We're all familiar with the idea that movies require us to suspend disbelief to one degree or another, and when the trailer and synopsis for something like The Book of Eli gets us in the door, we have a pretty good idea where we are. As the first few minutes roll by in something like The Road Warrior, The Matrix, or maybe even A Boy and His Dog, certain things clue us in to the fact that we aren't meant to ask all the trickier questions.
Even so, things have to at least make sense within the framework created, and we aren't demanding too much when we ask for at least a watchable plausibility. Resting squarely on the shelf next to The Road Warrior, The Book of Eli can legitimately throw off much serious analysis, but it plays at the gates of the ludicrous during most its run with an overly examined premise that is laughable at best.
This culminates in a final twist that will leave you searching for a camp in a way few movies have ever managed.
You will thus find yourself with either A. O. Scott, and simply come clean - "there’s a final plot twist in this movie that is beyond absurd," or you will search for something ala Roger Ebert - "The ending is "flawed," as we critics like to say, but it's so magnificently, shamelessly, implausibly flawed that (a) it breaks apart from the movie and has a life of its own, or (b) at least it avoids being predictable," which is to say that you will come up with some sort of positive story with regard to the ending, whether it makes a damn bit of sense or not.
"Good," or at least, "Acceptable," by way of being mind-blowingly stupid is a trick I hadn't heard of before.
On the other hand, as a slick, popcorn action films go, this one will provide a lot of entertainment if you're in the right mood.
Eli (Denzel Washington) is walking across a post-apocalyptic America. Some manner of solar snafu has wiped out most of the world, and humanity has been reduced to the standard rabble scattered about in hopes of waylaying such travelers. Eli is on a quest, and has been for thirty years. He has the very last copy of a certain book, and he's on a mission to get it to the west coast where it will be safe.
We can only imagine the hazards and trials that have resulted in this being a three decade journey, but it is a hard road. More or less on the very brink of his final destination, Eli saunters into a town filled with lowlifes and debris, and run by Carnegie (Gary Oldman). Carnegie is on a quest of his own, but his is rather more of a dream, because he is searching against hope for a copy of this very book. Within the first few minutes of the film it becomes impossible not to realize that the book in question is The Bible. The bag, so to speak, starts out rather devoid of cats.
In the style of many an old western, Carnegie inexplicably rules a band of lawless henchmen, and thereby everything else. He has plans to branch out and create other towns, and the book is the key. Intelligent and ruthless, Carnegie is apparently the villain not so much because he'll pull a woman's hair to get what he wants, but because he wants to keep The Bible to himself in order to control people who aren't free to interpret the words on their own... sound familiar?
Sword (well, big knife) fights and gun battles are peppered throughout the adventure, and they are put together quite well. Wherever the film can leave off the book's fabulosity, there is much to enjoy. Oldman is particularly enjoyable, but Denzel is slightly distracting, and though he actually gives a good performance, he may be just a bit counter-productive overall. You simply have to avoid taking things seriously, but you're rather programmed by now to believe you're supposed to take him seriously.
What credit can be given to the film has to go largely to the Hughes brothers and their directing abilities, but even that fact may leave many scratching their heads. Ten years since their last film, the under-appreciated From Hell, it's hard to imagine how this got slated as the return film.
It's really a B-movie with delusions of grandeur, but if you go into with expectations of wild, action-filled fun, and know in advance that a truly nutty ending is coming up, you'll probably have a good time... as long as that sentence isn't self-contradictory for you.
Rating: 
Special Features
Standard Edition:
- Wide Screen version of the film
- Additional scenes
- Lost Tales: Chapter 1 (Carnegie’s Story)
Blu-ray Disc Combo Pack:
- Blu-ray version of the film
- SD version of the film
- Digital Copy of the film on Disc
- Additional scenes
- Lost Tales: Chapter 1 (Carnegie’s Story)
- Starting Over – Featurette
- Soundtrack - Featurette
- Eli’s Journey – Featurette
- Maximum Movie Mode – 40 minutes of PIP commentary with Denzel Washington and the Hughes Brothers, and 10 Focus Points
The real bonus here is the Maximum Movie Mode. Focusing a nicely varied set of topics, you get a lot of information delivered in a fun format. From production discussion, to some storyboard comparisons, the feature makes good use of the PIP ability, rather than many other such efforts which are often simply interview footage. It's one of the better uses of such technology I've seen actually, and adds a lot of interesting value as opposed to just having a gimmicky bonus for the sake of a gimmicky bonus.
Not to be overlooked is Lost Tales: Chapter 1, a backstory animated short. This might ultimately be neither here nor there depending on your view of the film itself, but it's a great bonus either way. Given the general standard of often throwing in nonsense just to add to the special feature tally, this is the kind of feature that fans will really appreciate in terms of actually getting more for their money.
The Starting Over featurette is a bit of a throwaway, giving us a somewhat odd account of the way things might play out after a real global catastrophe. A bit of fun maybe, and one that is given a fair effort, but it's hard to judge the value of such a tie-in. Eli's Journey is largely in the same boat. A featurette that purports to, "probe the historical and mythological roots of the film's central themes," you're on your own to figure out the misguided depths of seriousness at work behind the scenes of the film.
Finally, the soundtrack featurette is actually pretty cool, and gives you Allen Hughes and composer Atticus Ross going over the complex construction effort.
It's actually a decent purchase, as long as you know what you're getting yourself into, with a solid effort at adding a lot of value to the Blu-Ray release.
Available on Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD, On Demand and for Download today!
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About Marc Eastman
Marc Eastman is the owner and operator of Are You Screening? and has been writing film reviews for over a decade, and several branches of the internet's film review world have seen his name. His reviews have brought him personal praise from the director of a major motion picture, and have been used as required reading in a course at a major University. These priceless rewards, along with just bags of cash, keep him from straying from freelance writing. He is also a member of The Broadcast Film Critics Association and The Broadcast Television Journalists Association.
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