Book of Eli

[GeneChing]

Is Denzel packing a dao (http://www.martialartsmart.com/weapons-chinese-weapons-broadswords.html)? Excellent!

Official HD trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7mV4UNIZkM)

Premiering January 15th, 2010.

[Skip J.]

So Denzel is a ma guy????

I love post-apocalypse .... I'll see this one...

[sanjuro_ronin]

Excellent, nothing like a good old fashioned movie about killing bad people after a holocaust of some sorts !
Good family entertainment !

[Lucas]

i saw the preview for this and while it looks neat, there seems to be an element of CHEESE going on. ill still watch it, and ill probably like it...

but im biased in that i think the best post apocolyptic movie would simply be an adaption from the Fallout series.

from the landscape in that movie, it looks like its directly pulled from Fallout 3.

no joke. so to me, it looks pretty inspired, visually, by that series. which is cool but someone just needs to go and make the movie FALLOUT. it could be very bad ass.

im pretty sure anyone who has seen that game would probably agree with me. the first thing that went in my head as i watched the preview was 'this should just be fallout'...

[Dragonzbane76]

after watching that I would say yes it does look like Fallout. awesome. :)

[Zenshiite]

When I saw the trailer for this at Ninja Assassin I thought "****, my graphic novel idea for a bagua fighting, dao-wielding post-apocalyptic hero is shot now..."

[AdrianK]

from the landscape in that movie, it looks like its directly pulled from Fallout 3.

Yeah, I mean, can't they get their own ideas for how a war-ravaged metropolis should look? :rolleyes:

Seriously though.. theres really only so much you can do with that.

[Jimbo]

Is Denzel packing a dao (http://www.martialartsmart.com/weapons-chinese-weapons-broadswords.html)? Excellent!

Official HD trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7mV4UNIZkM)

Premiering January 15th, 2010.

Although I can't watch youtube on my home computer, when I saw the trailer in the theater, I remember Denzel's big knife as having a series of holes in the blade. If that's what you mean, I have seen those before, and I believe it's a type/brand of machete. I've seen the same thing used as a piece of gear on a survival show to hack vegetation.

Actually, the post-apocalyptic movie I'm really hoping to see before it leaves theaters is The Road, starring Viggo Mortensen. Comparing the trailers, it looks somewhat more believable than The Book of Eli.

[mawali]

The trailer seems mediocre!
I noticed that the fight coreography was lacking in that too much quick cutting, lack of camera depth in the execution of technique, postures highly unbelieveable with finishing blows and lack of posture definition not matching the punches or kicks! Insufficient extension, contraction and riposts/counters.

[GeneChing]

I saw a screener yesterday and came away with two morals that I thoroughly endorse: Moral #1: After the apocalypse, it will be good to be literate. Moral #2: After the apocalypse, it will also behoove you to be handy with a sword. ;)

Interview: Allen and Albert Hughes Talk About the Future of America and THE BOOK OF ELI (http://www.iesb.net/extensions/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8060:interview-allen-and-albert-hughes-talk-about-the-future-of-america-and-the-book-of-eli-&catid=44:interviews&Itemid=172)
Written by Christina Radish Monday, 11 January 2010 15:57

Twins Allen and Albert Hughes made their mark as filmmakers with their debut as the 20-year-old creators and directors of Menace II Society, a compelling, realistic look at inner-city life that premiered in 1993. Since then, they have been very selective in the projects that they take on, making The Book of Eli only their fifth feature film and the first they're released in nearly a decade.

While at the press day for the film, the Hughes Brothers talked about their interest in religion and their feelings about the future of America.

Q: Why did you want to direct this particular film? What was it about the script and the story that connected with you?

Allen: Around page 40, there's the scene in the movie where Gary Oldman's character, Carnegie, goes berserk and says, "It's not just a book, it's a weapon," and he goes into that diatribe about the Bible, and I was like, "Woah!" In the original script, Eli would recite more from the Bible to people he was going to mercy kill. So, we knew it was a Bible and we knew he was a man of faith. And then, you get to this other character and he says that, and I was like, "This is deep. This is about something. This is not just about blowing stuff up. This is the age-old battle over people." Everything is subjective and it shouldn't be, especially when it comes to a book like that, but people read into it what they want to read into it, and they take out of it what they want to take out of it, a la Jim Jones and the Kool Aid incident.

