Rather contrast to "I am Legend", "Book of Eli" shows that humanity will get back to "an era when everything is scarce and conventional". I mean, no computers, less food, people robbing each other for valuable pieces, and conventional trading back to be the way people do economy :)
Kinda scary, right? Or weird? Or do you feel it's like wacko? Whatever that is, that's not the main menu, not in this movie :P
This film depicts, what if humanity lost faith. Faith to God. Faith to divine powers that is way above human power. In turn, human put "faith" into theirselves. But hey, it already happen right now, right? So this film, in my opinion, try to super-impose current situation combined with post armageddon-alike imagination.
Then come Eli (I believe this name refers to Prophet Eli). He brings a book, an unknown one. He read it every single day and he believe he must bring book to an unknown place in west. Yes, just that, "west", but where is that? It's still unknown initially.
But that's not an easy job. Thugs, robber, killers are along his path. Eli aggresively defense himself using deadly martial art style plus his blade. Later, a godfather (I just call him this way, so I am open for suggestions :) ) want to take that book...when it is revealed it is a sacred book. As he said "that's not just a book, damn it! It's a weapon! A weapon that can move people's heart....". Got the clue, folks?
There are few heart touching scenes in this film:
- When Eli prays one of the famous mazmur "Lord is my shepherd, I shall not in want. He leads me to the still water....".
It's not that epic, but I remember Mila Kunis there said "wow, that's beautiful", it seems like it's the first time she ever heard that. Then Eli teach her a prayer before meal...thumbs up!
- Eli says "dust to dust, ashes to ashes" before taking all the freaks in club. Before you kill, you need to be ready to get killed first. If not, better run :)
- "God is good, right?" "Not all the time"..then baammmm, a shot to Eli's stomach....
- A f***ng surprise revealing the fact about the book that Eli brought..which is later identified as the last copy of King James version of the Bible.
So there comes the war... Eli against a group of criminals. Now, here comes my favourite part. I'll tell you about the fight scenes:
- Eli vs low life thugs under the bridge: eli first cuts one's hand. That drags other to surround him. Using his blade, Eli disarm and slice them all in effective movements. In one last round against chain saw guy, Eli got head butt, but he smash back and disarm the opponent..by.....dare to guess? cutting that jerk's hand of course :D
- Eli vs 20+ bozos in a bar: eli shows no mercy here. Started by smashing a crank's head into bar's table then followed by ditching the rest of the scum bags :)
I say it's greatly choreographed...almost natural. Unlike the usual fight scenes which looks like "ok, one by one...dude...patient", they really looks like wanna smash Eli together.
For those who is curious, Denzel Washington was trained in Jeet Kune Do and Philipino Kali Escrima before and during the shoot. The trainer is one of the student of Mr. Dan Inosanto, while Mr. Inosanto himself is one of the main diciple of Bruce Lee.
" .. I finish the journey, I keep the faith".................
regards,
Mulyadi.
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