The Postman (1997)
Directed by Kevin Costner
In 2013, there are no highways, no I-ways, no dreams of a better tomorrow, only scattered survivors across what was once the United States. Into this apocalyptic wasteland comes an enigmatic drifter with a mule, a knack for Shakespeare, and something yet undiscovered: the power to inspire hope.
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What critics compared The Postman to
Yes folks we're in Mad Max, Terminator Salvation and even The Postman country as a grizzled, bible toting and quoting Denzel goes on his ‘lone wolf’ (or Littlest Hobo) mission to save humanity, one town at a time.
Unlike other attempts at showcasing how rationality is restored in a society destroyed by chaos (say, The Postman), The Book of Eli never loses sight of its strategy.
Though it cribs wholeheartedly from previous end-of-the-world cinematic observations (think of the film as a cross between “The Road,” “The Postman,” and “A Boy and His Dog”), the Hughes Brothers craft a compellingly abrasive tone of moral manipulation to embellish the traditional maneuvers of violence, as Eli defends his secret tomb from would-be thieves and crusty scoundrels.
Scott's movie, by contrast, tears holes into Heller's world through which come marching some over-the-top post-apocalyptic tropes from A Boy and His Dog (1975), The Road Warrior (1981), and The Postman (1997).
The Bigger Picture: Actors who become directors often make the same, self-indulgent mistake of falling in love with their own performance so much that they can't see their way to cutting any of it down in the editing room, with Kevin Costner's The Postman being only the most egregious example.
Or at least leading to a final solution not just feverishly telegraphed, but ultimately insulting in the kind of Nancy Grace-ish �we care when a pretty young white girl is kidnapped� kinda way that somehow upstages Kevin Costner�s final shot in The Postman with the most callously self-indulgent tribute shot that a director could give to himself as the star of his own misguided project.
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If this sounds a little bit like The Postman , that's because it is--except in The Postman , Kevin Costner played a postman who did Shakespeare with his mule.