"People had more than they needed. People didn't know what was precious and what wasn't. People threw away things they kill each other for now."
This movie came out in back in January, and I'd wanted to see it because...well, Denzel Washington as a post-apocalyptic samurai sounds fucking awesome. I missed it in theaters and I watched it with my girlfriend and one of my roommates last night. The reactions were mixed with me being on the more positive end of the spectrum. This movie definitely isn't great and you could definitely make a valid case for it not being good, but I think the knee-jerk hatred they had for it wasn't deserved. Just a word of warning: there's a fairly sizable twist at the end of the film that kind of needs to be addressed in a full review. I'll put it off discussing it until the end and give a warning when it's about to come up, so if you don't want it spoiled, you can just stop reading there.
PLOT: Set 30 odd years after 'the flash' (a vague, but most likely nuclear, catastrophe) turns America (and presumably the whole world) into an arid, dusty wasteland, The Book Of Eli follows the titular character as he travels west across America, transporting a mysterious book that he will not permit anyone to see or touch. He is waylaid in an apocalyptic desert town by a vicious despot named Carnegie, who rules his small oasis of civilization with an iron fist and seeks to use Eli's book, revealed to be a Bible, to further subjugate the mostly illiterate populace with the eventual goal of widening his kingdom. This sets off a struggle for control of what is purportedly one of the last Bibles in existence.
OK, I'm going to save any discussion of the religious implications of this film for the end, since they tie into the previously mentioned twist. For now, I'll stick to the film itself. This was directed by The Hughes Brothers, and is their first film since From Hell, way back in 2001. I had mediocre memories of that film and haven't seen their first two efforts, Menace II Society and Dead Presidents, which garnered higher critical acclaim than their later work, so I was going into this fairly blind as far as the direction. From a technical standpoint, this movie is really well made, and I would even go so far to say that, for an action movie, it takes serious risks with both the pacing and plot. The general look of the film is pretty much the aesthetic of The Road Warrior grafted to the visual style of The Road, which isn't particularly original, but considering how slick the movie looks overall, I think they did a great job making everyone look genuinely grubby and haggard (with the exception of Mila Kunis, who is still improbably gorgeous). The art design complements this nicely, with lots of interesting little details, from everyone wearing sunglasses or goggles due to increased UV exposure to Carnegie's base of operations, a run-down, early 20th century-style hotel.
As far as the action, the film is fairly stingy when handing out its action sequences, and when they do arrive, they're over fairly quickly and with little fanfare. The opening fight is done in silhouette, similar to the shadow segment of the House of Leaves fight in Kill Bill. A later fight scene similarly involves Eli being rushed by a bunch of dudes as he dispatches them with brutal efficiency. More than anything else, it's reminiscent of Sergio Leone's westerns and Akira Kurosawa's samurai films. The action doesn't come often, but when it does, it hits hard and fast. Otherwise, the film is surprisingly...not talky (which would be inappropriate for something riffing so hard on westerns), but measured and deliberate. The opening 7 minutes or so (in another parallel to The Road Warrior) are wordless, following Eli silently through the wasteland as he goes about the basic routines of survival. The film, like Eli himself, is in no rush.
The characters, like the script, are pretty thin, just bare bones on which to hang something more interesting. Denzel and Gary Oldman are always reliable, even when they're in crap and while their scenes together aren't as explosive as they could be, I was appreciative of their collective restraint. Denzel's part definitely called for it, but Oldman could have easily made Carnegie an unhinged maniac, as he so often does in these villain roles. I was surprised and happy to see Tom Waits pop up as the town mechanic and Ray Stevenson (who played Titus Pullo, one of my favorite TV characters ever, on HBO's Rome) as Carnegie's right hand man. Knowing the incredible range Stevenson has, it's a bit disappointing seeing him play a generic heavy, but in the end, I suppose I'm glad he's getting work. Mila Kunis, who I've come to appreciate (for reasons other than the obvious) since Forgetting Sarah Marshall, still has yet to show me that she can convincingly play drama. I really, really wanted to like her in this, but she seemed to alternate exclusively between stubborn grimacing and hand-over-mouth-wide-eyed fear/shock.
Alright, I'm going to talk about the ending after the jump. There will be a second jump which will take you to the end of the review, which will also be spoiler-free. Ready? Jump!
OK, so the dual twist at the end of this film is that a) Eli's Bible is written in braille and b) Eli (like many people in this world thanks to the increased UV) is blind and has been for the entire course of the film. Eli is fatally wounded at the beginning of the third act and, in a nice subversion, has no final showdown with Carnegie (although Carnegie's 'victory' is pyrrhic, leaving him with a septic leg wound and a Bible he can't read) but is instead taken by Kunis' character to a sanctuary on Alcatraz (his mysterious westward destination) where a he recits the Bible from memory to be transcribed by a group of educated people with a printing press who are attempting to rejuvinate the world by spreading literacy and knowledge once more.
I balked at this movie from the get-go due to my intense dislike of religion and I was irked by my initial assumption that the film was saying that the Bible was the one book that could save humanity. This was also compounded by the final reveal of Eli being blind, which seemed to imply that God existed within the context of the film and had been protecting Eli in various ways in order to get him to his destination (his Hawkeye-like marksmanship and his patching up a gunshot wound to the stomach with duct tape being the two biggest examples), making for a ridiculously literal deus ex machina.
Of course, not every movie can conform to my beliefs and opinions and, although I though the movie could have been a bit more subtle about it, it didn't turn me against the film the way it did for my girlfriend and roommate. Two things softened this aspect of the movie in my eyes. First was the film's diplomacy about the fact that religion is a tool which can be used for good (Eli's quest to spread literacy and knowledge) or evil (Carnegie's desire to oppress and control people). Second was the implication that the people on Alcatraz were not particularly religious, but just attempting to rebuild the canon of human knowledge, of which the Bible is a necessary component (this is somewhat indicated by the curator placing the first printed copy of the Bible between copies of the Torah and the Quran). I usually make a point of not cutting religion any slack, but the movie was fair enough about it (and contained enough post-apocalyptic samurai badassery) for me to not be too bothered by it. I just wish they'd been a bit more vague with the whole divine intervention thing.
Alright, jump down to the conclusion. Geronimo! Sacagawea!
Welcome back. So yeah. Despite my philosophical qualms regarding the message of this film, I feel I can recommend this to anyone who enjoys westerns or post-apocalyptic settings. As long as you don't have any strong anti-Christian leanings.
UP NEXT: Nothing for the moment. I'm using my Netflix to catch up on Dexter before the new season starts. I'll see what I can find on Instant Watch.
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