The U.S. military makes a scarred bounty hunter with warrants on his own head an offer he cannot refuse: in exchange for his freedom, he must stop a terrorist who is ready to unleash Hell on Earth.

In “The Book of Eli,” Denzel Washington stars as a lone warrior named Eli, who fights his way across the desolate wasteland of near-future America to realize his destiny and deliver the knowledge that can bring civilization back from the brink of destruction and save the future of humanity.

Right from its virtuoso opening – an extended remodelling of the traditional Western shoot-out – Leone’s milestone movie draws on familiar genre motifs, and tests their mythical aspirations against tawdry historical reality. Blending an elliptical vengeance drama (with Bronson as a nameless hunter), a perverse variation on the parable of civilisation brought to the wilderness (Cardinale as whoring earth mother), and a laconic commentary on the mores of a changing world (courtesy of...