Albert: That's the fine line that we had to walk with the movie. Like that Kenny Rogers line, we had to know when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em. We had to decide how much spirituality to put in and take out, at any given time. Hopefully, in the end, the audience reads into it what they bring to it. You find those answers yourself. It's just your experience that answers some of these questions for you. If you're inclined to be a bad person at heart, you're probably going to side with Gary's character.

Q: Why did it take you guys this long to find the right project, since making From Hell in 2001?

Albert: We purposely tried to do that Kubrick thing. We released a movie in 2001, and then one in 2010. No, I'm kidding. We wish there was that good an excuse.

Allen: Early success, especially as early as we hit it, at 19 or 20, with Menace II Society, is a gift and a curse. The gift is obvious. You get success and you don't have to worry about much. You're making some money and people know who you are. And, the curse is that you've got to catch up and start to live life, and figure out what life is. To be a good storyteller, you should learn about life and have real-life experiences. And, you can get pigeonholed as black filmmakers. When Oprah goes in 100 years, God bless her, they're not going to say, "She was the best black talk show host." They're going to say, "She was the best talk show host, period." You want to be the best doctor or the best journalist. You don't want to be pigeonholed. So, after Menace, Dead Presidents and American Pimp, we wanted to do something different. And, we always look to what speaks to us. We want people to know we're going to do what speaks to us. It could be something like that movie Precious, or it could be something like From Hell. You don't know what's going to speak to you.

Albert: Also, we don't want to do something just to do something. This is our hobby. We can do that in our off time. We will serve no wine before its time, even if that wine might be sour. At least we spent time on it and tried to make it right. We cared.

Q: This film places an emphasis on the value that books have. Was that in the original script?

Allen: What was in the script was how precious words were. There was an undercurrent of that. Albert was very much a stickler about what we showed, as far as the books. We're losing tactile reading. We've got the Kindle, and all this stuff. It breaks my heart that the new generation is not touching books when they read and they're not going to the library. That is one of the most precious things we have and it's slipping away, very, very rapidly. So, when you do a movie that's a so-called post-apocalyptic movie, but also has Western themes, you go back to these primal things. In the 1700s, there were books. People were reading books. So, the whole Western aspect, jumping back like that, you get right back to the basic fundamentals. Everything comes full circle, as they say. So, we were cognizant of that, as well as what books we were burning.

Albert: I put a comic book in there.

Q: When you cast Denzel Washington in this, how do you remove the movie star and make him as spiritual and downplayed as he is in this role?

Albert: Denzel, by nature, is a very religious and spiritual man. He makes no secret of that. So, he helped us with that, in a way. We're not exactly the most well-read Bible readers in the world. My brother said something awhile ago that was funny about Denzel. He said, "You don't tell Denzel to do anything. He comes in, you confer with him and you talk with him." If he has heart and passion for something, he's there 110%, and he was on this, to the point of almost exhaustion for us. He went over all the scripts in pre-production. He took every single script version, opened them all up, and pulled nuggets out of each one of them. He'd play each role. He'd go page by page, for hours on end. We needed a break. He's a tireless worker.

Allen: One other things that I found very interesting was that scene where he has to quote from the Bible. It's a long excerpt from the Bible. And, on the day, I was just like, "He's not going to do this. There's no way because it's going to be corny, it's going to seem preachy, it's going to be weird." He has this saying, "You've gotta take the curse off it." I just thought he wasn't going to do it, but how he took the curse off it was to just say "we" instead of "I," and he started doing things while he spoke, and then he had everything settled and pulled the sword out. In essence, what he did with those moments that you're walking that fine line with spirituality was take the curse of the corniness of it. He's so wise, so experienced and such a veteran in the little tricks to pull that off. I found that very fascinating. And, this is something you've never seen him do before.

Q: What research did the two of you do, since you weren't too familiar with the Bible?

