Eli's Apocalyptic Bible Bashing

There's a small group of actors that don't make bad movies. Tom Cruise is one. Michael Douglas is another. Sure some may be a little weaker than the classics om their CV, but they have little, if anything, that all-out sucks. Denzel's another one to add to the list. Sometimes he plays it safe (Pelham 123), sometimes he doesn't (Training Day). But there's a certain guarantee of quality when Mr Washington releases a movie.

In many respects, The Book Of Eli could be considered a risk for Denzel, it being an unsubtle, minimalist, post apocalyptic western; highly stylised (one might argue, arty) and so very obvious in terms of sub text. This movie could very well have been Denzel's The Postman...trying to be cool AND intelligent but ultimately ending up dumb. It's thanks to The Hughes Brother, they of From Hell, that The Book Of Eli is one entertaining film. Perhaps because of my love of John Carpenter films, but 'Eli' has a slow, confident approach that I love. Often the camera is still and the takes are long. Often the dialogue is minimal and the score atmospheric. The directors rely on strong brooding performances and beautifully composed visuals to show Eli's quest to deliver a mysterious book (bloody obviously a Bible) to the west. He encounters Gary Oldman's ruthless Overlord (gloriously chewing the furniture for the first time in years) who seeks a Bible, which have virtually all been destroyed in the apocalypse, to manipulate his townsfolk. Ray Stephenson and Mili Kunis deliver surprisingly strong work while Malcolm McDowell and Michael Gambon turn up in small but significant cameos.

There's nothing original or clever in the way the story plays out (we're deep, deep in the established Western genre here) or in the way that religion is examined (the negative aspects of faith along with the good). In fact it's examination of faith is shown in an extremely similar manner in The Road...although with much more subtlety. But subtle doesn't always equate to better. Eli is a supremely entertaining movie thankfully down to the strong vision of it's directors and the conviction of all the actors involved. You might argue that it's style over substance at the end of the day, but if a movie's as mesmerizing as this (bullshit chopsocky 'n' all) then I'll always argue that the style IS the substance.