed because of the hope she sees in Eli. The chase began and eventually Eli lost the book to Carnegie. Eli realized that the material is not that important but rather the content of the material. He realized that after reading the Bible for several years he knows by heart the words in every page of the Bible. He continued his journey to the west and Solara accompanied her until they reach California. The surviving people in that area has established a center where they are concentrated in recovering the books of the world. They believed that education will bring back the lost hope in the people and a means of starting the new generation that was left behind after the tragedy. Eli started dictating the books of the Bible until he dies. The group was able to assemble the books of the Bible and with the old printing press that they have, printed the Bible as told by Eli.

On the other hand Carnegie lost everything after knowing that the last copy of the Bible is in braille. Nobody has the knowledge to read the Bible in braille and thus ended up losing his control over the town.

The story ended with Solara going out of the Alcatraz to probably continue the legacy of Eli.