I recently watched the “Book of Eli”, it came on after another movie I wanted to see. I normally wouldn’t have bothered (too depressing) but the opening scenes caught my attention. It was actually pretty good as entertainment, but not at all realistic IMO. I won’t detail the entire film, but it’s abount a guy who is carrying a Bible from somewhere in the interior of the US to the West Coast, after a generic apocalypse.  There a a few things I thought were accurate:

• Water was the number one commodity. It was all about filling up that canteen, which is pretty much what combat troops with no supply tail do.
• Footwear is number three. No transpo, means hoofing it everywhere. Eli was all about scrounging better boots, again a prime factor for infantry guys.
• Hygiene was number four. Shampoo and soap was the gold of the future, which again jibes with most veteran accounts of being on the line and dreaming of getting clean. I feel nasty after a day or two, weeks and months I can’t imagine.

What was silly:

• Bandits living in the middle of nowhere after 31 years of anarchy.
• Victims of said bandits oblivious to danger, including unmuffled motorcyles.
• Viable 31+ year old batteries, bullet primers and powder, vehicle tires, and gasoline.
• Road Warrior as a lifestyle. I am pretty sure people would hang all miscreants on sight, it would be all about cooperation and not lone wolf tactics. Makes for a good film action I guess.
• The strangely sociable prepper cannibals with no prepared firing positions or defensive fortifications.  Surely they would have expected trouble and sandbagged a room or two, and kept a lookout for intruders. I enjoyed how the bad guys DROVE UP, got out of their vehicles, then engaged in a dialog with the heavily armed occupants while casually setting up a Gatling gun. Huh? 4 people inside, please pick off all standing right away BEFORE WE ALL GET WAXED!  I especially enjoyed Denzel’s line “..I expect they are up to no good.” Yeah no kidding, Mr. Wizard.