Andy Summers 🤠’s review published on Letterboxd:
Sometimes your view on a film can be influenced by the setting or the people that you watch it with. I first saw this over 3 years ago with my wife and in-laws and none of them liked it. That's probably the reason its sat on my DVD shelf ever since, until now.
The Hughes Brothers's post apocalyptic movie with religious overtones is much much better than I remembered. With Denzel Washington in serious bad-ass form this has a great premise and an interesting backstory.
Set thirty years after a nuclear war has scorched the Earth, a mysterious loner wanders Westward. Washington's "Eli" is a traveler with a personal mission and a unique set of skills. Dispatching all-comers that threaten his purpose, he attracts the wrong kind of attention when he defends himself against a gang of bikers. The local head-honcho offers Eli a job after witnessing his expertise in killing. Forced to stay the night and bribed with food, water and the company of a certain Mila Kunis, Eli is exposed as a scripture quoting man of faith who can't be bought. Gary Oldman's "Carnegie" is in search of a book that he believes can be used to control the population and unite them under his rule. As the story unfolds it is revealed that the Bible and faith was blamed for the war and that is what Carnegie's men scour the land for. Every Bible was burned or destroyed and in time, forgotten.
Escaping his captors, Eli is joined on the road by Kunis's Solara who helps him find a water supply.From then on it becomes a battle of wills as Carnegie and his henchmen pursue Eli who he believes carries the last Bible on Earth. Action packed but also showing a willingness to give us a story of one man's faith in his calling, this is a clever slant on the post-apocalyptic sci-fi. Washington is utterly convincing as the man on a mission and with Oldman suitably backed by the desperado Ray Stevenson and some really ironic dramatic flourishes, it does offer some surprises. A movie that does have a pay-off and also proves that even when the world has collapsed and humanity is a thing of the past, you can always rely on your I-POD.