Book of Eli, The (DVD)

Movie / Show Details

Amazon.com

With unflappable cool and surprising gentleness, Denzel Washington strides a bleak and barren world in The Book of Eli. Eli is headed west, but on the way, he passes devastation and squalor, and occasionally he must mete out some devastation of his own with a sharp blade. But when he arrives in what passes for a town in this dust-and-ash future, the power-hungry owner of the town’s bar, Carnegie (Gary Oldman, looking a million years old), covets his one important possession. (Spoiler alert, sort of: it becomes apparent pretty quickly that it’s a King James Bible.) Conflict ensues! Though the plot is simple and the “mystery” of the book doesn’t last long, The Book of Eli is carried along effortlessly by its star. Washington has always had a compelling mixture of authority and tenderness, and it’s this latter quality that makes this contribution to the testosterone-and-violence-drenched post-apocalyptic subgenre unexpectedly human. The script, while not particularly original, has effective dialogue and is smart enough not to explain too much. The supporting actors–including Mila Kunis (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), Jennifer Beals (who hasn’t aged a day since Flashdance), and Ray Stevenson (Rome)–are all capable and easy on the eyes. The movie’s bleached-out, sepia-tone look isn’t new either, but it suits the subject matter. Anyone who wants to be offended by the movie’s spiritual conclusion would be wiser to enjoy the subversive insinuation that religion can enslave as much as save. All in all, a competent action movie with some enjoyably atypical elements. –Bret Fetzer

Product Description

Book of Eli, The (DVD)
Some 30 years after the final war, a solitary man walks across the wasteland that was once America. A warrior not by choice but necessity, Eli (Denzel Washington) seeks only peace but, if challenged, will cut his attackers down before they realize their fatal mistake. It’s not his life he guards so fiercely but his hope for the future; a hope he has carried and protected for 30 years and is determined to realize. Driven by this commitment and guided by his belief in something greater than himself, Eli does what he must to survive–and continue. Only one other man in this ruined world understands the power Eli holds, and is determined to make it his own: Carnegie (Gary Oldman), the self-appointed despot of a makeshift town of thieves and gunmen. Meanwhile, Carnegie’s adopted daughter Solara (Mila Kunis) is fascinated by Eli for another reason: the glimpse he offers of what may exist beyond her stepfather’s domain. ]]>