The Book of Eli

The Book of Eli (from Weird and Wonderful II: Fifty More Cult Films by George Hughes, available from www.freefall-productions.com)

2010 / US / 118 minutes

“It’s not a fucking book! It’s a weapon! A weapon aimed right at the hearts and minds of the desperate!”

Directors: Albert Hughes & Allen Hughes / Screenplay: Gary Whitta / Director of Photography: Don Burgess / Music: Atticus Ross, Leopold Ross and Claudia Sarne / Production: Broderick Johnson, Andrew A. Kosove, Denzel Washington, David Valdes and Joel Silver for Silver Pictures / Cast: Denzel Washington (Eli), Gary Oldman (Carnegie), Mila Kunis (Solara), Ray Stevenson (Redridge), Jennifer Beals (Claudia), Evan Jones (Martz), John Pingue (Hoyt), Frances de la Tour (Martha), Michael Gambon (George), Tom Waits (The Engineer), Malcolm McDowell (Lombardi).

Opening like a standard post- apocalyptic Sci- Fi / Actioner with a lone scavenger proving he can more than handle himself against more aggressive survivors who cross him, Albert and Allen Hughes’s The Book of Eli eventually reveals that there’s much more going on as it’s narrative unfolds. Entering a ramshackle township ruled over by the power- hungry Carnegie (Gary Oldman, effectively playing a more serious version of Tina Turner’s character in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome), Denzel Washington’s mysterious wanderer Eli just wants to rest and be left alone.

   But Eli’s impressive combat skills, unusual intelligence and- above all- his even rarer literacy soon get him noticed by Carnegie and his followers, who immediately offer him work. Eli, however, remains adamant that he must continue west, despite everyone telling him there’s no longer anything out there. Carnegie tries sending Solara (Mila Kunis), a young girl he “Owns” to Eli to persuade him to stay but still Eli’s not interested- although he does give away to her that he has a certain book in his possession, a King James Bible.

   Like Eli, Carnegie is literate as he’s also old enough to remember the world before the conflict that destroyed it and he’s been seeking a Bible as a means to better control his followers and gain more power. But, as his henchman Redridge (Rome’s Ray Stevenson) points out, sending men who can’t read to find one specific book’s never going to work, especially as religious texts were widely deliberately destroyed after the war for most likely causing it.

   Upon learning of Eli’s Bible, Carnegie sends Redridge and his men to stop him from leaving and take the book from him but Eli escapes into the wastelands with Solara. It’s eventually revealed that Eli’s destination is San Francisco, where Lombardi (Malcolm McDowell) is curating a museum and library of the “Old World” on Alcatraz Island. But first he and Solara have to make it past the wilderness’s highwaymen and cannibals whilst also staying ahead of Carnegie’s men sent to pursue them…

   Like most SF films belonging to the "After the End" subgenre (my own Remnants (2007) included), The Book of Eli is purposefully vague about it’s exact setting (although the engineer played by Tom Waits mentions that he’s old enough to remember the 1990’s). The circumstances of the war are also left unclear so we never find out if religion really was entirely to blame.

   But the film- although clearly made by believers given the undeniable supernatural elements revealed to be in play by the end- is more interested in how holy books can be used for both good and bad, depending on who’s in charge of delivering the message. Having said that, it’s world and the way it works is more explored than most- little details of how people have survived and rebuilt are discussed and revealed along Eli’s journey.

   Again like Beyond Thunderdome’s “Bartertown”, the community Carnegie’s built, for all it’s brutality, is at least an attempt to return to something resembling society compared to the lawless wilderness surrounding it. And like Turner’s Auntie Entity, Carnegie was most likely “Nobody until the Day After”, surviving the end of the world providing him with chances he’d never have had otherwise.

   Then, of course, there’s the stunning final twist- one that makes The Book of Eli a film impossible to only watch once as a second viewing will reveal that the clues were there all along. It’s a brilliantly written and realised bit of cinematic sleight of hand that plays with the visual nature of the medium itself as well as massively adding to the story’s themes.