Scarecrow suggests ... If you like 'The Book of Eli,' check out 'Mad Max" and other post-apocalyptic films

"The Book of Eli," starring Denzel Washington as an apocalypse survivor, brings to mind George Miller's "Mad Max" trilogy, one of the most memorable and influential visions of a post-apocalyptic future. Each installment has a distinct and vivid new take of this world — first as a society on the brink of collapse in "Mad Max" (1978); then a desert wasteland where savages battle over fuel in "The Road Warrior" (1981); and finally as a brutally rebuilt society where decisions are made by combat or spinning wheels and our drifter hero (Mel Gibson) must lead a tribe of orphans to the promised land of a bombed-out city in "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" (1985). Any post-apocalyptic movie can't help but be compared to these fiercely original and entertaining classics.

In 1997's "The Postman," Kevin Costner plays an apocalypse survivor who's making his way across the land trading performances of Shakespeare for food and water when he's forcibly drafted into a neo-fascist army of scavengers called The Holnists.

He soon escapes and finds a bag of undelivered mail. Emboldened by the stories he finds inside the letters, he dubs himself "The Postman" and pledges to deliver the mail along with fictional but hopeful tales of a restored United States.

His message spreads quickly and others are inspired to join his cause. Soon The Postman has his own army of volunteer "postal workers" who rally to make a stand against The Holnists.

Hope lies not with words but in the land in "Waterworld" (1995), Costner's big-budget disaster extravaganza in which the polar ice caps have melted and the world is mainly covered by the oceans. He plays "The Mariner," a drifter who has been out to sea on his makeshift vessel for so long that he's grown webbed feet and gills.

While attempting to trade a prized tomato plant for supplies with another vessel, a group of pirates arrive looking for a girl, Enola, who is rumored to have directions to the seemingly mythical Dryland tattooed on her back.

Led by their diabolic captain called "The Deacon" (Dennis Hopper), the pirates capture Enola and set sail for the promise land. The usually solitary Mariner becomes a key player in her rescue and helping to lead a band of survivors to a new life on solid ground.

Jim McBride's "Glen and Randa" (1971) follows a young couple as they forge an existence in a post-apocalyptic world. Their only knowledge of the world as it was is cobbled together from remnants they find among the desolation and accounts from old-timers who relay fantastic stories of appliances and popular culture.

Glen is intrigued by the existence of "cities," especially the ones described in the "Wonder Woman" comics he steals from a "magician" whose only real power is remembering the past.

When they discover Randa is pregnant, the two set off to find what may be left of Metropolis. "Glen and Randa" was rated X upon its initial theatrical release mainly because the couple is naked throughout the majority of the film.

Lastly, we highly recommend the recent film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's book "The Road," which won't be out on DVD until spring but is still playing at some theaters around town. Viggo Mortensen plays a man who roams a desolated and often violent world with his young son, both hoping to reach the promise of warmer weather on the coast.

Despite the daily toil of hunger and having to remain on constant alert for cannibals and others out to steal their meager supplies, coupled with the despair of being inescapably surrounded by death and decay, the man refuses to give in to hopelessness and savagery.

Though their circumstances are grim, he reassures his son they are still the good guys and that they must soldier on to help "carry the fire" of humanity. It is a powerful testament to the bond between father and son and mankind's eternal fight to survive despite all odds.

"The Book of Eli" directors Allen and Albert Hughes, better known simply as the Hughes Brothers, are a talented but not very prolific team of twin-brother filmmakers. They caused a stir with their 1993 crime debut "Menace II Society," a rawer counterpart to John Singleton's "Boyz N The Hood." They lost some of their critics with their underrated second film, "Dead Presidents" (1995) — maybe it was overly ambitious to tackle the Vietnam War at such a young age (and in a bank-robber movie). Next was the fascinating documentary "American Pimp" (1999), but they've been absent from the big screen since 2001 when they stumbled with the Johnny Depp vs. Jack the Ripper comic-book-adaptation "From Hell."

Contributed by Scarecrow Video, 5030 Roosevelt Way N.E., Seattle; 206-524-8554 or www.scarecrow.com