There Will Be Blood

Have you seen this one? Both Oscars; Best Cinematography and Best Actor, were well deserved. Based on an Upton Sinclair novel "Oil", this is a period piece written very close to the period it covers. Sinclair captured and exposed his prey in his classic style. Paul Thomas Anderson adapted this screenplay and directed. This film fits in nicely with Anderson's other works of oddness, Magnolia and Punch Drunk Love.

There Will Be Blood is a very slow-moving art film. If that is your thing, you should really enjoy this. If you enjoy very detailed close-ups without dialogue, or sweeping vistas of some very nice central California scenery, you may really like this film too. If you have close to 3 hours to watch this, consider it an investment. It will give you plenty to think about.

Daniel Day Lewis plays some very unlikeable characters, and you may notice some similarities between his tyrannical character in Gangs Of New York and his role in this film. He is almost unrecognizable as the driven oil baron of early California. It is a masterful performance.

I liked this film because it did not fit any typical Hollywood formulas. I didn't like it because it moved painfully slow. I liked it for all the strong performances of deeply flawed individuals portrayed. I also liked the way it does not tell us as much as it does tell us about what is going on in the minds of the characters. I didn't like it because it's difficult to watch how rotten people can treat each other knowing how close to the truth is could be. In a romping thriller it's easy to tell oneself that real people don't behave like this. That was not possible in this movie regardless of how outrageous one thinks the behavior is. I just couldn't shake the feeling that these are very realistic characters; painfully believable.

Watch this movie with someone who will be patient enough for the big pay off and will commiserate with you when you think it is not delivered.