I would imagine, however, that I am not your average viewer of these films and shows. I actually have a yellow legal pad that I keep with me while watching them and I write notes about the role that faith plays in the films. As it might not go over that well doing a sermon series entitled Jesus and Zombies, I’ll use most of that material for my blog posts over time. Today I want to share with you what I learned from a movie in this genre that I saw recently called The Book of Eli, which is a movie based on a graphic novel that stars Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman. Before I get into it, let me say that I did not like this movie. Usually these two main actors make good stuff, but in my opinion it was boring, disjointed, and it crossed the line into farce. For the first three-quarters of the movie I kept going back and forth about whether or not I just wanted to cut my losses, delete it from the DVR, and go on to something else. But right when I was about to give up on it, the last half-hour actually got interesting. I am going to ruin the plot for you because I do not want you to waste two hours of your life on this movie like I did.
An all-out nuclear war has decimated much of humanity and society. Those who did somehow survive have to contend with the fact that the nuclear fallout has caused the ozone layer to pretty much disappear. The earth has no real protection from the sun’s rays. Everything is dried up and you have to stay covered up if you are outside. The entire world is gray, dirty, and desolate. As you can probably imagine, rule and order no longer exist and there are bandits everywhere ala the Mad Max movies. For thirty years, Eli, played by Denzel Washington, has been walking west carrying the very last copy of a very important book. We find out that he is doing it because he heard the voice of God tell him to do it. He will do anything to protect the book, which often involves going samurai on bandits and marauders who try to attack him. He doesn’t know where he is going. All he knows is that God told him to carry it west. At the same time there is a villain, reminiscent of evil land barons in Westerns, played by Gary Oldman, who has for years been looking for a copy of this book because he knows that if he can control the book he can use it to control others and to reap selfish gain from it. As you can probably imagine, the villain and the carrier of the book are about to cross paths.
The reason that there is only one copy left of this book is that most people said that it was that book that caused the apocalyptic war. So the survivors gathered up all copies of the book and burned it. Somehow one copy survived; that is the copy being carried by Eli, who before the war was just a simple K-Mart employee. “One day, I heard a voice,” Eli tells a young woman who ends up tagging along with him. “I could hear it as clear as I can hear you talking to me now… It led me to a place where I found the book buried in some rubble and the voice told me, ‘Carry the book west,' and told me that a path would be laid out for me, that I’d be led to a place where the book was safe, told me that I’d be protected against anyone or anything that stood in my path. I’ve been walking ever since.” For the past thirty years Eli has not only been carrying and protecting the book, but he has been reading it every single day for thirty years.
The young woman, named Solara, who ends up traveling with Eli notices immediately that he acts differently from everyone else. She is the stepdaughter of the villain and had been offered to Eli as enticement to give the villain the book. Eli refuses to take advantage of the girl and instead has her sit down with him at
Eventually the villain tracks down Eli and Solara and a bloody gun fight ensues. The villain holds a gun to Solara’s head and says he will kill her if Eli doesn’t give up the book. After 30 years, Eli finally hands it over. He cannot protect it any longer. Later on, Solara says to Eli, “I didn’t think anything could make you give up that book.” Eli responds to her by saying, “All the years of carrying that book and reading it every day, I got so caught up in keeping it safe that I forgot to live by what I learned from it.” She wonders what it is that he has learned from the book. “Do for others more than you do for yourself,” he says. “That’s what I got from it anyway.” Protecting Solara’s life was more important than protecting the book.
Interestingly enough, while the villain is trying to break the lock that keeps the book closed, Eli and Solara continue heading west. They drive through the abandoned streets of what used to be San Francisco until they come to San Francisco Bay. They get in a rowboat and head out toward Alcatraz Island. They’re coming to the end of Eli’s thirty year journey, yet he doesn’t have the book. Armed guards meet them at the dock demanding to know their business. “I have in my possession the last remaining copy of the Bible,” Eli yells out, although we know that he doesn’t anymore. Meanwhile, the villain gets into the book and finds that the pages are blank except for little bumps. It’s in brail! As a viewer you realize that Eli was blind this whole time. That’s why he wore sunglasses all the time, never looked anyone in the face, and had such a strong sense of smell. Ah, I should have known! He really did walk by faith and not by sight.
Back on Alcatraz Island, Eli and Solara are admitted into the old prison where there is a group of people, who like the monasteries during the dark ages in Europe, are collecting and preserving the important books of human civilization. The professorial British man in charge of the library asks Eli where the book is. “Get a pen and some paper,” Eli says. “Lots of paper.” They sit down together and Eli says, “Write down everything I tell you exactly as I say it.” The man, somewhat confused, nods in agreement. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,” Eli begins, followed by them showing how day after day he would lie down on a couch with his eyes closed and continue to recite the entire Bible from memory as someone wrote it down. He didn’t need the book after all. After thirty years of reading it, it was inside of him.
Psalm 119 is the longest psalm, actually the longest chapter in the Bible, I believe. It is basically a love poem written for God’s Word. It includes such statements as, “My soul clings to the dust; revive me according to your word” and “The Lord is my portion; I promise to keep your words” and “Oh, how I love your law! It is my meditation all day long” and the famous “your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Perhaps from The Book of Eli we can take the lesson that in order for us to live by the Word of God, we need to read the Word of God, and not just every now and then, but every day. Every time I find that I am growing distant from God, I realize that I have not been spending enough time in the Scriptures.
I will end with something I once heard a Jewish rabbi say. He said, “In studying God’s Word we do not put it in our hearts; we put it on our hearts. We put it on our hearts and then when life breaks our heart, the Word is already there and it can flow in.” Perhaps the chances of the super-flu or nuclear war aren’t really that high. I’m not too worried about aliens either, and I haven’t quite started putting together my contingency plans for zombies or dragons, but life does have its very real challenges and its tragedies. You know that; you’ve been through it or you’re going through it now. So, like the character Eli, put the Word of God inside of you little by little every day, and someday when you really need it, it will be right there and it will flow into your heart.
Grace and Peace,
Everett
