Book of Eli and The Road

I hesitated slightly when some friends invited me to watch this movie called "Book of Eli" in the theater. But when I saw this poster, I understood I was at the right place:


As those of you who read my previous blog post would know, this is almost exactly what my Interp class is about. But even more striking to me as I watched the move, was the similarity to a book I just read: "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy.

So, was the movie any good?

Well, Book of Eli was at least very interesting. It was well produced, and the story was both solid and had a nice twist to it. The plot itself was that, after the apocalypse, man blamed what had happened on religion, and burned all religious literature they could find. There is only one copy of the Bible left, as far as we know, and this copy is in the possession of our hero Eli. Eli has this calling to go west, but few people can be trusted on his journey; especially not the character Carnegie, who also is one of the few who survived the apocalypse (which was 30 years ago). Carnegie is seeking for the Bible, because he is convinced that it will give him power (whatever he has in mind by that).

It is a very dark movie. It does not have much faith in humanity, and the few moments that made you smile were humorous, not bright or beautiful. Now, I like tragedies; but the sadness of this movie is more of a resigned form, so it does not make you emotional, nor does it upset you. Oh, and it is still American enough to have a happy ending.

The Road is similar in that both stories take place is this unexplained post-apocalyptic world were most people are evil and survive by exploiting traces of the old world. Also, both heroes have this urge to reach the sea, and they mostly travel by foot through a devastated North American continent. So, apart from the differences in story-line, they are in my opinion identical. This despite that religious references are far more subtile in The Road, and there being far more explosions in Book of Eli.

So then, what am I left with after being subject to these two stories? Truth is, I dunno, and it bothers me.


More:
IMDB: Book of Eli
Watch trailer: Book of Eli
NY Times: The Road (the book)
Watch trailer: The Road (the movie)