There Will Be Blood (2008)

 Great Performance, Good Flick
This movie was well done from start to finish. Daniel Day-Lewis did an amazing job. The evolution of Day-Lewis' character, and the relationship with his son, is really interesting. I can't really pin point the exact reason why I like the movie other than all the little experiences Day-Lewis' character goes through, and how it all sums up at the end with his rival. If you have a short attention span (i.e. if you like Michael Bay movies, or anything of that nature), this movie is not for you.

May 13, 2008

 there will be blood
what a long, long, long and boring movie!!! i thought it would never end. i didn't want to turn it off as it was so boring i knew i would never put it on again and i wanted to see if anything worth seing actually happened. it didn't. there's 2 1/2 hours of my life i will never get back. May 13, 2008

 Oscars For This Film Well Deserved
Daniel Day-Lewis was deserving of the Academy Award he received for his portrayal of an intense, driven and obsessive oil man in "There Will Be Blood". The initial stages of the film are a mini-documentary of the dangerous, dirty and labor intensive process of drilling oil wells in early twentieth century California. Day-Lewis's character, Daniel Plainview, strives to become an oil tycoon using strong arm sales pitches to acquire land, relentless effort to drill wells and strategic vision in applying new pipeline technology to bypass the railroad monopoly and deliver his product to market. His nemesis is an equally ambitious pentecostal preacher who manipulates the simple townfolk that ranch the land above Plainview's oil fields. Ultimately both men are destoyed by their respective obsessions.

The flow of the film falters a little at the end. However, Day-Lewis's best performance of his career (surpassing strong performances in "The Age of Innocence" and "Gangs of New York") make this one of the best films of 2007. May 12, 2008

 There Will Be Greed
The many ways that greed manifests are countless in this film. Virtually no character goes without claim on some level of selfishness when oil is discovered on otherwise useless California properties. The lives of the inhabitants of a small farm community are turned upside down when the reality of what wealth can be gained dawns on them, as well as when they realize the price they will pay to have it. The story is a believable exploitation of the land and lives of those striking out on the American frontier. Central to its conflict are Daniel Plainview, a slick oil prospector with the sincerity of a snake oil salesman, and Eli Sunday, the ambitious young pastor of a struggling country church.

Day-Lewis Truly deserved all the accolades he won for his performance of Daniel Plainview in this film. The range of his skills was wholly evident in this film, from the overall reserved and refined mannerisms of Plainview, to his later explosive and subtly vitriolic snide treatment of others. In truth, every performance in this film was flawless. In particular Paul Dano, Sunday, should have gotten more attention for his supporting role. His passionate sermons were frightening and moving in his ability to swing from demure to suddenly thundering. The physicality he brought to the character was entrancing as much as creepy. I'm excited to think of what work he will do from this point forward.

Overall the direction of the film seemed to be spot-on in delivery. Most impressive to me were the great gaps in dialogue. I'm always impressed when a scene is forced to move forward without speech. That said, I'm not quite sure to what the poor pacing and seeming gaps in sequencing should be attributed. In some places the film moved quite slowly, while sudden artless segués seemed to leave out huge chunks of time and plot development. I also found the score to be extremely distracting throughout most of the film. Indeed it was innovative and not what one would expect in a western... Still, the musical arrangements were not only ill-suited for a lot of the film, but they were flat out too loud in much of it.

All-in-all, the film is well done. It will be a feather in the cap of its cast, even if the final cut was a bit dodgy. May 12, 2008

 The worst soundtrack, of any movie, ever
I had to stop watching after 1 hour because the soundtrack was driving me crazy.

It is too loud, the music is totally inappropriate for the scenes being played and it is just plain awful. I have never , ever watched a movie where the score is so distracting and annoying.

If you can turn the sound off and lip-read, then for all I know the movie might be OK. May 11, 2008

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