Instead of a light, dynamic, full of irony and natural acting “smart” comedy, we get a cheesy, predictable, and oversimplified “Hollywood” style flick. All the characters are so primitive, and overemphasized, that it’s boring like hell. Snobism of one of the characters, lack of understanding between a main character and his bride , eccentricity of “great artists”, naive character of a main character, etc, etc, etc – all of it – is so exaggerated and so dull, that I could not believe, that it’s for real. I thought that maybe in the end there will be some twist, or some justification of such bad acting and such terrible script. But no, everything was for real, and a movie ended with the most predictable and boring end..

I would never believe, it’s a Woody Allen film. The only good thing about the movie is music, but that’s definitely not enough…

Have a lovely time!
Alexa

I assume the unloaded guns were from a scarcity of ammo. Not sure there’s much else to it but you’re making me curious. I may need to see it again.

I think after the initial nuclear blast and fallout the danger of blindness may have dissipated over time. Most of the people who were made blind by the initial explosion probably died because survival would be harder for them.

You add some good observations about Carnegie. He does epitomize power. He tries to institutionalize his reign and normalize his ambition, sort of like industrial robber barons of the 19th century.

For some reason Lombardi made me think of medieval monks and ancient scribes who copied the Bible by hand in order to preserve it, and Alcatraz reminded me of the island of Iona off Scotland where one of these monasteries produced some of the most famous illuminated manuscripts.

Your point about the irony of Alcatraz as a setting for collecting knowledge is important. There is a lot of juxtaposition in the story and it’s definitely deliberate. Eli’s blindness is the most important. He sees more than anyone in the story. I do think that he is (or believes he is) supernaturally guided. Perhaps being unable to see himself makes him more open to this guidance.

Also, I have a few opinions on other things that you may or may not find interesting, as far at the sanctuary on alcatraz is concerned. I find it ironic that the place they choose to safeguard all the knowledge (knowledge sets you free) was a prison. Also the three legged dog, three is a very important number in the bible, there were three crosses set up during the crucifixion of jesus christ, he rose after being dead for three days. There are countless other references to the number three. Also the name Carnegie. Carnegie is the only educated man in the town and uses that to rule the town, could be a reference to institutionalized education i.e. Carnegie Mellon University. Also could be a reference to the man Andrew Carnegie himself, who controlled industry because he controlled the steel which was of the utmost importance to industry. Just like Carnegie controls the town because he controls the water supply which is obviously of the utmost importance for survival. Also Eli being blind, ironic because he is the only one who can see the “real” message of the bible, “do more for others than you do for yourself” as he says.

I’d love to get your opinions on all these things. Maybe I’m reading way too far into the movie but in the classes I have taken studying film I learned of something called a Mise-en-scene, basically that every single thing put into a movie is there for a reason and is there because the director put it there on purpose, down to something as small as a lamp on a desk. Who knows maybe I’m an idiot though but I would love to get your opinions I really liked your insight into everything else that you have written about so far on this topic

http://www.rudyinternational.com/

The Shenandoah prayer was great too…

It could also be that even though the three-legged dog is larger and by rights should be the alpha dog it follows the small dog. Maybe it relies on the small dog for food or defense because it hasn’t learned to suvive with just three legs. Like the three-legged dog, the whole wounded town follows Carnegie because they’ve failed to adapt to the challenges they now face and it’s easier to just let Carnegie rule even though he’s a small-minded little dog. Eli adapts to his situation rather than letting another determine who he will become.

Your pick up on the names was spot on and I thought how clever of Gary Whitta to come up with these names to pair in a post-apocalyptic movie revolving around The Bible.

Another Parallelism would obviously be the way the word is presented to the mass media today… some people use the word faith, and faith in God to control them… while others use it to bring peace and understanding, and fulfillment…. and others will only seek to preserve it for knowledge…

Anyway, a great movie, 2 thumbs up!

I dig.