The Book of Eli...Witnessing Tool?

                Sorry it took some time to write this, I wasn’t quite sure how to express my feelings on it. I saw The Book of Eli the Wednesday after it came out. I went to a matinee showing with my wife and there were maybe 10 other people in the audience. I had read a few negative comments about the movie, but I was excited. I have never seen a Denzel Washington film that I did not enjoy, and this one was supposed to have some biblical themes.

                There are going to be a few spoilers, but the movie has been out a few weeks so I’m not worried too much about them.

                Denzel Washington plays Eli, a man traveling across post-apocalyptic America, carrying a King James Bible west. When asked why, he tells that he heard a voice in his head which led him to the bible, buried under rubble, and told him to take it out west. There he would find a place that needed it. So he did.

                So the movie has a biblical twist. But a few things I have heard against it are: too violent, too gritty, too much foul language. All of these are things that are in the Bible, as well. So let me tell you where these people’s complaints come from.

The Language: Almost every character other than Eli has “colorful” language trickled into every sentence. But look at society today, even devout Christians let an F-bomb slip at times. And even more so we cover out intended words with things like “Dang it!” and “Shoot!”, or maybe even “Freak!” or “Fudge!” Just because we didn’t actually use the word, doesn’t mean we didn’t mean the word, and that almost makes me feel like I’m lying to myself.

The Violence: You can’t turn on the news without hearing about murders, beatings, war, or mob riots somewhere in the world. Why would anyone expect anything different in a world that has been destroyed with the Bible being blamed for it? Not only is there no organized government to care for people, where is the moral compass to guide them? This movie is 30 years after the apocalypse, people are just not moving beyond the survival phase. No faith group has stepped in to help like in Haiti. No one has united the people under a banner of God. But here is Eli, walking across America, carrying an old King James Bible, reading it every night before bedding down in the most secure locations he can find.

Too Gritty: Well, ask any sci-fi fan what the world would be like post-apocalypse. They are going to tell you dirty. They are going to tell you that trash will be lying in the streets; buildings will be half collapsed, and depending on the cause, dead bodies will either be walking around or decaying in the street as mutants eat on them and anything else that comes by. Now is this factual? Probably not completely, but partially (all but the zombies/mutants…though mutations would be likely in a nuclear apocalypse).

 The fact is Book of Eli forces us to look at what one man is doing to carry the Word to a place he feels called to. He refuses all who try to take it from him, often violently. He carries it wrapped in leather and opens it to read every night. He quotes scripture with ease and tells stories from it to a companion who joins him.

This movie gives Christians a chance to reach out to unbelievers in a different way. It’s not the “touchy feely” Christian movie. It’s not the “glaze over the bad” Christian movie. It’s not even billed as a Christian movie at all, but I challenge anyone that has read the Bible to watch it and not find biblical analogies throughout it.

Over all, it’s a great movie, and I encourage you to take your unbeliever friends to it and then spend some time talking about it.