Let’s talk about the Book of Eli for a second. On paper, the combination of the Hughes Brothers, Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman should lead t0 something of a certain quality level. At the end of the film, it does, but it’s not the calibre of actor or direction which left me wanting by the time the film was done.

It’s the soundtrack.

Denzel and Oldman do their jobs well. It’s a post-apocalyptic samurai flick, not the first thing I’d describe these two excellent character actors as starring in. They lift the script above mediocre to something good, but it’s Atticus Ross‘ work as composer which makes this movie a thing to behold.

Barren Southwestern landscapes have a sound to them. Morricone had it down pat when scoring Leone’s spaghetti Western’s but that was then. This is now or the near now, or possibly a hundred years post now. Ross’s score lacks the grace of a Morricone but makes it up with a rusted wind swept grandeur that lends a beauty to an industrial desert future.

Like the hole blasted in the sky that the movie speaks of,  Ross blasts a hole in modern composition meshing it with the dusky blues of Seattle’s Earth and the mechanical mutterings of a producers hand that could’ve only spent way too much time in front of a pro-tools rig tweaking samples.

It’s this attention to detail that may sound familiar. It’s that same touch that added a deft angle to the sound of Nine Inch Nails over the last few years, Ross having worked with the band for ages and even been signed to Trent Reznor‘s Nothing label at one point.

A tremendous attempt at a soundtrack, it’s an inspiring listen, crossing ambient and post-rock shelves in the record store to break new ground. In a day and age where it’s easy enough to blow money of licensing songs for film, to create a brilliant new work of art attached to another and yet stands on its own, is simply brilliant.