Summary
Through a ravaged post-apocalyptic wasteland, Eli must travel and protect a book he claims is of untold value. Whether or not it is, there's a mad man water baron after it and the promise of what it hold in its pages.
Revisiting
Revisiting films you enjoyed as a younger viewer, whether that be 5, 10, or 20 years ago, has brought me some of my favorite insights into my own film habits, preferences, and growth as a cinephile.
With any hobby, past time, or endevour, it is helpful to have benchmarks and milestones to help chart your progress and give you a sense of accomplishment at important stages. Taking a second watch of an old film is a great way of giving you those moments.
Watching "Book of Eli" was this sort of activity for me.
When I first watched it, I was in film school or just applied. I liked movies and had above average knowledge of them. Now, I may be an aging thirty-something working at a video store but my knowledge and experience with film has grown immensely. Would I still like "Book of Eli," or would I find that, like so many other films along the way, it just didn't hold up?
My first thought as I watched was that the opening scene was well done, atmospheric, and told the bleak story of the world the film would take place in. I also noticed the score which has been sampled about a billion times over the years. (I had no idea this was from "Book of Eli")
***SPOILER ALERT***
My next thought was that they hadn't really done too much in the way of making it the sort of movie you could watch twice and say, "Ooohhh, that's crazy that I didn't notice he was blind before now." In fact it's like they took the opposite approach ow Twistmaster General Shyamalan in "The Sixth Sense."
If you re-watch "Sixth Sense," you get treated to all the ways that the film is subtly nudging you that Bruce Willis is dead but you never noticed because you were so wrapped up in the story the first time through.
If only the same was true of "Book of Eli." On my second go round with this movie it was clear that the directors had no intention of making sure that Eli behaved as a blind man through out the film. This problem is only further emphasized by the introduction of a blind character who DOES act like a blind person.
So then I took a step back and tried to re-center myself. Usually this means that I am finding myself slipping into one of my least favorite tendencies: Analysis Nerdism. I want to focus on the themes of a film and this film is trying to be a sort of retelling of Blind Swordsman tales.
Granted it doesn't succeed on the same level but I have a hard time imaging the same people who complain about the sighted issue in "Book of Eli," feeling the same way about "Zatoichi."
So, I try to put the fact that Eli is supposed to be blind out of my mind and enjoy the themes of the film which I found to be pretty solid. Some of them are as subtle as Christmas but others, whether intentional or not, were pretty subtle commentary on religion, Christianity, and gender roles.
In fact, if it weren't for how violent and crass this film is at times, I would recommend it for church groups to watch. It has a lot to be discussed within it's two hours about scripture and its role in a person's and broader society's life.
It's really unfortunate that this is the main value I found in the film. I mean, the production design is great but there not much top see here that you can't see in any episode of the walking dead. The cinematography is downright washed out and ugly. The writing seems insightful at times but it also feels like it was written by someone with only a casual American acquaintance with the Bible and religion. (I know that complaint is a little Analysis Nerdismy too, though)
I guess I'm just a bit harder to please than I used to be. I expect that if a movie is going to cost millions of dollars to make with two of the best actors in the world, I should finish the film satisfied. I shouldn't finish thinking that they should have explored the themes more or given their actors better moments to shine in and work through any challenges they were having.
I expect more than a video game cinematic from my films. Something that does more than check the boxes of what makes a "marketable" film or pays a laughing homage to better films.
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