Stream Denzel Washington’s Most Underrated Sci-Fi Movie
The Book of Eli is streaming on Hulu.
The Denzel Washington sci-fi film The Book of Eli is streaming now on Hulu. Directed by the Hughes Brothers and with a screenplay by Gary Whitta, The film follows a wandering nomad named Eli (Washington), who is on a mission to safely deliver an unknown book to a location on the United States West Coast in a world that has become a desolate wasteland. Also starring Mila Kunis, Gary Oldman, Jennifer Beals, and Ray Stevenson, the movie was originally released in January of 2010.
The Book of Eli did well at the box office, largely driven by Denzel Washington’s star power, with global earnings of $157.1 million against an $80 million budget. In the film, three decades after a nuclear annihilation, Eli sets out across what is left of the United States, using his fighting abilities to survive.
His journey leads him to a dilapidated town where he goes in search of water. There, he finds Carnegie, a warlord who is looking for a book through which he believes he will be able to gain power over others, but which his cohorts have so far failed to locate.
When it becomes clear that Eli is carrying a copy of the book Carnegie seeks, a pursuit begins. The Book of Eli was a Hughes Brothers project before Denzel Washington became involved, with Columbia Pictures and Warner Bos. signing the directing duo to the project in 2007. Washington came on board the project in September of 2008, with Gary Oldman added that October.
With Oldman and Denzel Washington attached, The Book of Eli began filming in New Mexico in February of 2009. The film was a co-production of Silver Pictures and Alcon Entertainment, the latter of which financed the project. It was well-reviewed for its performances and story, as well as for its action sequences.
For those action sequences, Denzel Washington trained for months with Jeff Imada and Dan Inosanto, learning Kali, a Filipino martial art. The complicated fight scenes in The Book of Eli, which were choreographed by Imada, are impressive and fascinating to watch. Gary Oldman is also a standout in the film for his role as Carnegie.
The not-so-secret reveal of the identity of the book happens fairly early in The Book of Eli as Denzel Washington’s character’s prayer comes from it, revealing the book to be the Bible. The concept at the core of the film, then, is the idea that the Bible can be used for ill or for good, and that some see it as a way to wield power, while others see it as a way to give life. Then again, Eli certainly kills quite a few people (32, according to AOBG) protecting the book, raising the question of ethical stakes in the context of a fight for survival.
Though co-director Allen Hughes said at the time that The Book of Eli‘s religious sensibilities will be either informed by those of the viewer or found to be nonexistent, it’s likely that Denzel Washington’s own faith informed his decision to make the film. Still, its directors seem fairly settled in the idea that it does not have an explicitly religious message.
That’s not a hard idea to defend in a film with lots of sex and violence, but with all the sex and violence in the Bible, which itself features prominently in the story, there’s certainly another way to look at it.
Whatever the ideas viewers take away from The Book of Eli, it’s worth seeing for Denzel Washington alone and stands as an underrated entry into his storied cinematic catalogue. Running the gamut of moral and spiritual sensibilities from The Preacher’s Wife to American Gangster, the actor’s filmography is nothing if not diverse, and this movie represents a unique piece of his history. If you haven’t seen him as Eli, you haven’t seen everything of which he is capable.
Though The Book of Eli was being compared and contrasted at the time with then-recent similar films like The Road, the Denzel Washington vehicle is able to be viewed now a bit more on its own. As such, it stands as an interesting story that is rather unlike a lot of films in its genre. Catch it on Hulu while its around.
