World Without End

Movie Review: The Book of Eli

I saw 'The Book of Eli" on opening weekend, but really wanted to catch it a second time before I offered any sort of review.  It is a great film and I was really surprised on many levels.

1. Brief Synopsis:
Eli (played by Denzel Washington) has spent 30+ years after an apocalyptic event in possession of a book that gave him a larger than life mission. While he alludes to a long journey, we can't assume that he has been on this the entire 30 years.  He is one of the few people left that were alive before there was a "hole in the sky".  The book is the last left of it's kind and plays almost a character role in the movie.  Eli is trying to find a safe place, where the book can do good again.  He meets a local chieftain/mayor figure "Carnagie" (played by Gary Oldman) that has been trying to find this specific type of book.  He believes that the book will give him the words to have complete control and domination over people (and alludes that he gave people this sort of blind power in the past).

2. Key Themes of Loss
While this movie doesn't play into the loss of society as much as others, it does show the need for basic things.  Water plays a very prominent form of commodity, and Eli will eat anything he can kill (cat and buzzard).  Denzel does have a conversation in which he describes life before as a life of waste with people "throwing away what others kill for now".  Many are also blinded by the sunlight, and everyone wears some sort of sunglasses. 

At one point in the movie, Eli blesses his meal with another character who is amazed by the words and the idea of thankfulness.  It is the imitation of this act that gets Eli in the trouble that serves as the main action for the film. 

Overall, kindness seems to be the lacking piece of life that lets Eli stick out.

3.  How does the human character fit in?
Compared to other post-apocalyptic films, The Book of Eli sticks out to me because it is about communal action.  The movie is wrapped around the character of Eli-but the main tension exists within the realm of societal management.

There is a general distrust of those who are "wanderers" (like in many movies in the genre), and Eli is always observed as a weak person due to his age.  The common method of identification is to observe peoples hands, to seek if they shake.  Shaking is a symptom of eating to much human meat.  What is interesting is that this is the marker of those who are "outside" of the boundaries society has placed around themselves.  Debauchery isn't a problem, but the line is drawn at this point.  

There is also a Utopian community that is met, and they are attempting to preserve and be able to retranslate the "best" of civilization.  It too uses communal language and not individual.

4.  How does the movie feed apocalyptic fervor?
I don't think it really does.  It is about a journey and struggle, but it is set inside of the confines of a post-apocalyptic world.  The movie does have many places of hopelessness and violence, but they don't play a primary role.  

5.  The Mad Max Scale
I give it a 9.  It had armored cars, interesting appropriations of aging technology, value in ingenuity and self preservation.  Like Max, Eli had a few tricks up his sleeve and was good at adapting.  I saw someone wearing football pads in one scene and there was a convoy.  So far The Book of Eli has scratched that itch better than anything but the Road Warrior.

Movie Review: The Road

After over a month of waiting, I finally was able to catch The Road playing at a great little art house in Lexington, The Kentucky Theater.  I read the book a few years back and it actually played a big part in my fascination with cultural eschatology, so I was excited to finally catch it with some of my #latenightmoviesrock boys.

 

I am working on developing a standard way to "review" movies, so this is a changing process. 

1.  Brief Synopsis
The Man and The Boy are on a cross country journey to reach the coast, in hope that it will provide warmer temperatures, more food, and hopefully some type of stable society.  In the journey they avoid bands of cannibals, forage for food, and occasionally other interactions with people.  We learn that they are sent on the journey by The Woman, and that the boy is born after the "apocalypse" has taken place.

2.  Key Themes of Loss
Loss played a big part in the movie.  Most of it dwelt around memory of The Woman.  The Man remembered life with her before everything happened and her transition into depression after she gave birth to The Boy.  The Boy remembered his mother and wanted to die so he could be with her. 

3.  How does the human character fit in?
While other movies in this genre mention the descent of humanity, none have ever played into it as much as The Road.  One of the major themes running through the movie AND the original book was cannibalism.  This was what caused me to start and re-start the book multiple times, and I was happy to find out that the worst scene was left out by the screenwriters.  Cannibalism is never explained, but the lack of food and the constant quest for it gives ample reasons.  With occasional characters you might see a missing finger, and it insinuates that something has happened.  The major actors though are the roving bands of people that are looking for others to enslave and slowly eat.  There are two main interactions with these groups in the movie.  The Boy is fully aware of what is happening and is deeply concerned with it.

The other piece is the idea of "carrying the light".  This is mentioned briefly by The Man as he is explaining why he killed someone early in the movie.  He tells The Boy that they are carrying the light, and it is a subject that is continually brought up along with the idea of being "the good guys".

3.  How does this movie feed apocalyptic fervor?
The movie is so grim I can't imagine it feeding anything, but I do see it pushing more fear into people.  This is a complete secular eschatology, and any mention of God in the film is a mention of his apparent non-existence or lack of care.  This is an interpretation of what The End will be like for those who have no belief in a divine timeline.

It really reaches into the sociological depths of what humanity is capable of, and I think it rightly asked the questions regarding man descending back to animal when needed.  We steal, kill and ultimately will eat each other with no regard for the other.

4.  The Road Warrior Scale.
This movie was in a different realm than the classic I usually gauge on.  I give it a 7, mainly because it never dealt with the realities of existence and instead played to the philosophical questions surrounding a secular eschatology.

But see it, and then ask questions.  Better yet, read it. Dr. Alan Bandy has a terrific review of the book at his blog Cafe Apocalypsis, and brings in Revelation 13 and 14 into his review.

Glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit;
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be

Movie Review: 2012

One of the most apocalyptic consumed parts of our current culture centers around Hollywood and the film industry.  One of the elements to this site will be movie reviews, with a specific look into their eschatalogical content.  I am developing a rubric to review them, but this is the first review to be featured here.

Brief Synopsis
Science has figured out the planet (due to the Sun and overall Universe/Space issues) will be shifting plates and dealing with crust destabilization.  The story follows a relatively unknown scientist whose job has been to make a timeline for the cataclysm.  A deadbeat dad (who seems to be a crackpot sci-fi author) is also trying to save his broken family from impending doom.  He has written fiction regarding a world-wide event and has impressed the good of man in his writing.

How does this movie react to religion?
2012 shows the destruction of key places of almost every major religion (except islam).  What is interesting is the Vatican being destroyed while the Pope is leading prayer and the cardinals are in St. Peters praying.  Several elements of Christian faith are destroyed on camera, including the splitting of the Sistine Chapel (cracking between the hands of Man and God) and the destruction of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro.  The only overt mentions of God actually come through street doomsdayers and characters referencing that we should have been listening.

How does human character fit in?
The larger story of the movie still follows the themes of classic liberalism, in that “we” as a culture have the ability to think our way out of any situation, no matter how bad.  In the end, humanity has developed and evolved enough to always prevail.  This is evident in the plan to build a series of ships (called “arks”) to float through the flood that will happen as a result of tidal waves.  Even though there are problems, we (humanity) is intelligent enough to solve the problems and prevail.  A few minor characters show the weakness of human ethic (the willingness to leave people behind, take advantage of others to support themselves..etc..), but humans are ultimately good creatures.

The ultimate evil and goodness of humanity is both barely touched on, and not in a manner outside any other action adventure movie.  Death is always a viewed in a peripheral manner.

How does this feed apocalyptic fervor?  

In the end, 2012 will join the ranks of Armageddon and Deep Impact as good stories, superb special effects, but not greatly affect culture in a deep way. 


The Road Warrior Scale?
I give it a 4.  It was a decent movie, but forgettable and it really didn’t deal with the current fascination of “The End”.