Book Of Eli Themes

The Book of Eli is a contemporary western film set in a dystopian future. The movie combines a compelling protagonist with a unique video-game like style to generate an eye-catching twist on the classic western picture. The Book of Eli takes place thirty years after a war that turned the landscape into a nuclear wasteland. The movie follows Eli as he navigates the treacherous post-apocalyptic world. Eli, portrayed by Denzel Washington, is on a quest is to deliver a book from the East coast to the West coast. Along the way Eli faces many obstacles, including Carnegie, a man who will do anything in his power to take Eli’s book to use it for his own aspirations. The narrative begins in a dead forest as a masked figure draws back his crossbow
Among these include conflicts between wilderness and civilization, law and chaos, and character duality. Like the American west, the landscape in The Book of Eli is mostly barren and food is scarce. Civilization is not in large cities with organized democracy and the expansive, untamed territory encourages a dog-eat-dog environment where any man can rise to power. Through the use of violence and morally corrupt tactics, one man reigns over a town of hundreds. Other themes familiar to the genre used in The Book of Eli include the use of bartering system, saloon scrawls, and shots where the vastness of the landscape dwarfs the people who travel across
Carnegie, portrayed by Gary Oldman, is the leader of a small town that he maintains rules by maintaining control over the most precious resource available in a post-apocalyptic world; water. Carnegies character is, power hungry, manipulative, and his goal is static—obtain a Bible to secure control and power over the people in his colonies. His character is flat and most aspects of his personality a classic narcissist and believes that any means justify his end goal of ultimate power. Upon learning that Eli poses a Bible, his makes it his mission to hunt him down and take it for himself. After several failed attempts to claim it, he finally succeeds. Triumphant t, he returns to his colony, sits at his desk, and opens the book, and finds himself on the wrong side of poetic justice. The book that he wanted so desperately to use as a weapon is written in a language he cannot read and utterly useless to him. Overall, The Book of Eli is an interesting movie with a plot feels familiar to the western genre but still has loads of appeal to a contemporary audience. Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman both do an excellent job portraying their respective characters, but the most stunning aspect of the movie is the visual style. The combination of the visual style, acting, and well-choreographed fight scene make this movie a modern western worth