WARNING: "Ending" spoilers below
In the end it is revealed that Eli is blind. He has been for the whole movie, and The Holy Bible he has been carrying is in Braille. Now this is what makes the movie very controversial, since the twist had a lot of people crying bull ****. After all how can a blind man do what he does in the movie, and it seems to be a fair criticism. After all I held similar reservations after I saw it for the first time. Then I watched it for a second time with my brother and I paid particular attention to Eli’s actions and what he says in reference to his sight. After seeing it again, I have two counters to the criticisms. First off the blindness is foreshadowed. Eli never makes a reference to sight. He always refers to his other senses, he says “hear that” and “smell that” when communicating with others, he always has his fingers on the pages of the book when he reads, and he is shown using only his other senses. Like when he could smell people trying to ambush him. As for how he can shoot people trying to kill him and shoot cats with a bow and arrow for food, you can think of it in two ways. First off he is blind so his other senses are now superhuman, much like Daredevil. The second interpretation, God does his seeing for him. After all I have heard of bigger miracles such as parting the Red Sea or the Resurrection, so God guiding a blind saint where to point the gun at the people trying to murder him is not that big a leap. My second counter is that Eli being blind actually fits the mold for a lot of prophets in the Bible. God has a habit for choosing unlikely men to become the vessels for his word. For example, Moses, the man who led the Hebrews out of bondage, delivered the Ten Commandments, helped form the laws the ancient Hebrews lived by, and was their leader as they wondered the desert for 40 years, had a stutter. Noah, the guy who built the Ark, he was an alcoholic. Hell, going out of Judeo-Christianity, even Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, when he was writing the Quran was illiterate! So once again, blind gunman? Not out of line with regards to past prophets. There is one final criticism I must address I cannot explain away. This cannot be chalked up to religious symbolism or themes, this is a hard fact. That fact is that books that are written in Braille do not fit into the same size books as those written with words. A complete Bible in Braille will take up lots of shelf space and comes in volumes. So it is impossible for the book Eli to have to be a full copy of a Bible. But they keep it in the movie and I can see why. They keep it in the movie because without it being in Braille, then Carnegie can read it and we have no twist. And Carnegie not being able to read the book also fits the religious symbolism that in order to understand the true meaning of the Bible you need to have the Holy Ghost, which Carnegie does not have. With that being said, I still love the movie, as I like other movies with problems in it. After all, even Citizen Kane had a plot hole. How the hell could the nurse hear Kane whisper Rosebud, from behind a closed door all the way across the room? I don’t know, but that does not stop it from being the single most praised movie of all time. I chalk up this little detail to willing suspension of disbelief.
In the end it is revealed that Eli is blind. He has been for the whole movie, and The Holy Bible he has been carrying is in Braille. Now this is what makes the movie very controversial, since the twist had a lot of people crying bull ****. After all how can a blind man do what he does in the movie, and it seems to be a fair criticism. After all I held similar reservations after I saw it for the first time. Then I watched it for a second time with my brother and I paid particular attention to Eli’s actions and what he says in reference to his sight. After seeing it again, I have two counters to the criticisms. First off the blindness is foreshadowed. Eli never makes a reference to sight. He always refers to his other senses, he says “hear that” and “smell that” when communicating with others, he always has his fingers on the pages of the book when he reads, and he is shown using only his other senses. Like when he could smell people trying to ambush him. As for how he can shoot people trying to kill him and shoot cats with a bow and arrow for food, you can think of it in two ways. First off he is blind so his other senses are now superhuman, much like Daredevil. The second interpretation, God does his seeing for him. After all I have heard of bigger miracles such as parting the Red Sea or the Resurrection, so God guiding a blind saint where to point the gun at the people trying to murder him is not that big a leap. My second counter is that Eli being blind actually fits the mold for a lot of prophets in the Bible. God has a habit for choosing unlikely men to become the vessels for his word. For example, Moses, the man who led the Hebrews out of bondage, delivered the Ten Commandments, helped form the laws the ancient Hebrews lived by, and was their leader as they wondered the desert for 40 years, had a stutter. Noah, the guy who built the Ark, he was an alcoholic. Hell, going out of Judeo-Christianity, even Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, when he was writing the Quran was illiterate! So once again, blind gunman? Not out of line with regards to past prophets. There is one final criticism I must address I cannot explain away. This cannot be chalked up to religious symbolism or themes, this is a hard fact. That fact is that books that are written in Braille do not fit into the same size books as those written with words. A complete Bible in Braille will take up lots of shelf space and comes in volumes. So it is impossible for the book Eli to have to be a full copy of a Bible. But they keep it in the movie and I can see why. They keep it in the movie because without it being in Braille, then Carnegie can read it and we have no twist. And Carnegie not being able to read the book also fits the religious symbolism that in order to understand the true meaning of the Bible you need to have the Holy Ghost, which Carnegie does not have. With that being said, I still love the movie, as I like other movies with problems in it. After all, even Citizen Kane had a plot hole. How the hell could the nurse hear Kane whisper Rosebud, from behind a closed door all the way across the room? I don’t know, but that does not stop it from being the single most praised movie of all time. I chalk up this little detail to willing suspension of disbelief.