Bernhardt Mar 28, 2010 (edited Mar 28, 2010)
Can't remember if I posted my review about this movie here or not, and it's already kind of come and gone from theaters, but the DVD release is probably coming up soon; wouldn't mind hearing your thoughts on the movie, if you've seen it, too!
Without further ado,
...
30 years ago from the time in which the movie is set, global nuclear war devastated the world, tearing a whole in ozone layer, scorching the Earth. Apparently, this war was considered religiously motivated, because the survivors had mass book burnings, especially of The Holy Bible.
The last hope of saving humanity is Eli Walker (played by Denzel Washington), who's carrying and protecting the last known copy of the King James version of The Bible, west across the cloudy, sun-scorched remains of America, because God spoke to him.
These little details, however, are very subtly revealed to us over the course of the movie, as opposed to being delivered either via prose proceeding the film, or even as a narration delivered over the action that's happening on screen; no, it's very subtly delivered in the conversations that the characters have with each other.
Indeed, the first two paragraphs might be considered spoilers, as the way the movie is set up, they rather expect you to watch closely what the characters are doing, and listen closely to what they're saying.
The film, besides being a post-apocalyptic thriller, is almost at times an action Western, as Eli must at times fight off bandits in the desert, who try to kill him just for the wares he's carrying, and cannibals, who want the meat off his bones. And, of course, Eli eventually rolls into a town, where we have the obligatory scuffle between the drifter, and the locals.
Our main villain appears in the form of Carnegie (Gary Oldman), who tries, at first to persuade Eli gently to give up the book, but eventually turns in violent pursuit of him, along with his entourage of gun-toting henchmen, who wants The Book so he can use its ideology to control the people.
A saloon girl, Solara (played by Mila Kunis, whom you might remember as "Jackie" from That 70s Show), escapes from servitude to Carnegie, so she can follow Eli, and functions as somewhat of a sidekick.
Eli is packing a number of weapons and hand-to-hand combat expertise, and there are quite a few fight scenes in the game, many of which involve him severing his assailants' limbs. One of the most important points that can't be overlooked, is that Eli is protected by the grace of God, and so long as he has The Book, even bullets can't hit him - a point which may be taken seriously by some, and by others, as extremely gimmicky. I'm in the first half.
Thematically, the directors expect you to fill in a number of blanks; the movie's as open to interpretation as The Book that it talks about, and that's what its point is: Religion can be used to inspire both good and evil ends; how it is used depends whose hands it's in.
They spend quite an amount of time establishing the post-apocalyptic, dystopian world, with scenes of barren wasteland, ruined highways, and wreckage of vehicles and buildings, as well as survivalistic logistics, e.g., water is REALLY hard to come by, and it is those scenes that really make you sympathize with the characters. A lot
of the scenery is dyed a sepia tone, as might be the case if there really was a large gap in the ozone.
Overall, if only they had spent more time on the Biblical themes, I'd feel that it would've been a complete package. As is though, there's just enough for the audience to fill in the blanks. They didn't really give the characters too much background either, but as is, I wanted the heroes to prevail, and for the villain to burn, and sometimes, that's all you want out of your audience.
All-in-all, if you dig the post-apocalyptic genre, and you dig Biblical, or religious overtones in general, I don't think you'd be disappointed seeing this movie!
