The Book of Eli

Plot
Eli, also known as the Walker, is traveling west looking for a resting place for his book. The Catch? It's a post-apocalyptic America where gangs are roaming the streets looking for a special book. In other words, Mad Max with a library card.


Central Conflict
Good versus Evil, Baby. The setup for this conflict is straight out of an old western. Eli, as the lone wolf, stumbles into a small isolated town that is run by the archetype oppressive robber baron of the old westerns played by Gary Oldman. Ironically named Carnegie, Gary Oldman, wants this book that Eli is traveling with and he wants it bad. He's willing to sacrifice everything to capture this book because he believes it will be the cornerstone for controlling the new world forming in this post-apocalypse. What comes out of this desire to possess the book is the classic confrontation of Good versus Evil. Eli believes that the book has a benevolent future of helping mankind heal while Carnegie believes it's a weapon he can use to control the masses. The conflict over the book and it's power introduces this social commentary on religion but it quickly gets lost amongst the hand to hand combat sequences. And what we're left with is an action movie with a mixed message do unto your brother before they do it to you? But never fear, the conflict does sort of get resolved. Good sort of triumphs over evil in this case but who really wins in post-apocalyptic America?

Influences and flaws
As I mentioned previously, the setup of this movie borrows heavily from the western archetype. And it has obvious influences from the dozen or so apocalyptic movies that have come before it such as Mad Max. But one other obvious influence is the series of samurai movies made about the character Zatoichi. If you are unfamiliar with Zatoichi, he is a seemingly harmless blind man that wanders the country side in Feudal Japan with his trusty cane. When he encounters a conflict, a samurai sword emerges from his cane and he would take care of business Daredevil style. There was an American version of this film made called Blind Fury with Rutger Hauer.


Are you not entertained?
The movie has great action sequences but not much else. When you have Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman on the marquee, expectations run high but unfortunately those expectations aren't completely realized since they're really not give much to work with. The story seemed way to contrived and cliche. The twist at the end was interesting but not authentic enough to elevate this movie. They tried to go "Six Sense" with a twist at the end but by then I didn't care.

Odds and Ends
Frances de la Tour and Michael Gambon, who star as an old couple in Eli, starred together in the Harry Potter movies. Malcolm McDowell, Jennifer Beals and Tom Waits also star in the movie.


If you're interested in this movie, you should also check out ...

Zatoichi
Blind Fury
Mad Max
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
The Road
Open Range
A Fistful of Dollars
Pale Rider
Daredevil