re: The Book of Eli *spoiler alert*

There are several scholars, even college students, who can recite the King James Bible in its entirety.

And there's no chance he was blind.

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It was obvious that he was blind

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No, obvious that the bible he happened to find was in braille, and therefore he had to learn braille to read it.

they had a guy on the History Channel's show with Stan Lee about "superhumans" that had a blind guy that did the same thing. He rode a tricycle basically through parking garage obsticle course without hitting anything. The even had a bottleneck with two cars parked longways about 3-4 apart that he maded it through with touching either one. Pretty impressive

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I thought they made it pretty obvious that he was blind.

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It was kind of like "The Sixth Sense." When I was watching it the first time I didn't realize the kid was seeing dead people. Just like when I watched this the first time I didn't realize Eli was blind.

When I went back and watched it a second time it is obvious that he is blind. That is one of the reasons why he is so protective of the book because he doesn't want anyone to know he is blind. Also, that is the reason why he wears his sunglasses so much.

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How many threads can this shitty movie get?

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I love this movie. Something about this genre that I really like. One of my favorite films from last year.

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It was kind of like "The Sixth Sense." When I was watching it the first time I didn't realize the kid was seeing dead people. Just like when I watched this the first time I didn't realize Eli was blind.

When I went back and watched it a second time it is obvious that he is blind. That is one of the reasons why he is so protective of the book because he doesn't want anyone to know he is blind. Also, that is the reason why he wears his sunglasses so much.

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The film is tailored to make both interpretations seem plausible. I went into the movie having heard from several people that he is blind, and even after careful scrutiny throughout its duration, I was still convinced otherwise at the end.

It makes complete sense if you assume that the bible he found (the only one left, as far as he believes) was in braille, and therefore he needed to learn the braille in order to fulfill his duty. He wasn't given the choice of a bible in plain text, and had to settle on the only one he found. This could also serve as a test of faith, as he proves that he is willing to put forth the effort to learn braille in order to carry out God's will. On the other hand, Carnegie is unwilling to learn to read the bible because of his impatience and shallow hunger for power. You could interpret this as God giving blind Eli a braille bible to protect it from those who would corrupt its message, but again, braille is not impossible to self-teach. Seems like God is putting faith in Eli, rather than ensuring that Eli will succeed.

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one of the reasons why he is so protective of the book because he doesn't want anyone to know he is blind.

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He could just as easily be protective of the book because he is unconfident that he has perfectly memorized it. It would be quite daunting to see himself reaching Alcatraz only to have forgotten a passage or exact wording. For a man as faithful as him, exact wording would be paramount. When he gives up the book to Carnegie, he has finally put his complete faith in God that he will be able to relay the message perfectly when he reaches his destination.

I simply think this is a better film if he is not blind. Our only positive piece of evidence pointing to his impairment is that the bible is in braille, and all other inferences and logical connections derive from assuming the ability to read braille makes him blind. I actually think it's a smarter movie is he isn't blind, and I'm kind of disappointed if the writers actually intended otherwise and God is basically holding his hand through this entire journey.

I question God's motivation (as a character in the story). Why would God push Eli along to his destination rather than letting Eli prove that humanity deserves to have faith again? These people turned away from God and destroyed his message. You're telling me that, despite all of the ways in which these people have collectively told God to frick off, he still wants to guarantee that the bible will pass back into common knowledge? It just makes more sense to me that he would view Eli's journey as a trial for humanity, to judge whether it is still capable of faith in God. If not, then there's something contradictory about the way God "historically" operates.

you clearly do not get it... even worse that you write all that garbage to back up a wrong theory. You are blind too

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Muppet

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you're thinking too much. The plot is easy to get, hard to believe. He is blind. Period. You are completely over-analyzing it, which I'm sure is a hazard when you deal with philosophical discussions on a frequent basis.

like others have posted, there are a significant amount of people that have memorized the bible. It is really the least far fetched thing about this movie.

I'm not really trying to evaluate this as a piece of high art, just giving the writer the benefit of the doubt. If God is acting as a personal guardian in this movie, I think Whitta has misinterpreted the bible.

i know people that can quote the bible with almost 100% accuracy.

if you rewatch it then you will notice that his actions are very subtle, but he does tip off the viewer that he is blind.