The Book of Eli

Rewatched the Hughes’ Brothers “Book of Eli” last night. Ebert reviewed it back when:

The Hughes brothers have a vivid way with imagery here, as in their earlier films such as “Menace II Society” and the underrated “From Hell.” The film looks and feels good, and Washington’s performance is the more uncanny the more we think back over it. The ending is “flawed,” as we critics like to say, but it’s so magnificently, shamelessly, implausibly flawed that (a) it breaks apart from the movie and has a life of its own, or (b) at least it avoids being predictable.

Denzel Washington is one of those actors you can’t not watch… which put me in mind of the interview Terry Gross did with him on Fresh Air. As is her tendency, she asked a question based on a detail that caught her eye:

GROSS: There is a scene in this where you’re holding two guns on someone, and you kind of scrape the guns against each other as if there two knives that you’re sharpening.

WASHINGTON: Mm-hmm.

GROSS: Was that a bit of business that you came up with when you were holding the guns?

WASHINGTON: Of course. I mean, you know, it’s just rhythm. You know, acting is like music, you know, and you improvise and you, it’s like jazz, you know, there’s no rhyme or reason to it. It’s not a plan. I just did it. You know, it’s just rhythm. To me it’s just a rhythm. It’s like you do – Stanislavski said, you know, you cut 90 percent. You do all your research and you prepare and then you let it rip, you know, and that’s how it is. You know, you practice to music and you just play it.

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