Albert: I'm not that well versed on the Bible, but I've got it on my iPhone. For any movie you do, you do your research of looking at the other movies that people want to compare it to, and then you do the scientific stuff, with what could happen 20 or 30 years from now, after the apocalypse. For us, the research was, "How is the world going to look?" The reality of what's really going to happen wasn't so important. To us, even though it sounds strange, the environment and the post-apocalyptic aspect of the movie is peripheral. This could have very easily been a Western, which everybody wants to compare it to. It could have been set on an island. We just wanted to get the elements right, so we did do a lot of research on that, but not the stickler research where it had to be a certain way. We wanted to bend the rules a little bit and be a little bit more surreal.

Allen: Personally, I'm obsessed with religion, and different forms of religion. I've watched lots and lots of documentaries and read lots and lots of books. I even read the version of the Bible for retarded people, like me, so that I could understand it. I just like to break all religions down. I've studied Christianity and the Knights Templar. A lot of that stuff, Eli is based off of, along with Native American and the Shaolin monks. You have to study all these elements and bring together the commonality of the theology. There's a through-line there. We've always been obsessed with religion.

[GeneChing]

...from above. :D

Albert: I wouldn't say obsessed. I'm just fascinated by how people react to it, whether good or bad. It's just a fascinating subject. The wars and disagreements that go on come from religion. It's a weird duality that that one thing had, no matter what version of religion it is. They all have some sort of friction going on, and that friction comes from people. People are the problem, not the book. That's what's fascinating to me.

Q: Can you talk about getting this great supporting cast together, which includes Gary Oldman, Malcolm McDowell and Tom Waits?

Allen: Gary came from Denzel. The bad guy wasn't there, at first. He said, "The good guy is only as good as the bad guy," and he worked on flushing that character out. We did a lot of improv and a lot of workshops with just us, Denzel and the script. Then, one day, he just said, "You know how Gary Oldman would do this?" And, for a few days straight, he kept going, "Gary would do it this way." And then, we just said, "Why don't we try to get Gary to play Carnegie?" Gary was very much into going, "Look, I've played bad guys. This guy is not a bad guy. He just does really bad things." There's some grey in there, but some people think he's just straight-up evil because he reaches that Jim Jones point where he crosses the line. But, I liked that he approached the role going, "This is a guy for whom the ends justify the means. He's not a bad guy, but he does bad things." With Tom Waits, we knew that 95% of that scene was improv. It wasn't scripted at all.

Albert: The funniest stuff is not in there.

Allen: It was the only scene in the movie where two gentlemen, after the shotgun goes down, are actually reminiscing and having a civil conversation. It was only an actor of Tom Waits caliber, who's also a musician, who could pull that off. After Denzel did the scene, he was like, "That guy can go." He felt the rhythm, and it was a natural rhythm. We tried to go down the line, with all the actors. Michael Gambon and Frances de la Tour were just amazing British actors who brought a lot to the table.

Q: Will it be another nine years before we see the next Hughes Brothers film?

Allen: No.

Albert: Maybe 10.

Q: Do you guys know what you'll be doing next?

Albert: At this stage, on every movie, we get that question and we wish we had the answer. I can promise that it's not going to be as long. I hope it doesn't. We don't purposely do that. It isn't a Kubrick excuse.

Q: Do you both live in Los Angeles?

Allen: I live outside of L.A.

Albert: And, I live part-time in Prague, in the Czech Republic.

Q: Why Prague?

Albert: I got a little tired of America.

Q: Why did you set The Book of Eli in America, instead of some other place?

Allen: Because America's got it coming. No, I'm joking. I would like to answer that question. Before 9/11, the arrogance of this young nation showed that we should have disaster movies come out only about this country, to remind us and keep us humble. We're young.

Albert: The bullet needs to get knocked out, a couple of times.

Allen: I'm not just saying this to be political, but we have a great country. We have a phenomenal country, and I'm not talking about the Constitution. Have you ever gone out and looked at this place? It's so beautiful, and we take it for granted. We have such a great Nation.

Albert: The analogy is this: Europe is a wise, grey-bearded, old man that's been through it all. It's been through gays, religion, abortion and all those little issues. That grey is showing, and that wiseness. America is a baby. It might be a cute baby, but it's a baby.

THE BOOK OF ELI opens in theaters January 15th

[GeneChing]

Hadn't considered the 'paler sidekick' factor. Does Mila count?

