The Book of Eli - Research Paper Example

Assignment Movie Analysis: The Book of Eli Introduction The Book of Eli is a post-apocalyptic world based movie with considerable use of special effects and imaginative visuals.The Hughes Brothers, who directed the film, used a dull, shadowy style all through the movie to create impressions of apparent disarray and hopelessness.Discussion The story is based on some sort of alternative history regarding this world and its consequences as caste on the future of the planet. The geographical extent of the plot covers present day United States of America as visualized in some hoary future.

America and the world have been destroyed in a pervasive nuclear war, and the post-apocalyptic world stretches in utterly disorder and confusion. Visuals used to convey the message have been filmed using a dull texture and yellowish shade. Perhaps the style was considered by Hughes Brothers as suitable to visualize a barren, war torn, and burnt out world, with virtually little or no fuel, food, and other basic needs of life. This treatment is perhaps a reverse impression of the human aspiration of a peaceful world.

Humans may go to violence and war, but basically nobody should want a destroyed world like the one as shown in The Book of Eli. Almost throughout the span of the film, one man named Eli is seen as traveling toward the west coast of the USA from the eastern fringes of the land. Eli claims that an inner voice asks him to carry a book (that is the Book of Eli) to the western coast. As the movie progresses on, the audience comes to know that this book is the Holy Bible, and almost all copies of this book had been destroyed after the apocalyptic nuclear war was over.

That nuclear war took place 30 years before the time which is being depicted in the film. Eli is left alone, and he is walking toward west guided by his faith. In his way to the western coast, Eli comes across many people, the most dangerous among them being Carnegie who wants Eli’s book so that he can control the post-apocalyptic world with the help of that book. Indirect and direct struggles between Eli and Carnegie could have recreated the movie as an action drama. However, use of different visuals to show how affluent today’s world is changes this supposed tone of a typical Hollywood film radically.

Analysis From a prospective action drama, the film ascends to a moralistic melodrama. Eli, on his way westward, finds Solara who becomes very intimate with him. But instead of focusing on a romantic relationship between Eli and Solara, the Hughes Brothers appear to be using this subplot as a way to show the audience that what is meant by violence and how precious peace is! Eli and Salora could make a family, but the very aspiration to have a home is lost in continuous lawlessness and greedy villains like Carnegie.

Also, the Hughes Brother’s used the Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco as a brilliant visual to expound this situation (see Figure – 1). The message is clear that the contemporary capitalist democracy is lot better than (supposed) religious fundamentalism. Figure – 1: Post-apocalyptic Golden Gate Bridge, as shown in the movie The Book of Eli. (Screenshot taken from Fanpop.com) So what was the need of Bible now? The Hughes Bothers have exhibited a supposed skirmish of thesis and antithesis.

The thesis is that religion is basically a good humanistic development. The antithesis is that religion can be a dangerous tool in the hands of fanatics. According to Eli, people who survived the apocalyptic war came to believe that the war had been caused by religious texts. Hence, copies of religious books were then destroyed worldwide. So this information, combined with the impressions of smoky, rustling cars, deteriorating highways, cruel bandits and hijackers, etc. leads the spectator to believe the basic nature of humans is peaceful.

Some fanatics polluted religion, some people like Carnegie spread violence due to their personal greed. But there were people like Eli, who believed in religion as a good human endeavor (see Figure – 2. Eli is blind, but he is walking across the debris safely guided by immense good faith). There were people like Claudia, who did not read the Bible for Carnegie. The Bible, which Carnegie managed to snatch from Eli toward the climax of the film, was written in Braille. Claudia (Carnegie’s mistress), being a blind, knew Braille.

But she denied reading it for Carnegie. The visuals depicting a languished Claudia resemble a sorrowful but resolute mother, rather like the impression of Mother Mary as visualized in Christian belief. Figure – 2: Eli (marked in red) walking across the debris. (Screenshot taken from Cinemagogue.com) Conclusion The movie under discussion can be roughly regarded as a film depicting human aspiration for peace. On the other hand, aspiration for power is shown as an evil force which is out there among humans themselves to destroy the very human civilization as a whole.

Works Cited Cinemagogue.com. “Seen the movie? Now read the BOOK (of Eli) – Cinemagogue.” Cinemagogue. 2013. Web. 9th August 2013. http://cinemagogue.com/2010/03/15/seen-the-movie-now-read-the-book/ Fanpop.com. “The Book of Eli - Movies Wallpaper (14638367) – Fanpop.” Fanpop, Inc. 2013. Web. 9th August 2013. http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/movies/images/14638367/title/book-eli-wallpaper The Book of Eli. Dir. The Hughes Brothers. Perf. Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.

Alcon Entertainment and Silver Pictures, 2010.