Book of Eli (2010)

"The Book of Eli employs the genre conventions of the western to make mythic its principal character.  Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer
"Establishing its storytelling rules clearly and well, the film simply is better, and better-acted, than the average end-of-the-world fairy tale  Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

Editor's Note In a post-apocalyptic America where the once-picturesque countryside has become a desolate and violent wasteland, one man (Denzel Washington) fights to protect that sacred tome that could hold the key to the survival of the human race in this futuristic thriller from filmmaking duo Albert and Allen Hughes (FROM HELL and DEAD PRESIDENTS). Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, and Ray Stevenson co-star in the Warner Bros. production.

	Ray Stevenson
	Mila Kunis
	Jennifer Beals
	Gary Oldman
	Denzel Washington
	Tom Waits - Co-Star
	Scott Wilder - Co-Star
	Keith David - Co-Star
	Frances De La Tour - Co-Star
	Michael Gambon - Co-Star
	Al Goto - Co-Star
	Larry Cherry - Hairstylist
	Don Burgess - Director of Photography
	Carl Fullerton - Makeup
	Jeff Imada - Fight Choreographer
	Jeff Imada - Stunt Coordinator
	Jeffrey Wetzel - Assistant Director
	Deva Anderson - Music Director
	Hiro Koda - Stunts
	Alton Walpole - Production Manager/UPM
	Atticus Ross - Composer
	Gary Whitta - Screenwriter
	KNB EFX Inc. - Special Makeup Effects
	Corey Welk - Makeup Designer
	Leopold Ross - Composer
	Claudia Sarne - Composer
	Joann Stafford-Chaney - Hairstylist
	Joe Pingue - Co-Star
	John Koyama - Co-Star
	Richard Cetrone - Co-Star
	Mike Gunther - Co-Star
	Tim Rigby - Co-Star
	Kofi W. Elam - Co-Star
	Brad Martin - Co-Star
	David Wald - Co-Star
	Sala Baker - Co-Star
	Thom Harris Williams - Co-Star
	Evan Jones - Co-Star
	David Midthunder - Co-Star
	Eddie Perez - Co-Star
	Clay Donahue Fontenot - Co-Star
	Arron Shiver - Co-Star
	Spencer Sano - Co-Star
	Jennifer Caputo - Co-Star
	Paul Crawford - Co-Star
	Karin Silvestri - Co-Star
	Heidi Pascoe - Co-Star
	Mike Seal - Co-Star
	Lateef Crowder - Co-Star
	Scott Michael Morgan - Co-Star
	Robert Powell - Co-Star
	Don Thai Theerathada - Co-Star
	Angelique Midthunder - Co-Star
	Todd Schneider - Co-Star
	Chris Browning - Co-Star
	Richard Smith - Co-Star
	Darrin Prescott - Co-Star
	Lora Martinez Cunningham - Co-Star
	Mike McCarty - Co-Star
	Justin Tade - Co-Star
	Edward Duran - Co-Star
	Jermaine Washington - Co-Star
	Luis Bordonada - Co-Star
	Laurence Chavez - Co-Star
	Brian Lucero - Co-Star
	Albert Hughes - Director
	Allen Hughes - Director

Hollywood Reporter
"[A]n intense, surprisingly serious study of a man making his way through a wilderness of catastrophic destruction and human cruelty like a latter-day prophet." 01/10/2010

Box Office
3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Directing team The Hughes Brothers have chosen ELI as their first film in nearly a decade and though it certainly delivers all the fireworks you might come to expect from their earlier work, its religious undertones separate it from the pack..." 01/14/2010

Chicago Sun-Times
"The Hughes brothers have a vivid way with imagery here, as in their earlier films....The film looks and feels good, and Washington's performance is the more uncanny the more we think back over it." 01/13/2010

Los Angeles Times
"A lean, stark, surprisingly effective headliner in Hollywood's ongoing apoc-a-pala-looza." 01/15/2010

USA Today
"An attractively grizzled Denzel Washington plays the enigmatic Eli, a true believer with quasi-mystical fighting skills..." 01/18/2010

Washington Post
"[Washington] beautifully inhabits the film's titular hero, a laconic, solitary gunslinger who's also a custodian of a mysterious tome..." 01/15/2010

Variety
"One of the clever conceits of the script by first-time Gary Whitta is that there are only a handful of people still alive who remember how things were 'before'..." 01/10/2010

Hollywood Reporter
"[A]n intense, surprisingly serious study of a man making his way through a wilderness of catastrophic destruction and human cruelty like a latter-day prophet." 01/10/2010

A.V. Club
"THE BOOK OF ELI takes the form of an ultra-violent graphic novel, with Washington as a steely Man With No Name type who cuts a righteous path through the gullets of sinners and savages." -- Grade: B 01/14/2010

Sight and Sound
"[A]mong films about material scarcity, religion and power, it compares favourably with THERE WILL BE BLOOD." 03/01/2010

Total Film
"The real draw is the spaghetti western homages, Tom Waits bartering goods and hand grenades being 10-pin bowled under trucks." 05/24/2010

Chicago Sun-Times 7 of 10
I'm at a loss for words, so let me say these right away: The Book of Eli is very watchable. 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. They make everything in the entire movie impossible and incomprehensible -- but, hey, WTF...Now to the words I am at a loss for. The story involves a lone wanderer (Denzel Washington) who wears a name tag saying "Hi! My name is Eli." It may not actually be his name tag, but let's call him Eli, anyway. Eli has been walking west across the devastated landscape of America for 30 years, on his way to the sea. I haven't walked it myself, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't take that long...Washington and the Hughes brothers do a good job of establishing this man and his world, and at first, The Book of Eli seems destined to be solemn. But then Eli arrives at a Western town ruled by Carnegie (Gary Oldman), who, like all the local overloads in Westerns and gangster movies, sits behind a big desk flanked by a tall bald guy and, of course, a short scruffy one. How are these guys recruited? Wanted: Tall bald guy to stand behind town boss and be willing to sacrifice life. All the water you can drink...Carnegie needs Eli because Eli has maybe the last remaining copy of a book that Eli believes will allow him to expand and rule many more towns. I am forbidden by the Critic's Little Rule Book from naming the volume, but if you've made a guess after seeing numerous billboards stating RELIGION IS POWER, you may have guessed right...The Hughes brothers have a vivid way with imagery here, as in their earlier films such as Menace II Society and the underrated From Hell. The film looks and feels good, and Washington's performance is the more uncanny the more we think back over it. 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...Now do yourself a favor and don't talk to anybody about the film if you plan to see it. - Roger Ebert