Blu-ray Review: The Book of Eli (2010)

There's something uniquely compelling about the post-apocalypse. The barren landscapes, rudimentary technology, dilapidated settlements and their embittered populace are all visual concepts that come across well in film. It is perhaps an oversubscribed sub-genre of science fiction cinema now - in fact, most future Earths depicted on film seemed to have experienced some sort of cataclysmic event - but still, the inherent potential of the setting offers a rich vein of possibilities. The Book of Eli was released soon after fellow dystopic vision-of-the-future The Road, with which it shares a certain aesthetic similarity, although Eli has a more commercial bent.

There are certain tropes that post-apocalypse films have in common with the Western, of course - namely the often bleak surroundings inhabited by the characters, and that sense of frontier spirit that pervades such locales - and Eli sets itself up as a sort of neo-Western, initially. Eli (Denzel Washington) is your typical morally ambiguous man of few words, who emerges from the desert with an air of mystery. Shane/A Fistful of Dollars/High Plains Drifter, etc., come to mind. But Eli's on a quest - yes, involving the titular Book - so, unlike in a Western, he does not stop for long at the first town he comes to, despite its local despot's (a fairly reigned-in Gary Oldman) wishes to the contrary. Instead, he continues walking towards his destination, which he simply states is "west".

As you would guess, there's a lot of walking in Eli, some of it even in slow motion (to emphasise that he's really walking a long way, presumably), but it does mostly avoid the monotony that could entail. Partly it's through shameless employment of the conventions of the genre - yes, there is a biker gang, and yes, there are cannibals - and partly it's through that central MacGuffin, the book. (At first, the film does its best to hide the book's identity, but it's not hard to guess, and, fortunately, the reveal is not the film's big twist, which it saves for the end.) Eli's unshakeable sense of purpose lends a similar drive to the narrative, even though it's more mild curiosity at its ultimate goal, rather than real engrossment. The Hughes Brothers clearly want to make a film that is deeper than just surface entertainment, but they go too far sometimes; despite their best intentions, it's not particularly profound, and at times plods.

Denzel "Mr. Gravitas" Washington has no problems holding your attention, despite having little more apparent personality than his greying beard. He convinces as a complete badass in the action scenes, which are well staged by the Brothers Hughes; in particular, one early confrontation that takes place under a highway overpass, shown entirely in silhouette in one held shot, sticks in the mind. The visual style, though, is a bit more divisive: this has probably the most digitally manipulated colour palette yet seen, reducing everything to various shades of brown and grey. It certainly gets across the aridity and bleakness of the landscape, but it does tend to suffocate the life out of the excellent production design.



Release Information
Country: UK / Region: B / Version: N/A / Discs: 1 / Distributor: Entertainment In Video.

Presentation
Picture: Quandaries about the stylisation aside, there are problems with this transfer. The high contrast, almost monochrome look clearly gives the disc's encode difficulties; aliasing around sharp edges (such as windows), banding, and macroblocking (particularly in the cloud formations) are not rare. The clouds also sometimes have green tints, which seems out of place with the colour palette - but this may be intended. The picture is clean and grain-free, although a possible consequence of shooting with the Red One camera is that detail can get a bit smeary. It's not terrible, but I can only assume it's a different transfer from Warners' US release, which has received generally good write-ups.

Sound: Not as much to complain about here - convincing environmental effects envelop you throughout, and the action has a satisfying heft. Directionality is superb, a prime example being in the homestead siege. However, much of the dialogue is hushed whispers, which gets a little trying; you may have to fight the urge to yell "Speak up!"

Extras
Sadly WB's Maximum Movie Mode is not ported over, but the Picture in Picture track is still pretty decent. The separate featurettes total about 45 minutes, and treat the film reverentially. There's a short Motion Comic-style piece giving Carnegie (Oldman's character) some backstory. The deleted scenes are brief.



Summary
More been there, done that than anything truly new, The Book of Eli is serviceable fare that aims for profundity but achieves, at best, only some small resonance. There's never quite enough to keep you hooked.