Discuss The Book of Eli
Discuss → Movies → The Book of Eli → General
"Pray for me-- I . . . I mean it."
posted by northcoastSTAFFMOD on February 25, 2017 at 6:45 AM
Well, do you think Carnegie meant it?
I asked this question some years ago on IMDB, and got some interesting responses.
I've gone back and forth on this one. At first, I thought Carnegie was serious. Evil though he was, I thought Carnegie still believed in God, and knew that what he was going to do with the Bible was wrong; and so Carnegie was asking Eli to pray for his soul.
Then for a brief while I thought Carnegie was just mocking Eli when he asked him to pray for him.
But now I am back to leaning toward Carnegie was genuinely asking Eli to pray for him.
Also there is the possibility that Carnegie, in his twisted mind, may have been asking Eli to pray for the success of his evil intentions.
What do you think?
Reply by write2topcat
on July 2, 2019 at 9:12 PM
I think he really wanted Eli to pray for him. He was not a good man, and I don't believe he really wanted to be good. Maybe somewhere deep down inside there was some small spark of a longing for a godly connection, that's possible. But I think his motivation for asking for Eli's prayers had more to do with his estimation of Eli, and with his selfish desire to succeed in enriching himself and promoting himself. He knew Eli was a godly man, that he had God's blessing, God's hand of protection on his life. He wanted the power he saw resting on Eli, but not for a good purpose.
It mirrors his interest in the Bible. He knew that preaching from the good book could inspire men to band together and follow him. He knew that in the past there had been preachers who commanded the respect of thousands (millions in some cases) of churchgoers. Even the charlatans, the fake preachers who had no real belief or spiritual life, were able to command the respect of many people. He wanted this for himself. He wanted that power.
I think that is what motivated his prayer request. I don't think he was mocking Eli.
I agree with you that he was genuinely asking Eli to pray for him. I think his motivation was not pure, not what we usually think of when we think of a prayer request.
Reply by northcoast
on July 4, 2019 at 6:23 PM
write2topcat--
Thank you for the thoughtful response. So I suppose you are thinking along the lines of the second-to-the-last sentence of my post: that Carnegie was asking Eli to somehow pray to God for the success of Carnegie's (evil) purpose. For me, I go back and forth between Carnegie was merely mocking Eli, or he was genuinely asking Eli to pray for the conversion of his (Carnegie's) twisted soul. It will be interesting to see how others come down on this. Thanks again for your reply, topcat!
Reply by write2topcat
on July 4, 2019 at 7:06 PM
Yeah, watching that scene again I can see how you would go back and forth on the issue. Carnegie had just finished mocking him and telling his crew, see, he is just a man. Then he turns to Eli and asks for prayer, and says he means it. It seems like he could be mocking him, but the way Gary Oldman delivered that line, his expression and his tone, seems to me like he was serious about wanting prayer. His demeanor changed from when he was speaking to his guys and when he was speaking to Eli. For all his frustration with Eli, he liked him and respected him. I would like to hear what others think as well.