The Book of Eli

The Book of Eli
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	The Hughes Brothers
Written by	Gary Whitta
Produced by	Joel Silver Susan Downey Andrew Kosove Broderick Johnson Denzel Washington
Starring	Denzel Washington Gary Oldman Mila Kunis Ray Stevenson Jennifer Beals
Cinematography	Don Burgess
Edited by	Cindy Mollo (Chases Chickens for a living)
Music by	Atticus Ross
Production companies	Alcon Entertainment Silver Pictures
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures (United States) Summit Entertainment (international)
Release date	January 15, 2010 (2010-01-15)
Running time	117 minutes
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English
Budget	$80 million
Box office	$157,091,718

The Book of Eli is a 2010 American post-apocalyptic action film directed by the Hughes brothers, written by Gary Whitta, and starring Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, Ray Stevenson and Jennifer Beals.

The story revolves around Eli, a nomad in a post-apocalyptic world, who is told by a voice to deliver his copy of a book to a safe location on the West Coast of the United States. The history of the post-war world is explained along the way as is the importance of Eli's task. Filming began in February 2009 and took place in New Mexico.

The film was released for theaters in January 2010. Alcon Entertainment financed and co-produced the film with Silver Pictures, while it was distributed by Warner Bros. in the US, and international sales handled by Summit Entertainment.

Plot

Thirty years after a nuclear apocalypse, Eli (Denzel Washington) travels on foot toward the west coast of the United States. Along the way, he demonstrates uncanny survival and fighting skills, hunting wildlife and swiftly defeating a group of highway bandits who try to ambush him. Searching for a source of water, he arrives in a ramshackle town built and overseen by Carnegie (Gary Oldman). Carnegie dreams of building more towns and controlling the people by using the power of a certain book. His henchmen scour the desolate landscape daily in search of it, but to no avail.

In the local town bar, Eli is set upon by a gang of bikers and he kills them all. Realizing Eli is a literate man like himself, Carnegie asks Eli to stay, although it is made clear the offer is non-negotiable. After Carnegie's blind concubine Claudia (Jennifer Beals) gives Eli some food and water, Carnegie asks Claudia's daughter Solara (Mila Kunis) to seduce Eli. Eli turns her down, but she discovers he has a book in his possession. Eli pacifies her with stern words, but offers to share his food with her. Before they eat, though, he has her pray with him. The following day, Solara prays with her mother. Carnegie overhears them and realizes Solara's words were likely from the contents of the book he has been seeking. Through violence, he forces Solara to tell him Eli was reading a book. When he asks what kind, she says she does not know but forms a cross with her two index fingers. Carnegie realizes Eli has a copy of the Bible, the book he has been seeking. Eli sneaks out of his room and goes to the store across the street, where he had earlier asked the Engineer (Tom Waits) to recharge his portable music player.

Carnegie attempts to stop Eli by having all his henchmen shoot at him, but the bullets seemingly just graze him, as if he is being protected. Eli shoots most of Carnegie's henchmen and Carnegie is hit in the leg by a stray shotgun blast. After Eli leaves, Solara follows him and leads him to the source of the town's water supply, hoping she can accompany him on his travels. Eli traps her inside and continues on alone. Solara escapes and soon finds herself ambushed by two bandits who attempt to rape her, but Eli appears and kills them.

As they continue on, Eli explains to Solara the nature of his journey. According to Eli, his book is the last remaining copy of the Bible, as all other copies were destroyed following the nuclear war. He says he was led to the book by a voice in his head, which then directed him to travel westward to a place where it would be safe. The voice assured him that he would be protected on his journey. Thus, for the last thirty years he has traveled west, guided by his faith.

Eventually, Eli and Solara arrive at a strange house. They stop to investigate and quickly fall through a trap door. The residents, Martha (Frances de la Tour) and George (Michael Gambon), invite them in for tea; however, the travelers are soon found by Carnegie. Eli, Solara, Martha, and George hole up inside the house. A shootout ensues, leading to the deaths of some of Carnegie's men, as well as George and Martha. Eli and Solara are captured. Carnegie threatens to kill Solara, which prompts Eli to hand over the Bible. Carnegie shoots him, and leaves him for dead.

