Luke
stu-kicks
Tash Jayasinghe
CibbuanoThere Will Be Blood
March 1st 2008 05:05
I just watched There Will Be Blood... fuuuuuuuuck. Daniel Day-Lewis is like a massive dick in everyone's arse, that's how good he is. Should this film have beaten No Country for Old Men to the best picture gong in the Oscars? I'm not sure, but if there was ever cause for a tie, this was it. Here, let me sum up the movie for you...
14 minutes of no dialogue. Daniel Day-Lewis strikes oil. He becomes a mad cunt, takes on a son, goes head to head with a local evangelical preacher (played by manchild Paul Dano), and basically amasses the beginnings of a business empire soaked and dripping in the blackest sheen of oil you could possibly imagine. Day-Lewis's eyes shine with this blackness, he embodies the evil of greed like no one else on screen ever has - not Bogart in Treasure of the Sierra-Madre, not Michael Douglas in Wall Street - these guys are chumps next to this cold-hearted sociopath.
The strange thing is, thinking back on what I just saw, this movie isn't exactly filled with mayhem or gangster-style violence or any of the other hallmarks that populate today's films dealing with base emotions or the concept of evil. The director, Paul Thomas Anderson, has achieved something incredibly impressive... he's built a film of atmosphere and dread without resorting to cheap tricks or laboured psychological ponderings. Armed with the twin arsenal of Day-Lewis's event horizon of a performance and a wonderfully ominous musical score, Anderson has crafted a deceptively simplistic film that stands out amongst it's peers as a unique, one-of-a-kind experience. I'm gobsmacked that this film even got made, and incredibly grateful that it did - it reassures film fans everywhere that a director's non-studio friendly vision can make it to the screen unmolested. (Provided Daniel Day-Lewis has agreed to star in it, LOL)
Scenes that stick out in my mind...
- Day-Lewis dragging himself through the scrub to stake his claim, ignoring his broken leg the whole time.
- Paul Dano striding alongside a lake of oil, like Christ walking on water as black as the hearts of men.
- Day-Lewis rejoicing in the flames cast by an erupted oil well, a stark silhouette in the dusk.
- Day-Lewis calmly getting off the train before it rolls away, probably one of the coldest things he does in the whole film.
- Of course, the final scene between Day-Lewis and Dano.
Go watch a piece of film history.
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Good to see you back reviewing..PTA has entered a higher plain of cinematic experience with There Will Be Blood.
Comment by Watching youtube
Hey there,
I still prefer Boogie Nights!\
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good solid review
Comment by Luke
Book Club
Old Movies
Cane Toad Warrior
I'm still writing Book reviews, but only about once a week. My goal is to read 50 books this year, but at the moment I'm stuck on No. 7.
Comment by Pat
Books Are For Losers
btw, I was also aiming for 50 books this year and I'm on about my third and it's March, I'm a failure.
Comment by Luke
Book Club
Old Movies
Cane Toad Warrior
I was in a bit of a funk for a couple of weeks, but I'm back and swinging and up to book 9.
Comment by Morgan Bell
Deep Pencil
Current Business News
Movie Train
Artist Quirk
i think this is the most enticing recommendation ive ever read for a film! i simply must see it! is he more evil than what he was in The Gangs Of New York? i think he would be as scary in real life as he is on film . . . he seems intense!
also, i admire your reading abilities, sometimes i cant even read really long orble blogs let alone whole novels lol . . . terrible . . . i have wild fantasies of writing a novel but with my current attention span it will be a series of short stories, no more than 3-pages each . . . or maybe a dot point list haha
review more! you're an interesting writer!
Comment by Luke
Book Club
Old Movies
Cane Toad Warrior
he's definitely not as charismatic as he is in Gangs of New York, but you could quite fairly say that his character in There Will Be Blood is cut from a fairly similar mould to Bill the Butcher.