The Book of Eli: Same Post-Apocalypse, Different Faces.

First things first: The Book of Eli is about religion. More specifically, The Book of Eli is about Christian religion. So those unnamed people Roger Ebert says are “attacking” it as “fundamentalist propaganda” kind of have a point. Like Ebert, I won’t tell you what the film’s titular book is: but Eli (Denzel Washington) starts quoting from it about five minutes into the film, so if I did drop its name, it wouldn’t exactly be a spoiler. Suffice it to say: Eli didn’t write it.

I liked this movie. But not because it was particularly wonderful or anything. As films about post-apocalyptic despair and survival go, it’s pretty rote:

  • Perpetually overcast sky: check.
  • Lone wanderer who holds the fate of the world’s regeneration in his hands, maybe: check.
  • Unlikely “buddy pairing”: check.
  • Inexplicably ruthless opponent to world regeneration: check.
  • Greasy-haired, dingy-toothed, hygiene-deficient biker types who’ve resorted to rape and cannibalism to survive these increasingly dark times: check.
  • Admonishing statements about “the world before” (in this film, Eli grouses, “We had more than we needed. We threw away things people would kill for now.”): check.
  • Really bad CGI and a landscape that is obviously being shot, in part, on a not-so-large soundstage: double-check.

We’ve seen it all before. We’ve just never seen it directed by the Hughes brothers and starring Denzel Washington. And Mila Kunis. And Jennifer Beals (who just doesn’t work enough anymore. For shame!). This is a very cool primary cast. The film’s worth seeing for the one scene Washington and Beals share, which reunites them for the first time since 1995’s Devil in a Blue Dress. This scene’ll seem pretty innocuous at first, but it’ll wind up being significant to you in the end. Kunis is also particularly strong in all her scenes with Washington. I love her anyway, and the alliance her character, Solara, and Eli form is pleasant to watch, if predictably unfolded.

Just don’t expect anything transcendent here. Don’t go in looking for Children of Men. Expect a lot of shots of Denzel doing his trademark walk while looking dusty and pensive. Expect Gary Oldman to camp it up as the villain. Expect to raise an eyebrow at the implausible reveal at the end. Do not—I repeat: do. not.—ask any questions. And just enjoy yourself.

After all, movies about the end of the world don’t always have to be self-important and doggedly committed to realism. Sometimes,  you just go to laugh.

slb

slb (aka Stacia L. Brown) is a writer, mother, and college instructor in Baltimore, MD. Check her out here: http://stacialbrown.com and here: http://beyondbabymamas.com.

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  • word. i totally felt the same way about the film too. but it plays to my weaknesses… cross-processed, high contrasty images. i love that. makes me miss shooting film. and not a deep story at all, but has some resonance that goes beyond christianity… eli as a character kinda skews more jewish. i won’t say more than that now, which sucks because saying how is a total spoiler.

    • slb

      I can definitely see that (re: Eli skewing Jewish). Carnegie, on the other hand, read as fundamentalist, oddly.

  • Val

    I agree with you about Jennifer Beals. I wish she worked more in film. In the last few years I’ve seen quite a few of her older films and have come to the conclusion that she is underrated.

    I’ll be seeing this film just to see her.

    • slb

      She really is. I’ve often wondered what happened with her. Typecasting? Or did she choose to scale back on roles?

      • Val

        I think you might be right about typecasting.

  • Sonji

    I enjoyed the movie if only for the awareness I think it brings to the Oral tradition from which the “book” was penned. At first, the viewer may find themselves asking “how authentic and true can the book be” when it is delivered in such a fashion (from recollection)…but isn’t that the case. some scribe collected the information from written documents (on parchement paper.not the sturdiest of materials) and oral tradition. Did the scribe and/or narrator execise creative license in collecting the data or telling the story.

    The directors may have used the same ole post apocalytic mechanism to deliver the message..but I think the play on wanting the “book” for good vs control, and the final delivery…was a great way to provoke thought.

    I mean, didn’t all the biblical prophets used the same foundation to deliver the same message to a different audience?

    I saw the movie for six bucks ..and I ain’t mad.

  • Nomad

    On the surface, The Book of Eli appears to be about Christianity. But that (and the Bible) are metaphors for faith, hope, and a belief in a future. Ray Stevenson comments on that, and more, here:

    http://video.about.com/movies/Ray-Stevenson-Book-of-Eli.htm

  • Alex

    For Val and slb:
    Jennifer Beals has been working for years, apparently you guys don’t get Showtime. She was the lead on the popular series The L Word and play Bette Porter for the past 6 years. She was so good (really, really good) and so convincing in that role the French Television viewers voted her sexiest women on television 2009 and get this “Lesbian Icon of the Decade”. Oh, forgot to mention the character Bette Porter was a lesbian as were all the other women in this show. The entire cast of this show was brilliant but sometimes the writing lacked.

    You should pick up the series on DVD and watch it in order. I bet you will be hooked after S1/Ep1.

    • slb

      I knew she’d been starring in The L Word. I considered that a “career renaissance.” Before that, between the ’80s and the aughts, she didn’t work much. That’s the time period to which I was referring in the comments. In the blog entry, I was talking about her film career.

      I didn’t know abt the whole French viewer vote, though. Very cool. I’m really glad The L Word has brought her such acclaim!

    • Val

      Please note in my comment, Alex, I said I wished that she worked more in ‘film’. And yeah I don’t have Showtime but I have The L Word on dvd. And Jennifer was the only reason I watched.

  • I loved the movie, took the entire family to see it. But we were there specifically to watch Denzel’s newly found martial arts skills that he learned from Dan Innosanto. Aside from watching him crush people, we didn’t read much more into it. Guro Dan as we affectionately call him in my home is one of the world’s great men and martial arts teachers. He and two others (Arjarn Chai Sirisute and Francis Fong) have dramatically affected the quality of my children’s life in a profound and positive way. If you live in S. Cali check out The Legends Academy. If you have young children, consider getting them a martial arts education, it not only makes them better able to protect themselves, it absolutely makes them better students, children and little citizens of the world.

  • ^^^
    Props on the martial arts (for kids) recommendation…

  • Alex

    slb,
    Jennifer Beals has done over 45 movies since the 80’s (after Flashdance) not to mention several TV guest spots and two TV series. Granted most of her films have been really awful but she is quite good in her parts. She even commented that she took some of the work just to pay her mortgage. She has done some rather good films that were never in wide release or made for TV.

    Check out her filmography at IMDb. She really has been steadily employed since finishing Yale.

    • Val

      Yeah she worked a lot in the 90’s in small films. But I think that considering her talent one has to wonder why she hasn’t been offered larger roles in bigger films.

  • Alex

    It may have something to do with the fact that Beals has not spent much time in Hollywood and therefore not part of the Hollywood scene. Out of site/out of mind in my answer to your question. Granted she has a house in LA (but really doesn’t live there). In the late 80’s and early 90’s she and Rockwell lived primarily in New York and sometimes Europe. Then she moved to Vancouver where she remarried and stayed.

    If you look where most of her films were shot, it was Canada.