‘ For the last 40 or so years, Hollywood has provided us with many films dealing with humanity’s aftermath post-cataclysmic event. In the last three months alone there have been three released, from the disaster movie ‘2012’ (a disaster) to ‘The Road’ (dour but nonetheless worthwhile) and finally to this month’s release ‘The Book of Eli.’
What makes this latest entry so intriguing is not only the admirable acting or well-executed objectives of the writer/directors, but rather the fact that this is the first apocalyptic studio film that places mankind’s salvation in the Judeo-Christian Bible. The story takes place 30 years after an undescribed event killed most of the human race. Eli (Denzel Washington), a ‘walker,’ journeys west across the former United States.
He carries with him a copy of the King James Bible and as he encounters others on his way, he generally has to deal with them in violent ways.It is only when he enters a town run by Carnegie (Gary Oldman) that he may have found a true obstacle to deter him from reaching his goal: an adversary who knows the power of the book.
Desolately directed by The Hughes Brothers (‘From Hell,’ ‘Menace II Society’), the film exudes a bleak atmosphere. You firmly believe in the reality of this landscape and the characters that inhabit it. Washington again proves to be one of the finest actors working today, along with the sassy Mila Kunis (as Eli’s newfound prot’eacute;g’eacute; Solara), whose star power rises by the moment.
Oldman’s Carnegie, as the most conflicted of characters, maintains his town’s order via violence, yet has the lofty goal of returning true order to the world through the power he knows the Bible holds. In that way, both men, Eli and Carnegie, ultimately have the same goal but different means of achieving it. To say more would give too much away and this is truly an action-packed, thought-provoking film you deserve to explore.
For those of us attending a Jesuit university, a movie such as ‘The Book of Eli’ poses many questions about the ‘right’ way to be a religious warrior. Ari Silber is a Loyola MBA student. Before graduate school, he worked for nine years in the Los Angeles film industry, focusing on marketing, publicity and distribution. He can reached at [email protected].
