Crafting a Likable Hero: The Book of Eli

December 19th, 2010 | By Rono | 312 views | 1 Comment »

The Book of Eli is on HBO this week. It is a good, decent, entertaining movie, with a protagonist that I happen to like a lot. How do you create a character that is likable and sympathetic? The Book of Eli showcases a man played by Academy Award winner Denzel Washington who modestly possesses all the quality of a likable hero.

Eli (Denzel Washington) demonstrates his impressive fighting skills with almost any weapon in The Book of Eli.

Meet Eli

Eli is a simple man, with very simple needs. He minds his own business. He enjoys simple pleasures, like a decent pair of boots to replace his worn out, old shoes, like fresh juice in the batteries that power his iPod, like clean, drinkable water. Above all, he puts his life on the line to protect the book he was entrusted with.

The last bible on the planet. Eli fights to protect it. Carnegie (Gary Oldman) wants it to gain more power.

Eli is a man of faith, a generous man, a man of great virtue. He shares his scarce food, he protects the weak, he comes back to offer assistance to those in distress.

Eli is a man of exceptional skills. He fights like a ninja on a mission. Watching him defend himself and defend others brings a delightful shiver. He is also a man of self-control and moderation; a man of intense focus. He concentrates on a single goal for over thirty years, come rain, come shine, through pain, suffering, setbacks and hardships.

Skills. Check the gallery below for more images of Denzel Washington's character pictures.

He is a man of priorities.

Compassion and Strength

Half-way through the story, out of a world of complete post-apocalyptic loneliness, he starts caring for and protecting someone else, for the first time in his life. In a way, He got her into harm’s way by refusing to let her share his path.

Eli's choices put Solara (Mila Kunis) in danger. He must make difficult choices that can affect her life.

He inspires courage, boldness and strength. Solara (Mila Kunis) learns to handle herself and come to his help, when things go bad.

He is a man of infinite courage. Injured and patched up, he holds on until the end. Thank God for that. He is carrying a very important book, the last of its kind. Incidentally, we notice that the book is never named until the last few scenes.

Eli's influence on Solara. Not so much in distress anymore.

Obstacles

They had the good idea to also create villains motivated by necessity. Carnegie (Gary Oldman) wants the book, NEEDS the book to rule what’s left of the world.

Gary Oldman beautifully plays the sinister Carnegie who will not hesitate to hurt to get his hands on the book.

Redridge (Ray Stevenson) wants Solara as a prize for his efforts. He even pleads for Eli to give up the book when Carnegie threatens her life. That’s a nice touch.

Cannibal hijackers along the road want to satisfy their hunger with human meat, the only one available in quantity in this world. Some use a woman as bait to trap mostly men.

What do you get from that kind of setup? You get a poisonous environment that chews out people like innocent Solara and her mother Claudia (Jennifer Beals), and Eli. Only Eli is trained and ready; he has been at it for decades. This environment is designed to make him shine. And shine he does so brightly. He believes he is guided and protected; he believes he has a greater purpose and a very important mission, to be carried out at the cost of his own life.

Ambushed. Make no mistake: Eli will literally be eaten should he fall.

The Twist

The movie ends with a nice twist; maybe not completely unexpected, but quite satisfactory. The 1966 classic Fahrenheit 451 by François Truffaut makes a probably better use of this king of twist; he took the idea a little further. But still, The Book of Eli delivers a entertaining experience and can be watched more than once.

The Book of Eli