There Will Be Blood
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Movie Reviews of There Will Be Blood
Movie Review: Lives up to the hype
Summary: 5 Stars
Almost invariably, movies that garner a lot of hype get very polarized reviews; the same applies to this movie, as evidenced by it's rough inverse bell curve of ratings (a greater proportion of extremely bad or good ratings than middling ones than most movies usually receive). Oftentimes, the much-hyped movies often deserve a lower rating than the hype merits. However, this is not the case with "There Will Be Blood".
This film really does live up to the hype, and in some ways exceeds it. I was astonished that there were so many 1- and 2- (and even 3) star ratings. Many of the lower ratings complained that the plot was choppy, and that the main character was essentially bad the whole way through, and didn't change his nasty ways. Others complained that the story was too moralistic (railing against the evil capitalist), or that it was incomprehensible. It is none of those things, however.
Not all characters, even protagonists, are supposed to come to a change-of-heart, or even a shocking self-realization that they are bad and that their ways have hurt others. In real life (as is so beautifully portrayed in this film), people don't always find the error of their ways. However, Daniel Plainview does have inner struggles (contrary to the opinion of some reviewers) in trying to reconcile his actions and their effects on his own life, the life of his son, and his relationship with his son, even if they aren't a large focus of the film or are not loudly and colorfully proclaimed. Ultimately, Daniel Plainview chooses (if that is the proper word), at the end of his struggle, to entirely shut himself off from others and from having any close or meaningful personal relationships; but this doesn't mean that the struggle wasn't there.
Furthermore, this film is not too choppy or abstract. It follows through an all the main themes and problems of the film and the characters and comes to a satisfactory conclusion for each (whether good or bad for the characters in question, or whether a traditional or non-traditional conclusion, is irrelevant). This is *not* an art film or some random abstraction piece made by an artsy, purposively (or even unconsciously) abstruse screenwriter or director. To say so implies that you have never seen a truly abstruse or incomprehensible film, such as the barely comprehensible (but interesting, yet in my opinion lesser) film "Pi". "There Will Be Blood" is one of the finest works of cinema an American has put out in years, and while it is not the Second Coming of Christ for cinema, it certainly ranks as a pretty darn holy event.
Movie Review: The Dark Underside Of The American Success Story
Summary: 5 Stars
10 stars
"My advice to approaching There Will Be Blood is to sit back and let it engulf you. Day-Lewis' resonant voice is a potent magnet. It evokes the deceptively dulcet tones of John Huston in Chinatown, charm slathered over wolfish perversity, the better to cheat you with, my dear." Peter Travers
In the first few minutes after the final moments of this film, I sat in silence. I felt like I had been punched in the belly, the impact of this film and the performance by Daniel Day-Lewis is monumental. Daniel Plainview, is a man who was scratching for a living in the beginning of teh 1900's. He scratched for silver at first and developed a bum leg after falling down a mine. He moved on to oil and after striking an oil well he moved on to become an oil tycoon. At this time he adopted a young boy he named HW. This boy became the love of Plainview's life, and the only tender moments we see are with HW. Plainview's nemesis is Eli Sunday, a preacher in the Evangelical mode. He and Plainview get under each other's skin, and the true embarrassments in life that both feel occur because of the other. Each of them are preaching a sermon the other has no belief in.
Plainview also meets a brother with whom he feels close and is able to share his inner feeling until the day that he discovers a truth that changes things forever. Daniel Plainview is a man like no other, he represents to us the dark, the evil of power that enfolds someone in the grip of living a life that does not bother with human relationships. Plainview told his brother,"I look at people and I see nothing worth liking."
From the opening scenes of darkness and strife until the final scene that will cut to your core, we sit enmeshed in this story, this film. Paul Anderson, the director has more than a memorable film, it is a monument to the epitome of film making. I could find nothing to criticize in this film. It will long be remembered as a masterpiece. From the musical score to the photography to the actors all, everyone and everything is perfect.
Highly, Highly, Highly Recommended. prisrob 04-11-08
In the Name of the Father
Magnolia
Movie Review: Electrifying!
Summary: 5 Stars
I watched this movie after reading that Daniel Day Lewis won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance as ruthless oilman Daniel Plainview. It is not often that I get mesmerised by a single actor's performance, but Daniel Day Lewis' performance in There Will Be Blood truly had me riveted from start to finish, not an easy feat given the movie's 2.5 hours length. It was an amazing performance filled with depth and emotion.
There Will Be Blood traces the rise of Daniel Plainview, a miner who soon discovers more lucrative prospects in oil. He also finds himself adopting an orphaned infant boy whom he raises as his own. The boy, H.W. [played as a kid by Dillon Freasier] is 'used' to promote Plainview's own interests by picturing him as a wholesome, family-oriented man, despite the lack of a wife by his side. Plainview zealously goes about securing mineral lease rights and his fortunes take a turn for the better when a young man named Paul Sunday [Paul Dano] shows up in his office one day claiming to know the whereabouts of an oil-rich territory in exchange for a sum of money.
