The Book of Eli (R) (2010)

The year is 2043 and it looks like “It” has happened again. An unnamed, cataclysmic event has transformed the world as we presently know it into a drab trash heap, sparsely populated by grimy villains and a lone traveler, named Eli (Denzel Washington), who is steadily heading west.  Fortunately, Eli is highly skilled in battle techniques and weaponry, for this new world is a dangerous place to tread. Cannibals, gangsters and evil megalomaniacs thrive in the lawless rubble of this rugged, apocalyptic environment.  Yet Eli plods on, never picking a fight, but always finishing them.

Within Eli’s backpack are many treasures for bartering along the way in return for food and water. One such possession is not for sale at any price, a King James Version of The Holy Bible, which he reads daily and from which he summons the strength for his long journey to the western ocean. Obtaining Eli’s book is the obsession of a ruthless despot named Carnegie (Gary Oldman) who rules a rugged, desert town that Eli passes through on his journey. It is there that Eli meets the young Solera (Mila Kunis) who joins him for the last leg of his journey.

The Hughes brothers, Albert and Allen, took on the task of directing The Book of Eli knowing that they had a spiritual filmscript (by Gary Whitta) to work with that could be a rather heavy topic for an action film. As it turns out, the quality cast and brutal fight scenes manage to keep it from becoming too preachy, but can’t help it from becoming a classic Western movie clone.  3