Denzel Washington Protects
The Book of Eli

What got Washington interested in this particular film initially was his son John David, who is one of the producers. "He has pushed me to do three films. In this case, he really got his teeth into this story," Washington said in a recent interview. "He's a very, very spiritual young man and a unique individual. He got behind it and he wouldn't take 'No' for an answer."

When Washington took a closer look at the story, he recognized the interesting spiritual journey of Eli. "It's clichéd, but it is a story of good against evil, about a man who has heard the voice of God. I embraced the primal and spiritual aspects of this story and of this man."

When Washington began working with Albert and Allen Hughes, the brothers who produced and directed The Book of Eli, he meticulously went through the script line by line. "If he [Denzel] has heart and passion for something, he's there 110%, almost to the point of exhaustion for us," said Albert Hughes. "In going over all the script during pre-production, he'd have every version of the script with him. He'd have his glasses and pull out little nuggets from each one of them"

Personal Faith at Work

The brothers also appreciate Washington's personal faith, which brought a lot to the project. "Denzel by nature is a very religious, spiritual man," said Albert Hughes, "and he makes no secret of that. He brought all that to the project and helped us with it, because we're not exactly the most dedicated Bible readers in the world."

"I spent a lot of time going through the Bible to find passages that Eli could quote at appropriate moments," said screenwriter Gary Whitta. "Denzel found a bunch as well because he's a Christian man. He'd come into script meetings with the script on one hand and the Bible in the other. He found all these parallels, and had Post-it™ notes all over the place because he'd been up all night finding these things."

"We had the Bible there," said Washington, "because there were so many quotes and we wanted to get them right." When he saw the completed film for the first time, Washington was struck by one particular line about the Bible. "There's a line that says the Bible is probably the reason the war started to begin with. It's not that far-fetched, because this has been going on for thousands of years."

More Than a Book

"There's a scene where Gary Oldman's character makes a statement that the Bible isn't just a book, it's a weapon, and that made me go 'Whoa!'" said Allen Hughes. "The whole movie leading up to that point had Eli reciting Scripture, and you knew he was a man of the Bible, a man of faith. But when you hear this other character say that, I thought, 'This is deep. It's about something, and not just blowing stuff up.'

"This is the age-old battle over everything being subjective, especially when it comes to a book like that. It shouldn't be, because it's right there, but people read into it what they want to read. They take out of it what they want to take out of it."

People Are the Problem

While the Hughes brothers don't claim to be Biblical scholars, Allen does admit to being fascinated with religion in all its various forms. "I've watched documentaries and read lots and lots of books," he said, "including versions of the Bible with big bold fonts for people like me who have a hard time understanding it. In studying Christianity and the Bible, I also studied theology of other religions."

"I'm fascinated by how people react to it, good or bad," said his brother Albert. "It's a fascinating subject [religion], and many times wars come from it, or kindness. It's a weird kind of duality that, no matter what version of religion you're dealing with, it's the people that create the friction. People are the problem, not the book."

"Whether you believe it or not," said Whitta, "the Bible is who we are. It's been a cornerstone of civilization for 2000 years, and the battle over that ideology, I thought, is a really interesting one."

Whitta was passionate about his story but didn't think it would ever sell. "I was very conscious of the fact that, given some of the themes in the movie, people in Hollywood would consider it somehow dangerous or something they wouldn't want to make," he said. "All I know is that it was a story I couldn't get out of my head, and the only way to get it out was to write it out."

Warrior or Everyman?

When asked if Eli is a hero, a warrior, Whitta identifies him more as an everyman. "The studio wanted him to be an ex-Special Forces guy, but we said, 'No, that's not the point of the movie!' [If you catch it], there's a moment in the movie where you realize this guy was a nobody, a nothing.

"There's almost a biblical sense of someone like Noah or Job, a nobody character, who has been picked for this grand purpose. I thought that was really important to keep him a guy who had come from nothing and nowhere.

"I think that he is a modern-day saint. It's kind of the idea that future generations would look back on his story and it would stand up with other stories of men who have been picked for some grand purpose."

When asked if he thought his character was Messianic, Washington responded, "I think we all have a job to do, and this was his. If you look at it as a spiritual journey, his biggest test was right at the end. [He's a man who] heard the voice of God and it told him what to do."

Washington said he doesn't like to use the word "religious" to describe Eli. "If you on Tuesday heard a voice that told you what to do and you believed it was God, does that mean on Monday you weren't religious and on Wednesday you are? That's why I don't like to use the word religious."

A Movie That Says Something

In the end, the filmmakers all agree that the movie they fought to make is up there on the screen. "Denzel was incredibly protective of this film," said Whitta. "He loves what this movie has to say, and when you have someone of that caliber protecting it, it's great. He stood between the script and forces that would try to dilute it like a bodyguard and said, 'We're making this movie.' So it's all up there on the screen, what we wanted to say.

"It's a combination of the Hughes brothers and Denzel saying we're not going to do a dumbed-down Hollywood version of this movie. We want it to say something."

This film is rated R for violence and language, and is not appropriate for children.

©2009 ChristianCinema.com

Alcon Entertainment's action adventure film The Book of Eli is a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

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