Climbing Higher Pictures

Religion, explosives, and Gary Oldman. What could go wrong? Sure we’ve had our fill of post-apocalyptic movies lately, and sure The Road made us all consider suicide. But can we deal with a lighter, more entertaining popcorn spin on the beige landscapes of our dark future? Is Denzel enough to restore our faith in humanity? Find out after the jump:

The Book of Eli Review

By Ryan Hamelin

Movie Grade: A-

To start with, I don’t consider myself to be a very religious person. I’ve always valued The Bible more for the societal and cultural lessons it teaches, and at its most interesting, a collection of compelling short stories. The power of religion over the centuries has a lot more to do with the way human beings, individuals, twist the words to suit their ends, and the institutions that we refer to as “religion” now have very little to due with the inherent energy of their source materials. It should be no secret at this point that the titular book in question is, in fact, a Bible, and the way the book is treated by our lead character, as well as the reactions it inspires in others, is the central core of this film. If that seems like heady stuff for a post-apocalyptic action flick, don’t be alarmed. It’s what we like to call going above the common denominator. If you think you can handle it, you’ll find that it makes for a much more satisfying movie-going experience than plenty of the idiotic popcorn fare entering the marketplace in the coming months.

The Hughes Brothers haven’t made a film in a long time. A lot of that has to do with the studio system butchering their last film, From Hell starring Johnny Depp. They took time off to develop their next project, and if this is what they can do when they don’t have to deal with overwhelming studio interference, it certainly shows. Denzel Washington has played many parts over the years. He’s even created the kind of wise-ass speed talking persona that has lead to an Oscar as well as type casting. Here he plays a man of few words, and embodies an entirely different character than any of his previous films. He’s the ultimate badass, a post-apocalyptic samurai in a lot of ways. His conviction shines through in every scene and if nothing else, you believe in him.

It also helps that after he was cast and the production began the search for an antagonist, Washington requested only one man for the part. That man was none other than Gary Oldman, who is, naturally, phenomenal. He rules his little town well enough, but in his efforts to expand, he needs words to inspire the townsfolk in ways that he could never provide. His needs for the Book fall at odds to Eli’s, bringing the central conflict into sharp relief. At that point, I challenge anyone to guess what’ll happen next.

The cliché and convention of the story should be visually apparent to a potential viewer from a TV commercial. The black, white, and brown color palette was already old when it was featured in the Mad Max films, and it doesn’t help Eli’s case that The Road was released only a handful of weeks ago. Interviews with the cast and crew evoke plenty of “you’ve never seen before” phrases, but in reality, we’ve been completely oversaturated by a barrage of end of the world scenarios lately. Where The Book of Eli gets it right is that it uses the visual style as a source of familiarity for the audience, but doesn’t stress the same emotional turmoil and depression of those other films. Yes it’s post-apocalyptic. Yes the whole planet looks like a scrap yard. But that isn’t the point of the film. The pain of surviving has long since become a way of life (the disaster occurred some thirty years prior, leaving only people like Washington and Oldman as relics who remember the world as it once was) and the barter system is as stable a currency as paper money is in our day.

Impressively written monologues about wealth and faith dot the timeline of the film, and all of them work both as character studies and a motivational call-to-arms for a generally passive audience. When they’re wrapped up in such an entertaining, enjoyable package, the lessons hidden in the words may just find their mark, and who knows? Maybe between the people that see The Road and The Book of Eli, we might just stave off this kind of global crisis. Unfortunately, judging from Haiti, we have yet to take such lessons to heart. Go see Eli. If nothing else, you’ll appreciate the ambition involved, and maybe, just maybe, it’ll make you think about the forces that run our world.