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Movie - 4.5
I've never been much of a religious person. And when I first saw the trailer for this movie, I thought to myself, "well, Denzel can be pretty bad ass, but this whole Christian vibe has me a bit iffy. I hope it doesn't end up feeling pretentious or anything." Thankfully, the Hughes Brothers and company managed to surprise me. After finally getting to see the film in theaters, I liked it a lot. The story takes place in a post-Apocalyptic future where Earth has been scorched by war into a barren wasteland and humanity has degraded itself into packs of scavengers and nomads who kill, and even eat, each other just to survive. Enter Eli (Denzel Washington), a man on a mission traveling west to deliver what is apparently the very last copy of the King James Holy Bible. On his journey he comes across a man named Carnegie (Gary Oldman) who is looking for the very same book. But sensing the ill intentions in Carnegie's plan to use it, Eli refuses to give up the book and must fight his way through with the help of a young girl, Solara (Mila Kunis). Thematically speaking, the movie itself isn't so much about Christianity (like I was afraid it would be), but the power of faith and the implied applicability of religion. Being an atheist, I always found it irksome that religion was so misinterpreted and taken out of context and that people were so vehement about it that I decided to stop believing in it altogether. In The Book of Eli, however, I find it refreshing that they can offer such a bold perspective on what it really means to follow in what you believe. Religion was never about which god is the right one or where it all originally started. It was simply about learning, finding something to believe in, possibly teaching and passing it down, and proceeding to pursue those beliefs with your own conviction. Mix bits and pieces of that with some stunning action sequences and a great cast of opposing actors and you've got a pretty good film. By the way, don't let the premise and symbolic inclination fool you. While I, personally, found the quasi-theological undertones enlightening, it's still choreographed by Jeff Imada (most famous for the Bourne films), so take from that what you will. Sci-fi actioners with a message -- gotta' love 'em.
Video - 5.0
I remember seeing this in theaters and thinking that the film quality had a peculiar darkness to it. I was hoping the photography would present itself a little better on BD, and I was right. The movie is very desaturated (as briefly touched upon in the extras) and doesn't have much vibrancy at all until the end of the film. Something like 50-70% of the color scheme was intentionally made to almost monochromatic or like a black and white picture. But in exchange for that drabness, black levels and contrast have an amazing amount of depth and clarity. A lot of the backgrounds were digitally shot or painted and incorporated into the filming and it really, really shows in this transfer. You can see all sorts of fine detail from the little grains of sand in the ground or blowing through the air, the individual follicles and oil reflections from Eli's beard, the dirt and grime on peoples' faces, skin wrinkles and imperfections, notches and kinks in metallic structures, you name it. Backgrounds look especially bleak and reflect the mood of the production design well with ominous cloud cover and very low lighting. Getting back to the black levels, these are among the best I've seen on BD to date. In the scene where Eli fights off the thugs in the underpass you can see his silhouette perfectly, but even better, still make out individual shapes and textures in his clothes and backpack despite the darkness of the tunnel. And best of all, there's very little noise in any of the dark or low-lit scenes. I've never seen anything so immaculately black. Furthermore, black levels make for some great scenic shots that help to compliment the brooding nature of the film itself. One of my favorite shots in the movie (from an aesthetic viewpoint anyway) is when Eli is walking on the destroyed overpass with the camera looking at him from below. Something about the angle of the shot and obvious aftermath of what the wars did to the world is frightening to think about, but at the same time very cool sci-fi stuff. There's very little to complain about in this video transfer, if anything at all, outside of your own personal preference for coloring. What a great effort by WB on this one.