So Daniel and his son go to Little Boston, CA and not only do they strike gold in the discovery of oil but it sets the stage for an enduring conflict between Plainview and Eli Sunday [Paul Dano again], an evangelist who tries to rival Plainview for the leadership of the community, but of course Plainview is having none of that - he doesn't like sharing anything.
Paul Dano's performance as the overly-religious Eli Sunday is filled with a simmering fervour that releases itself into loud exhortations to God and yes, Plainview and I would say that these two actors, Day Lewis and Dano are the real reasons to watch this movie. Their conflict and animosity towards each other is apparent from the first time they meet and it only gets worse as time progresses.
The story of There Will Be Blood is multi-faceted and complex and we see how Daniel's character evolves from a simple, hardworking miner and loving dad into a ruthless businessman who acts out in violence when he is crossed and spirals into self-destruction, losing him truly precious things along the way, such as friendship and most importantly his close bond with his adopted son.
Powerful performances, a well-plotted storyline and masterful direction by Paul Thomas Anderson - a must-watch!
Movie Review: "Citizen Kane" on steroids
Summary: 5 Stars
"There Will Be Blood" is an excellent example of what a director can do when he grafts together epic literary tales ("King Lear", "Oedipus Rex") and compacts them into one tragic tale. Paul Thomas Anderson must have had a lot of fun (maybe) skimming the proverbial froth from innumerable tales of the tragic "great" man and transforming them into this tour de force of tragedy.
Daniel Day-Lewis deserves an award for his performance as this hollow, ambitious and sadistic man who arrives on the scene with no origin. He doesn't talk; he growls. He doesn't walk; ravages the land he walks on with a proud aggression. He wants money and he wants oil.
This brings him into conflict with perhaps the most despicable character in the film (yes, more despicable than Plainview): the Preacher Eli. A narcissistic, money hungry con artist who even physically resembles a snake, his heart does not reside in Logos or Divine Truth but in money. One thing I did not like about this film at all was the constant mockery of the mere idea of God's existence--because there's one fraud playing a huge part in the film, Anderson has to engage in cliched Starbucks cinematic modernity? (Which is one of the reasons "No Country For Old Men" is a better film: it is not about the madness of one titanic figure, it is about fate and the ultimate).
Plainview, for all his considerable business skills, is essentially a demented and angry misanthrope. I'd disagree with reviewers (Roger Ebert being one of them) who saw no mercy in this guy. He seems to care very much for his son H.W. until the end, until all the betrayals real and imagined have occured. I had to laugh a few times when Plainview flips out, at one point telling a member of Standard Oil that he was going to "visit him at his home and cut his throat in the middle of the night": all the guy did was suggest that, as a millionaire, he could devote more of his time to his son. His spontaneous convulsions of rage are both amusing and horrifying.
I expected something to change in Plainview's fate midway through the movie for some reason. It never did. Things get worse and worse until he is finally worse off, even, than Charles Foster Kane. And more dangerous.
A finely crafted movie. Definitely destined to become a cult classic.
Movie Review: Intense and original, in the same league as Kubric's best
Summary: 5 Stars
I was grinning with delight even before the first images of this incredible film appeared on the screen. The musical score -- an impressionistic mix of half-musical screeches and mechanical noises -- was an overpowering presence throughout the film. So much so that its occasional absence was jarring and unnerving. "There Will Be Blood" features a tour de force performance by Daniel Day Lewis as the monomaniacal oilman Daniel Plainview -- a man whose singleness of vision matches his surname. Indeed, Plainview has but one aim -- to become wealthy beyond imagining, to work devilishly hard to get there and to let absolutely nothing get in the way of his dream. Plainview is the epitome of the American character -- driven, relentless, brutal and dismissive of societal niceties, except insofar as they help him achieve his aims. His chief antagonist is Eli Sunday, the preacher son of a poor farmer. Sunday and Plainview each seek their own means to riches, and quickly become locked in a vicious pas-de-deux. Sunday needs Plainview to finance his church; Plainview needs Sunday's approbation to persuade his congregation to cooperate in his ventures. The tension between these two men becomes so overwhelming at times that I started to wonder whether there was an allegorical element going on -- religion v business -- or perhaps a commentary about the unholy alliance between commerce and the Cross in American culture.
But TWBB is extraordinary on so many levels. The acting is superb. DDL molds his character into a natural force. His growling voice, perpetually sweaty face and cold eyes convey menace even when expressing the most banal of sentiments. The writing is phenomenal; the recreation of the turn-of-the-century Southwest is more than a little convincing. The depiction of the early, grueling methods of extracting oil from the ground is fascinating. The plotting never gives away the story arc, as periods of intensity and frenetic action are juxtaposed unpredictably against periods of reflection and preternatural quiet. There are many star performance in the film, but aside from DDL, kudos go to Dillon Freasier as Plainview's young, laconic son, H.W. "There Will Be Blood" is a masterpiece, an original, and tremendous ride through one man's personal obsession to succeed.