Unrelentingly Bleak And Brutally Biased

Rating: 3/10 (18 April 2008)

I'm glad to see there are many other people here who were very disappointed with this film, although for other reasons than I was.
I am sick and tired of the film industry's bashing of Christians and this is just the latest in the hate-spewing of celluloid secularists. Can you imagine depicting anyone else like this and getting away with it? Of course not, but anyone wearing a cross and quoting Scripture is "fair game" for all kinds of abusive characterizations.The tipoff, by the way, always is a closeup of the "bad guy" (Christian) wearing a cross. That is the case in this movie a number of times when they really want you to hate "Eli."
The last scene in this movie, in particular, is absolutely, so over-the-top that even non-believers gagged at how overdone it was with both main characters being almost cartoonish. That this ludicrous exaggeration took place is no surprise when you look at who directed the film. Mr. Anderson done this before in his other movies.
"Eli Sunday," a Pentecostal preacher, spouts so many un-Biblical statements it would make your head spin. There are false prophets everywhere, no doubt, but who sounds and acts like this guy? Clueless filmmakers like Anderson don't know, that's obvious. For example, Sunday yells, "God doesn't save stupid people." Nobody - even a fake preacher - would say that. Come on. Does Hollywood ever portray a normal minister or priest? To emphasize, their agenda, Anderson made Sunday into such a whiny wuss that nobody would like him, regardless of his beliefs.
Daniel Day-Lewis, meanwhile, fares a lot better, of course, as filmdom's favorite: an anti- hero. However, his fine performance goes down the tubes, too, in that long finale. The whole last 20 minutes is overwrought and ruins whatever value this story did have to that point, which wasn't much to start with because the other main agenda is to bash capitalism by featuring greedy oilmen.
Actually, the reason I watched this was that it won the Academy Award for cinematography. Since photography is what I like best about films, I was anxious to see it. Well, you can add this to the growing list of Oscar-winning duds. It's okay, but nothing spectacular. Cinematographer Roger Deakins had two films up for the Oscar and both were far, far better filmed than this winning one. The only reason I give it a couple of stars is that Lewis is so interesting as an actor, and is here, too.
If you like bleak stories about a scumbag guy who cares only about making money drilling for oils - even at the expense of his young boy who suffers abuse from him, and another preacher given the typical Hollywood treatment, and you're big into depressing soap-opera- like stories, you may like this 160-minute disaster. For the rest of you who have better taste, prefer a little more optimism and objectivity in life, skip this bummer.