Based approximately 30 years in the future, The Book of Eli envisions a world destroyed by a holy war. As a result, humans rid the world of all evidence of God, including each of the holy books. Only one is left in the possession of an anointed guardian played by Denzel Washington. That book is called The Book of Eli and Carnegie (Gary Oldman), the leader of a small surviving community, is desperately looking for it. His goal: to use the holy words to manipulate his followers. Eli must pass through the evil man’s territory in his journey to the west coast, a task he was assigned to by God, at least so he says.

In The Book of Eli, the Hughes brothers manage to mix the practical with the spiritual to make the film puzzling and yet strangely challenging. There’s a clever combination of gritty apocalypse and hope for a bright future in the film, but more: the sense that something great must be involved. READ MORE