Interesting that Eli is the only name mentioned in McCarthy's book The Road (as one of my RPI students pointed out), and in this more accessible post-apocalyptic/cowboy flic it's the lead character's name.
The first scene, with Denzel in a dead forest hunting a horribly starved cat, using a dead human as bait, could have been maybe should have been the style of The Road. Like you're on another planet, TAZ said of The Road (the book). But from that stark opening, the only sound labored breathing through a gas mask, The Book of Eli's staging appears to have switched to stage-sets from old westerns and it stopped being artistically interesting, but remained entertaining. Just barely though, and only if you thing "Remember the Titans" is one of the ten best movies ever (which I do).
But I couldn't quite buy DW as a Samurai-Matrix type swordsman. And the film's message is direct to the point of corny - save the Bible for posterity! In contrast to McCarthy's, which is subtly indirect and the more powerful for it. Plus the book arose from an individual vision - an intense love for the planet, nature, and humanity in the form of a young sensitive boy. Eli's vision is same-old same-old - greed tries to kill innocence and the people of God try to stop it.
The twist at the end was nice, if implausable. Won't spoil it for you. Another good movie I probably wouldn't have gone to if TAZ hadn't recommended it. I give it 3 stars for middling, with a plus for Jennifer Beals, of the L-Word. She plays a righteous and wronged damsel very well, and the villian's pretty darned villanous but the script just spent too much time on his greed and power-driven villany. We've seen it before. I want to see a post-apoc movie where the survivors find a new way to be. I believe they/we can do it, just as someone with heart disease suddenly turns their lifestyle around, or a convict comes out determined to serve.
Do these doomsdays that look lie our worst historical days make bleak futures more likely? Does movie-going itself? I'm not sure. So much work to do...but we need recreation, right?
