HANS ROLLMANN - Last weekend I saw the Hughes brothers' recent film, "The Book of Eli," with Denzel Washington in the leading role as Eli and Gary Oldman as Carnegie, his sinister opponent and antagonist.
The strongest female characters are Mila Kunis as Solara, who attaches herself to Eli, and her blind mother Claudia, played by Jennifer Beals, who is abused by Carnegie. In a post-apocalyptic North America, a nuclear holocaust and subsequent winter have turned the Earth into a menacing, lifeless landscape.
Brutal force reigns supreme; water, food and the basic necessities of life and survival are precious commodities. In this world, somewhere between "Road Warrior" and "Deadwood," the traveller Eli arrives in a town controlled by a strongman, Carnegie, and his villains.
Carnegie, who is reading a book about Mussolini when he is first introduced, sends his motley crew of thugs to scour the countryside for a mysterious book which has so far eluded them. A book is also Eli's most prized possession, from which he reads daily, making this film "religious" despite its violent interludes.