Denzel Washington braves a new world in The Book of Eli' (http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2010/jan/13/bc-movie-elind-_-entertainment/?entertainment&national-entertainment)
* Originally published January 13, 2010 at 8:52 a.m., updated January 13, 2010 at 8:54 a.m.
By John Anderson
Newsday

For some pretty obvious reasons — including their best actor Oscars — Denzel Washington has long been compared to the venerable Sidney Poitier. But back when Poitier was coming to dinner, he wasn't getting there by trudging through a post-apocalyptic, "Mad Max" landscape, carrying the fate of mankind on his shoulders and lopping limbs off bad guys with a big old chef's knife. So any comparisons are probably over.

No, Washington has made his very own and pretty indelible presence in our movie culture, but it's safe to say that when "The Book of Eli" opens Friday, it will introduce fans to a new Denzel — one who has joined the sci-fi fantasy posse currently invading movie theaters galaxy-wide and promises to ignite a Washingtonian debate.

"Is Denzel chasing Will Smith's action-hero status and pretend street credibility?" asks critic Armond White. "Is this an 'I Am Legend' contest? Terrence Howard and Jeffrey Wright have nothing to be afraid of."

Maybe not, but one can see why Washington might want to chart a new course through the continually heaving landscape of the movie business. With few exceptions ("The Great Debaters" of 2007, for instance), his movies have always made money — but a very static kind of money. Over the past decade, the thrillers in which Washington has specialized have been remarkably consistent earners — "Training Day" ($77 million domestic; $105 million worldwide); "John Q." ($77 million; $102 million), "Man on Fire" ($78 million; $130 million); "The Manchurian Candidate" ($66 million; $96 million); "Inside Man" ($88 million; $104 million); "Deja Vu" ($64 million; $180 million); and last year's "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" ($66 million; $150 million).

But Washington has been the victim of some nasty facts of life: The movies that have made major money — like "American Gangster" ($130 million domestic; $266 million worldwide) — have paired him with another (white) star, and it's made a big difference, even if his paler sidekick has been Russell Crowe (or, in "Pelham," John Travolta). The black American movie has traditionally not sold well overseas, and global sales are a major motivator in what studios are choosing to make. Add to this that Washington has not, for some time, made himself politically or artistically important — there's been no "Philadelphia" (1992), no "Malcolm X" (1993), not even "The Siege" (1998), with its prescient paranoia about radical Islam. So why not take a trip into the future?

Directed by brothers Allen and Albert Hughes ("Menace II Society," ''From Hell"), "The Book of Eli" is, in a sense, a Western: The title character, the classic lone wolf, travels the scorched world of 2043 carrying a book in which the salvation of mankind is enclosed; the conflict arises when the book is seized by the mayor of a makeshift frontier town (Gary Oldman).

If it sounds a bit like something by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood, Allen Hughes will not disabuse you.

"It was an Eastwood-esque role," he agreed, by phone from Los Angeles. "Shaolin monk meets Sitting Bull meets Moses meets Bruce Lee. And Denzel was the first choice in my mind. He was the guy."

Hughes, who hasn't directed a movie with his brother since the Jack the Ripper movie "From Hell," said since that Johnny Depp vehicle opened in 2001, he and Albert have had five or six projects they were deeply interested in doing, but that, for one reason or another, never got made.

"One we were very passionate about — and which got made because a movie star made it — was 'Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,'" he said, referring to George Clooney's directorial debut. "We had a strong vision for it, but at the time the politics of it weren't right. It was a movie we were perfect for, something that was original, but it just didn't happen."

Having Washington on board, he said, made a huge difference with "The Book of Eli." Not all the difference, but a difference.

"Denzel was a major factor in getting it made, but even when we got him, there were more hurdles. He was very helpful because, obviously, he's a great actor, a two-time Academy Award winner, a movie star, but there were still politics, and he had to get involved as a producer, and if he hadn't, the movie wouldn't have gotten made because it's not something that's in Denzel's normal wheelhouse."

Given that scenario — a major star leaving his comfort zone — Hughes said the studios "will come up with 6 million excuses why they shouldn't do it."

But the change of tempo — in both an artistic and professional sense — may prove to be a boon for Washington, a star of considerable luminosity that probably needs to be refocused.