While in transit, Solara strangles the driver, escapes and drives back to help Eli. Rather than chase her, Carnegie chooses to return to the town with the Bible, since his vehicle is running out of fuel. Solara picks Eli up and they continue west until they reach the Golden Gate Bridge. They then row to Alcatraz, where they find a group of survivors. Eli tells the guards that he has a copy of the King James version of the Bible, and they are allowed in. Once inside, they are introduced to Lombardi (Malcolm McDowell), the curator, who says that his group plans to begin the process of restoring the world. To that end, they have amassed much literature from before the war, but are lacking a Bible. Eli instructs Lombardi to write down his words, and begins to dictate the Bible, verse by verse, from memory. A closeup on Eli's eyes reveals that he is blind.

Meanwhile, back in the town, Carnegie manages to open the locked Bible with the help of his Engineer, but he is horrified to discover that it is a Braille copy. He is unable to persuade Claudia to read it for him. Carnegie's leg wound has become septic, and he realizes he will die without making use of the Bible. Claudia laughs because Carnegie lost too many men chasing Eli and the book. Without enough manpower to keep order, the people of his town would soon take control. Eli finishes dictating the Bible after being shaved and cleaned; he dies, presumably from his wounds, shortly thereafter. The printing press at Alcatraz begins printing the new King James Bible, after which Lombardi places a copy on the bookshelf between copies of the Torah and Qur'an. Solara is offered sanctuary in Alcatraz, but she instead chooses to head back home and retake Eli's pilgrimage of her own will.

Production

In May 2007, Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros. signed the Hughes Brothers to direct The Book of Eli, based on a script by Gary Whitta. The film is the brothers' first since From Hell in 2001. The script was subsequently rewritten by Anthony Peckham, and in September 2008, actor Denzel Washington was cast in the lead role. The following October, Gary Oldman was cast to star alongside Washington. Principal photography began in February 2009 and took place in New Mexico. Alcon Entertainment financed the film and co-produced with Silver Pictures.

The complex fight scenes were choreographed by Jeff Imada and features the Filipino martial art of Kali. Denzel Washington trained for months with Dan Inosanto and Jeff Imada for the role.

Reception

Box office

The film was released in North America on January 15, 2010 in 3,111 theaters. It took in $11,672,970—$3,752 per theater, its opening day. By the end of its opening four-day holiday weekend it grossed $38,437,553—$12,355 per theater. It ranked number two, behind Avatar. On its second weekend, it placed third with Legion taking its number two place and grossed $15,732,493—$5,057 per theater. By its third weekend it dropped down to number five and made $8,908,286—$2,897 per theater. The film has come to gross $94,835,059 in the United States and Canada, and $62,256,659 in other markets, with an estimated worldwide total of $157,091,718.

Critical reviews

The film has received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 48% of 185 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 5.4 out of 10. Among Rotten Tomatoes' "Top Critics", which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs, the film holds an overall approval rating of 47%, based on a sample of 32 reviews. The site's consensus is that "It's certainly uneven, and many viewers will find that its reach exceeds its grasp, but The Book of Eli finds the Hughes brothers injecting some fresh stylish fun into the kind of post-apocalyptic wasteland filmgoers have seen more than enough of lately." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 0–100 reviews from film critics, has a rating score of 53 based on 33 reviews.

Todd McCarthy of Variety predicted "this will not be one of ... Denzel Washington's bigger grossers." Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert gave the film 3 of 4 stars and said of the film: "You won't be sorry you went. It grips your attention, and then at the end throws in several WTF! moments, which are a bonus." Reviewing the film for The A.V. Club, Scott Tobias graded the film a B, and wrote "At a time when theaters are experiencing a glut of doomsday scenarios, the Hughes’ ashen, bombed-out future world looks a little too familiar, no matter how crisply they present it. But the showdown between Washington and a deliciously hammy Oldman complicates the film’s overt religiosity...". Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a D, calling it "a ponderous dystopian bummer that might be described as The Road Warrior without car chases, or The Road without humanity."

Home media

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on May 31, 2010 in the UK and on June 15, 2010 in the United States and Canada. The DVD took the top spot on all three national home video market charts in its first week. It premiered #1 on the Home Media Magazine's Rental Chart, the Nielsen Videoscan Blu-ray chart and the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert Sales Chart where it outdistanced its nearest competitor in sales by a 3 to 1 margin.

External links

• Official website
• The Book of Eli at IMDb
• The Book of Eli at AllMovie
• The Book of Eli at Box Office Mojo
• The Book of Eli at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Book of Eli at Metacritic