COMING TO DVD Tuesday, April 8th:
"There Will Be Blood" (2007)
Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Dillon Freasier, Kevin J. O'Connor, Russell Harvard
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
The story is very simple. A man builds an oil empire by exploiting a small California town in the early 1900's. The story works great (although it comes off just as confusing as "No Country For Old Men" does with its similar novelesque sequences), but I would venture to say this is more of a character study than an epic tale. It was (loosely) adapted from the Upton Sinclair novel "Oil!" by director P.T. Anderson (whose films "Magnolia" and "Punch-Drunk Love" are quirky masterpieces). This may be his least humorous movie to date displaying both boldness and maturity.
"There WIll Be Blood" is really about an epic character which is what engages the movie's audience far more than anything else. Taking Daniel Day-Lewis' character out (or replacing the character with a lesser actor) would show how thinly engaging many aspects of the movie are. I'm glad Daniel Day-Lewis got his Best Actor Oscar (deservedly so considering he carried this nearly 3 hour movie solely based on his charisma).
This is a very well made movie. The main character, Daniel Plainview, is worth the price of admission (or rental). I would maybe put it in my Top 10 (or maybe 15) of the year. I wondered how this movie could get nominated for Best Picture at this year's Oscars, and I realized it came out at the exact perfect time. When it appeared "No Country For Old Men" had no strong competition, I imagine others wanted to crown another favorite but who? "Juno" was too small. "Michael Clayton" was too unpopular. "Atonement" ran out of steam early on. "There Will Be Blood" was next in line. This is all just my theory of course.
I feel like I should say more (about Paul Dano's role [which is probably too big for him to handle at this point] or the infamous "milkshake" conversation), but there really isn't all that much left to be said here about my opinion of this movie.
TWO HUMOROUS ANECDOTES ABOUT MY THEATER EXPERIENCE:
1.) This was easily the darkest theater I had ever attended (made more astounding being the fact that it was a matinee). I walked in just as the previews were beginning and not a single reflection of the audience was made by the flickering screen ahead. It was pitch black. I stood by the door with my hat's brim covering the screen to allow my eyes to adjust as fast as possible (before anyone came in and wondered what I was doing there). I feared sitting in the back row worrying I would wind up in someone's lap. Twice I stepped down the aisle only to find my eyes still unprepared for the journey and made my way back to the door. After a couple previews, I managed to grab an empty aisle seat (most of which were full of people in a similar predicament). The best part was watching the other people walk down the aisles, fresh from daylight, stumbling over their own lack of sight. I had to bite my knuckles a few times to avoid boisterous laughter.
2.) Even better than this was the two black gentlemen in their mid to late 20's at the front of the theater. The movie's title came up, and one guy said (loud enough for the whole theater to hear) "Alright let's see some blood!" I thought either this was a joke or these guys were in for a three hour snoozefest. If it were the latter, I don't think you could get any farther away from the kind of movie they were looking for. I have to give the guys credit for sticking it through the first 40 minutes (the first 10 having very little sound at all). They both got up, but, just before leaving, one of them turned to the audience, and, with an explanatory tone said, "There ain't no blood!" That line has stuck with me since, and it still gives me a chuckle when I say it to myself. It wasn't until after leaving the theater that I thought of the perfect retort (which, being so perfect, I would have overcome my shyness and belted it out):
"There will be!"
BIT O' TRIVIA: While on location in Marfa, Texas, "No Country for Old Men" was the neighboring film production. One day, director Paul Thomas Anderson and his crew tested the pyrotechnical effects of the oil derrick fire, causing an enormous billowing of smoke, intruding the shot that Joel Coen and Ethan Coen were shooting. This caused them to put off filming until the next day when the smoke dissipated from view. Both this film and "No Country for Old Men" would eventually become the leading contenders at the Academy Awards a year and a half later.