"You want a guy with that luggage," said Hughes about casting "The Book of Eli." ''You want a guy with the nobility Denzel has — he's done Oscar-winning work for 20, 30 years, and he has a presence that harkens back to the great actors of old, guys who didn't have to say much but could walk onto the screen and consume the screen with their presence and their manhood."

That, Allen Hughes said, was what he wanted out of Washington. "This role requires him not to talk a lot, which is something he's very good at doing," he said. "In 'Training Day,' he's running his mouth 60 miles an hour and you're right there with him the whole time. So I was interested in taking that guy — and there's only one Denzel — and stripping it down, not having him say much."

And rewriting the book of Denzel Washington.

___

BRIEF PRIMER ON CAREER OF DENZEL WASHINGTON

Denzel Washington's career has seemed varied, yet predictable — thrillers, social dramas and biopics seem to arrive in comfortable succession — but he also has had far too many films for any easy assessment. The following, however, are the projects that got him where he is:

"St. Elsewhere" (1982-88) — The prognosis was decidedly positive for Washington after he played Dr. Philip Chandler in this gritty, cult-fave NBC series about a decaying teaching hospital in Boston's South End. When Washington checked out, he entered superstardom.

"Glory" (1989) — Ed Zwick's Civil War drama about the all-black 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry helped Washington become the first black actor to earn two best supporting actor nominations (the other was for "Cry Freedom"). He then followed Louis Gossett Jr. as only the second African-American to win in that category.

"Malcolm X" (1992) — Washington's fierce performance (his best?) was a bit too fierce for the academy, which gave him a nomination but bestowed the award on Al Pacino (for "Scent of a Woman," go figure). His portrayal of the black nationalist martyr cemented his longtime partnership with Spike Lee, the director who seems to bring out his best.

"Philadelphia" (1993) — Tom Hanks may have won the best actor Oscar, but wasn't this really Washington's movie? His performance as ****phobic lawyer Joe Miller was the engine of the film.

"Training Day" (2001) — Anyone find it ironic that Washington had to play an out-and-out bad guy to finally win his best actor Oscar? And for a movie in which he was arguably a supporting player? Whatever: He was mad, bad and dangerous as the gloriously corrupt Alonzo Harris.

"Inside Man" (2006) — Washington's fourth collaboration with director Lee (this year's "Inside Man 2" will be the fifth), this cat-and-mouse hostage drama played to all the actor's strongest suits — he was sexy, he was smart, he was funny and he owned the screen.

[GeneChing]

Read BOOK OF ELI: Art of Reading without Reading (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=869)by Dr. Craig Reid. :cool:

[Zenshiite]

Seriously... for a couple years I've been kicking around this idea for a graphic novel that leads into the Islamic end times prophecies, and the more I read about this movie(haven't seen it yet) the more I realize that I have to scrap the basic idea of my character because my dude was going to be a loner bagua man with a big dao going around and righting wrongs and what not. Would probably end up fighting with some dictator in some kind of a town.

Of course, that's also Fist of the North Star in so many ways. That sucks, but what can you do? Looking forward to seeing this movie.

[mooyingmantis]

Taking my family to see it today.

[doug maverick]

Ok just watched this movie and I gotta say I really enjoyed it. Every review I read of this film I couldn’t tell if they were being positive or negative I don’t think they even knew. One thing I gotta say is this is not for people who don’t have at least and inkling of the bible, in terms of story. Because this movie is truly, “god has a plan for everything” type of movie, everything that happens is suppose to happen, that type of fashion. Denzel Washington as Eli was fantastic and I wish I would have known more about his past, it just made you more intrigued to know, same thing for Gary Oldman’s character. For some reason I saw him as a school teacher in his past life. And Eli I saw him as a total atheist non believer, as often is the case god always chooses those who forsake him to do is work, in the bible. Maybe he was a scientist. The one weak person in this film was the tragic miscasting of mila kunis, she totally sucks in action roles, same way she did in max payne, it’s not her look but her voice it’s just not an action girls voice, I know that may sound weird but I draw her problem right to that. Another thing was her look, I was thinking she should have been uglier like missing some teeth or something, instead she looked like a gorgeous women with some dirt on her. Tom waits was totally underused as the shop owner. And the cannibal characters could’ve been better organized (for example the old couple should have came earlier in the film). But really a movie with both gary oldman and denzel wahsington, it could’ve just been them two reading the phone book at each other and it would have been good.