Audio - 5.0
The Book of Eli is an a word - aggressive. From the opening forest sequence we get a steady dose of ambient bass as the camera pans across displaying the state of the world and result of our own destruction via the war that ended civilization. The wind howls eerily along the front sound stage right before Eli shoots his arrow into his soon-to-be dinner as a somewhat jarring thump emanates from the bow. We're then introduced to some of the film's score with an ethereal-sounding piece composed by Atticus Ross during the flash of the movie's title. Afterward, Eli comes upon an abandoned house looking to seek shelter as he kicks the door in and produces an even more jarring LFE. As he searches the house, all the little creaks and cringes of the old wood spread and separate amongst the front and rears. When he settles down for the night, his mp3 player gives us a little of Al Green's "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart," a soothing piece of soul that's definitely a contrast to the world Eli lives in, but makes for a good listen once we get to hear a part of it in full lossless surround. But if you want action, the underpass fight is where things start to make themselves heard. Reverberation is stunning when Eli steps back into the shadows and takes out each of those thugs with his "samurai machete." Limbs get sliced and bodies impaled with bloody cold execution, while the chainsaw guy, despite his loud and powerful hardware, basically acts as a test dummy for a rather large blade. But the real highlight of this precision soundtrack is in the town shootout. Guns are fired from a multitude of heights and angles with absolutely zero music resulting in a very impressive display of directionality and dynamics as bullets fly from the right front to left rear, right rear to left front, and any number of combinations therein. Shots echo with deadly accuracy and is probably one of the best shootouts I've heard in a while. The action then comes to a close during another big shootout at the old couple's house. Here we get to hear a good amount of automatic weapons fire, a bomb, a bazooka, and a Gatling gun. It's a pretty awesome sound design.
Extras - 4.0
We start off with Maximum Movie Mode as the movie plays itself like normal with bits and pieces of behind-the-scenes footage dispersed throughout and little Focus Points icons at certain parts. You push enter on your controller there and it takes you to a separate screen that breaks down whatever aspect they're attempting to explain (usually in 3-4 minute segments). It's a big mix of production design, writing, filming, and commentary about what the cast and crew wanted to achieve in terms of literary themes, symbolism, and entertainment. I actually played the movie at 1.5x speed to make things a little faster but still slow enough to where I could re-watch the film itself while somewhat conserving time. And while the Focus Points can be accessed as a standalone feature (34 minutes worth, total), I still stand by the opinion that watching these during the movie itself adds a good deal of real-time context and perspective to the on-screen action, which is a very cool variation of the Picture-in-Picture track. Next is a 5-minute motion comic ("A Lost Tale: Billy") that gives a little bit of background information on Carnegie's childhood. It's short, but a good revelation and indicator as to the motivations we see in his current state during the movie. After that is a 13-minute feature ("Starting Over") talking about some the story's themes, comparing that world to ours, and discussing the symbolism in what it means to truly start over from scratch. "Eli's Journey" (about 18-minutes) analyzes the character of Eli himself the production of the film, the casting of Denzel, various collaborations and writing points, and the character's motivations. Both of these features are diced and served in parts throughout Maximum Movie Mode, but feel much more in-depth when watched as complete segments. And then finally is "'The Book of Eli' Soundtrack," which shows a sit-down interview with composer Atticus Ross and co-director Allen Hughes. I was expecting this to delve more into theme composition or instrumentation, but it turned out to be just a session of praise from Hughes and a little bit of confirmation by Ross. Altogether, it amounts just over an hour of extras.
Overall - 4.5
The Book of Eli is a movie that interests me a lot. I was never big on religion, but I like how this film in particular highlighted the context of religion, or faith in general, as a personal driving force rather than as a branch of organized control (which it seems more approximated to be nowadays). It's difficult to explain, though I can say it's certainly given me something of a new perspective on things. Denzel Washington never ceases to amaze me, and it was a delight to see him opposite Gary Oldman. With a philosophical approach to society and civilization, but just the right balance of action, it made for a very entertaining movie. Add to that reference A/V quality and a healthy dose of extras, and The Book of Eli comes highly recommended.
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June 15, 2010 "Please retry" | Standard Edition | 1 | $16.66 | — |
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Top reviews from other countries
Maria Michela Farallo
Favoloso, stupefacente, forse gli americani prevedono il futuro 😔🙏🏻
Reviewed in Italy on July 28, 2022