Ok as for the story, like I said it was one of those “god has a plan for everything” type of stories, and watching all the puzzles fit into place my confuse some people. For example(spoiler alert) people think denzel failed in his mission, when in fact it was just as it was planned he delivered the book to a man in the west as he was supposed to. And by reading the book for thirty years he himself became its catalyst. There some places where the hughes could have strengthened the film. You get the Sergio leone spaghetti western feel(one of the characters even whistles the theme from once upon a time in America) part samurai film(in a really big way,) and of course part mad max.

The cinematography by Don burges(forest gump, spider man, what lies beneath) was downright gorgeous, he did a fantastic job and capturing that post apocalyptic feel. The sound design was also another thing to note as it was used to enhance your feeling of being in this drap world.

Ok now to the part where Eli steals the show, the action. Jeff imadas choreography was amazing, down right. Haven’t seen better in America in a long while, and denzel doing the action was great. I like how the movements were efficient over flash. I thoroughly enjoyed all the action scenes.

All and all I give the movie A strong 8 out of ten. I would love to see it again and probably will.

[Zenshiite]

I thought it was a good movie. I was really enthralled with the atmosphere and the idea of the story. The biblical theme is very interesting, and the fact that it could have been any other religious scripture is interesting to me. Though, I don't think it would work as well with the setting if the book Eli was tasked with delivering had been the Qur'an. I would have been totally psyched about that, but it would make more sense in a middle eastern post apocalyptic setting. Of course, this movie isn't about the King James Bible specifically providing salvation, it's part of a growing collection that ultimately will lead to the rebuilding of society. Which makes the Bible in this story much more symbolic of the most influential works in human history than it necessarily does of specific Christian teachings. It's especially symbolic of the foundations of human ethics, and in the world we are presented with this is absolutely important.

My wife and I were discussing it today, and one of the things we came up with is that Carnegie is obviously only interested in wielding the Bible as a weapon(duh, right?) but Eli's objective ultimately is to spread the teachings and knowledge contained in that book. Or rather, that's going to be the outcome of his mission if it should be completed. It's a story of religious texts in so many ways, really. The tension between those who would spread the knowledge of the Bible and those who would horde the knowledge of the Bible and use it to manipulate and rule the ignorant masses.

I agree that Mila Kunis is woefully out of place. I could deal with her still being cute and all, but it was her clothes that bothered me the most. Plus, she was the damsel in distress the whole movie... so the voice didn't bother me so much. It was the clothes, that looked like they were right off the rack in the local mall that bothered me the most.


I also found my feelings about the movie to be hard to place, despite the fact that I really enjoyed watching it. I didn't feel like there was anything particularly moving about the film, and I do feel like there could have been something really moving in there. Given the subject matter. It just kind of left me in a pondering sort of mood, rather than doing anything particularly sentimental. It's a contemplative sort of movie, ironically, given the brutal nature of the melee and fist fighting. All of which was superb.

[doug maverick]

I thought it was a good movie. I was really enthralled with the atmosphere and the idea of the story. The biblical theme is very interesting, and the fact that it could have been any other religious scripture is interesting to me. Though, I don't think it would work as well with the setting if the book Eli was tasked with delivering had been the Qur'an. I would have been totally psyched about that, but it would make more sense in a middle eastern post apocalyptic setting. Of course, this movie isn't about the King James Bible specifically providing salvation, it's part of a growing collection that ultimately will lead to the rebuilding of society. Which makes the Bible in this story much more symbolic of the most influential works in human history than it necessarily does of specific Christian teachings. It's especially symbolic of the foundations of human ethics, and in the world we are presented with this is absolutely important.

My wife and I were discussing it today, and one of the things we came up with is that Carnegie is obviously only interested in wielding the Bible as a weapon(duh, right?) but Eli's objective ultimately is to spread the teachings and knowledge contained in that book. Or rather, that's going to be the outcome of his mission if it should be completed. It's a story of religious texts in so many ways, really. The tension between those who would spread the knowledge of the Bible and those who would horde the knowledge of the Bible and use it to manipulate and rule the ignorant masses.

I agree that Mila Kunis is woefully out of place. I could deal with her still being cute and all, but it was her clothes that bothered me the most. Plus, she was the damsel in distress the whole movie... so the voice didn't bother me so much. It was the clothes, that looked like they were right off the rack in the local mall that bothered me the most.


I also found my feelings about the movie to be hard to place, despite the fact that I really enjoyed watching it. I didn't feel like there was anything particularly moving about the film, and I do feel like there could have been something really moving in there. Given the subject matter. It just kind of left me in a pondering sort of mood, rather than doing anything particularly sentimental. It's a contemplative sort of movie, ironically, given the brutal nature of the melee and fist fighting. All of which was superb.

i agree with you about the cloths...those were really out of place along with kunis herself...its like i said she just seemed so wrong for the part.

[GeneChing]

Book of Eli did well in the shadow of Avatar. $32,770,000 weekend gross according to box office mojo (http://boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/).

The Book of Eli Directors Allen and Albert Hughes on Their Sacred MacGuffin (http://blogs.amctv.com/scifi-scanner/2010/01/book-of-eli-hughes-brothers-interview.php)

Twin brothers Allen and Albert Hughes (Menace II Society, From Hell) discuss their post-apocalyptic flick, share their views on how religion relates to The Force and explain how The Book of Eli is their version of Kung Fu.

Q: Allen, you read the script to Book of Eli first, then you had to convince Albert (an atheist) to do it. What attracted you to the project?

Allen: It was sparse and it was pure and it just felt like a throwback to everything we cared about in cinema. It was getting better and better as a post-nuclear Western movie, and I think around page 45, Carnegie (Gary Oldman's character), said "It's not just a book -- it's a weapon." And I went, "Oh my God!" That was spine-tingling.

Albert: The first thing Allen said to me on the phone was that line from that "Where's the Beef" commercial, "I finally found it!" So I read it and I called him back and I said, "I just don't know about this religious element." And I just heard him deflate. He told me to sleep on it, so I went to sleep with that Trent Reznor album Year Zero stuck in my head, and I had a dream about the movie, and I found my way in through the song.

Q: Variety posited that Warner Bros. should have courted a Christian audience for the movie. Do you agree?

Allen: I don't think you can consciously court a Christian audience going into a project. Christians aren't like sheep -- there's this perception that just because they go to church they're going to do what their pastor tells them to do. But if they hear from their family and loved ones that it's not a good movie, they're not going to the cinema [Laughs]. Doesn't matter what the message is. Kirk Cameron taught us that lesson. If they were so huge, he'd be a f---ing rock star right now.

Albert: You've gotta believe in the movie, much like Lord of the Rings or Star Wars: People go in and suspend disbelief and they go along for that ride. But when you get something as incendiary as religion, logical-minded intellectuals, even non-logical people start to get weirded out. As a non-believer, I'm sure some of the stuff will rub you the wrong way. I just hope people go into this movie and use that same side of their brain that let them accept there's a Middle Earth and Hobbits.

Allen: My theory is my brother always wants to be the hard-a-- on everything. I don't think he's an atheist. He just doesn't believe in a certain book or a particular God. But Albert was possessed when he put the book together to get us this job -- he **** near didn't sleep for three weeks and we had to check him into the hospital. My personal theory, and I've never said this before, is whether it be Jesus or Buddha or someone like Sitting Bull, they're all representative of the same one-ness. I don't think God bets on a horse. [Laughs]

Q: In that sense, the Bible in your movie really could have been anything.

Allen: It's interesting because I refer to it as a Sacred MacGuffin. The Bible is just the most popular example you can use -- and the most debated one on a mass level. It's the world's best-selling book!

Albert: It's not about preaching or religion; it could have easily been a book about how to make the perfect bomb.

Q: This movie follows on the heels of The Road and 2012. Why is now such an appropriate time for post-apocalyptic movies?

Allen: I guess everything is just a delayed reaction. I think 9/11 hit home hard for America -- it's the first time we felt mortal. And that feels real and that's drama. So I think they started putting those in the pipeline back then.

Albert: I think it's a complete accident. Everybody brings up genres, and I'm like, has anyone talked about the thousand cop movies that came out last year? It's true, there are a lot of these post-apocalyptic movies coming out now, but I'd rather see ten post-apocalyptic movies, eight of them being really bad, than a thousand cop movies. For us it was just a good story.

Q: You drew inspiration for Eli from Kung Fu movies like Oldboy and Enter the Dragon. Will that influence your proposed adaptation of the Kung Fu television series?

Allen: Uh, if we ever do that, yeah. I think Book of Eli is Kung Fu. It's the same story -- it's a Christian man instead of a Buddhist monk. It's a walker in the West looking for something and coming across a bunch of trouble. I don't know how much interest Kung Fu still holds. I'd rather go back and do the Battle of Big Little Horn -- Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and Custard and put that on steroids.

Albert: Yeah I think that Eli did get that out of our system. We did the so-called post-apocalyptic, violent, religious, spiritual whatever the f--- that thing is, and now let's do the 180 of that. At heart, me and my brother are clowns. No one really knows that, but we should be doing comedies. But it's a tough sell in town after all these violent movies.

[mickey]

Greetings,

I saw the movie and I thought it was good. Denzel handled fight choreography really well; well, amazingly well, to be honest.

Without trying to introduce a spoiler, I noticed a Muslim subtext to Eli's unique ability at the end of the flick. It is something that they (I do not know if all sects do this) are known to do with their religion. That, the scimitar and his navigation skills are attributes and qualities associated with Muslims. So then, was Eli a Muslim to begin with who, somehow, converted along his path to wisdom? With that in mind it would have been that much cooler if Eli had a few religious books with him.

mickey

ps: I am tired of watching Denzel Washington die in his movies. It ruins his income potential with a sequel.

[Zenshiite]

Eli could easily have been Ilyas and carrying a Qur'an, for sure.

[mickey]

Zenshiite,

Do you think someone flipped the script to make it more palatable? Since my last post, I got that feeling.

That the character of Eli may have been a Muslim carrying the Bible elevates the story with the "we serve the same God" message.

Who really was Eli? Eli was absolute devotion, surrender, and love. Gee, that sounds familiar.

mickey

[Zenshiite]

Most of the interviews with the Hughes brothers says the script came with the Bible in tact and they never considered changing the books. So, no, I don't think that it was different before that. Just that it could have been, so the movie becomes less about the Bible specifically and more about what religious books can be used for IMO.



SPOILER ALERT!!!!


I think that's borne out by the ending and where the shelf that the KJV Bible ends up on. It joins a couple copies of the Qur'an(one entirely in Arabic), a couple versions of the Torah & Tanakh, and books of Aristotle and what not. So to me it's not so much about the importance of the Bible above all other books. Of course, the tag line of the ad campaign is probably misleading.

[oasis]

Well, the other thing about a Muslim version of this is that it would not have been based on an actual text but rather the character would have inevitably been a Hafidh (one who memorized the Quran). Thus, he would have only been carrying the text in his head, which would leave more room in his bag for weapons :cool:

[Zenshiite]

^Very true. I was actually pretty stoked at the end when it turned out Eli had memorized his Bible. Because of the Hafiz parallel. Of course, in my mind it does somewhat stretch my suspension of disbelief because while the Qur'an, in Arabic, actually lends itself to memorization via the poetic structure... the King James Verson of the Bible definitely does not. So that's no small feat, a miracle in itself really.

[doug maverick]

i thin k you are forgetting he was reading the bible for 30 years...so 30 years reading the same book anybody would know it backwards and forwards.

[Zenshiite]

^I'm sure there are plenty of priests that don't know the Bible like that.

[doug maverick]

there arent many preist who read the bible everyday for thirty years...and those that do and have...no the bible backwards and forwards.

[Zenshiite]

^You think they'd be able to recite it word for word to be recorded for posterity?

[doug maverick]

if you read it everyday for 30 years...yes

[Zenshiite]

I have my doubts. In Hebrew, I can see that a little more. It definitely lends itself towards that kind of memorization. I'm skeptical about the language of the King James Version specifically, though. Open to being wrong though.

[doug maverick]

if people can remember whole plays of shakespeare....they can remember the bible.

[mickey]

Greetings,

A couple of years ago I purchased some cd lectures by Dr. York. What was most interesting not how he jumped from religious book to religious book; but, how his followers were able to keep up with him, often finishing the verses before he did. So, that kind of integration/memorization can be done, even with a King James bible.


mickey