There Will Be Blood (2007)
May 20, 2018 9:53 AM - Subscribe
Daniel Plainview is an oil-man. He's traveled across half our state to be here and to see about this land. If he says he is an oil-man you will agree, and as an oil-man he hopes you will forgive his good old fashioned plain speaking. He is a family man, and his business is a family enterprise. Few oil-men understand that special bond.
"There Will Be Blood" is the kind of film that is easily called great. I am not sure of its greatness. It was filmed in the same area of Texas used by "No Country for Old Men," and that is a great film, and a perfect one. But "There Will Be Blood" is not perfect, and in its imperfections (its unbending characters, its lack of women or any reflection of ordinary society, its ending, its relentlessness) we may see its reach exceeding its grasp. Which is not a dishonorable thing.
— Roger Ebert, rated 3.5/4 stars.
The uneasy interaction between God and secular commerce is the film's most important recurring notion. It's where "There Will Be Blood" could have had something definite and compelling to say, but instead it's precisely there that we find the film's Achilles' heel. Anderson doesn't take the religious mind seriously enough to understand it, leaving Dano to play a generalized character who is somewhere between a freak and a phony. The scenes between Day-Lewis and Dano ultimately degenerate into a ridiculous burlesque.
Still, individual scenes and sequences - for example, the entire section in which Plainview gets to know his "long lost" brother - are too strange, haunting and emotionally right for the film to be dismissed. There should be no attempt or temptation to dismiss it. At the same time, there should be no need to pretend "There Will Be Blood" is a masterpiece just because Anderson sincerely tried to make it one.
— Mick "Often Wrong" LaSalle, SFGate. Rated Man-masturbating-under-a-hat out of Man-cavorting-like-a-seal stars.
This tension between realism and spectacle runs like a fissure through the film and invests it with tremendous unease. You are constantly being pulled away from and toward the charismatic Plainview, whose pursuit of oil reads like a chapter from this nation’s grand narrative of discovery and conquest. . . But the film is above all a consummate work of art, one that transcends the historically fraught context of its making, and its pleasures are unapologetically aesthetic. It reveals, excites, disturbs, provokes, but the window it opens is to human consciousness itself.
— Manohla Dargis, New York Times.
When Anderson was shooting the movie in Marfa, the Coen brothers were making a Western of their own, No Country for Old Men. As Anderson and his crew tested the pyrotechnic system used in the oil derrick scene, a huge billow of smoke drifted across Marfa and into the Coens’ shot. The brothers were forced to suspend shooting for the day. The Coens would have their revenge more than a year later, on Oscar night, when No Country bested There Will Be Blood for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. But Blood may be the movie that transcends time.
— “A Whole Ocean of Oil Under Our Feet”: ‘There Will Be Blood’ at 10.
i tend to be hyperbolic about there will be blood because it’s the movie that made me want to be a filmmaker. but i really think that with time and distance we will talk about this as one of the greatest american movies.
posted by JimBennett at 4:18 PM on May 20, 2018
posted by JimBennett at 4:18 PM on May 20, 2018
For the life of me, I just cannot muster-up much love for this movie. I can’t say I hate it, but I don’t care much for it, either. I recognize how well it’s made, and the quality of the performances, but it just leaves me cold. Oh well.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:32 PM on May 20, 2018 [7 favorites]
posted by Thorzdad at 4:32 PM on May 20, 2018 [7 favorites]
I just saw it yesterday. I was not expecting to enjoy it so much either. Away from the shadow of No Country for Old Men, and the immediate milkshake lulz, it stands up really well. I certainly liked it more than No Country for Old Men which was more pleasing in some ways but more disappointing and less interesting over all. Like, NCfOM to me has nothing to say, and Anton Chigurh, while cool on screen, is ultimately nothing interesting at all when the movie is over. It's a shame the two movies are doomed to be compared, though. I don't want to derail with that.
I also had heard it billed as some grand battle of wills between Daniel Plainview and Eli Sunday, but it wasn't really at all. The relationship with the son and the brother (and Eli becomes a son in law), the repeated talk about family. Maybe it was a fascinations with Paul Dano's face that made reviewers latch onto him, described as moon like, pudding, mushrooomy, etc. (I wanted to just copy/past all the descriptions of Paul Dano from the reviews I read.)
posted by fleacircus at 4:33 PM on May 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
I also had heard it billed as some grand battle of wills between Daniel Plainview and Eli Sunday, but it wasn't really at all. The relationship with the son and the brother (and Eli becomes a son in law), the repeated talk about family. Maybe it was a fascinations with Paul Dano's face that made reviewers latch onto him, described as moon like, pudding, mushrooomy, etc. (I wanted to just copy/past all the descriptions of Paul Dano from the reviews I read.)
posted by fleacircus at 4:33 PM on May 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
I went into this expecting very little other than knowing it would have a fabulous soundtrack, and of course hearing about DDL's grand performance, but yes, it was staggering. A firm favourite.
posted by turbid dahlia at 7:35 PM on May 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by turbid dahlia at 7:35 PM on May 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
Also, literally only just noticed the crucifix-derrick on the front cover. Huh.
posted by turbid dahlia at 7:37 PM on May 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by turbid dahlia at 7:37 PM on May 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
I hold the unpopular opinion of liking neither this nor No Country for Old Men.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 7:32 AM on May 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by DrAstroZoom at 7:32 AM on May 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
This film is based, loosely, on the life of oil mogul Edward L Doheny, though Doheny's oil was in California, and Doheny appears to have been a (somewhat) nicer guy in real life. Nevertheless, his first wife committed suicide after Doheny divorced her and took custody of their children. Of these, one died at age seven, and the other committed suicide due to events related to the Teapot Dome scandal, so one has an idea of the evil seen by Anderson (and by Sinclair Lewis in the original novel).
The suicide was also lightly fictionalized by Raymond Chandler in the Philip Marlowe novel The High Window. You can read it here, near the end of chapter 15.
posted by ubiquity at 9:01 AM on May 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
The suicide was also lightly fictionalized by Raymond Chandler in the Philip Marlowe novel The High Window. You can read it here, near the end of chapter 15.
posted by ubiquity at 9:01 AM on May 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
This film is based, loosely, on the life of oil mogul Edward L Doheny, though Doheny's oil was in California, and Doheny appears to have been a (somewhat) nicer guy in real life. Nevertheless, his first wife committed suicide after Doheny divorced her and took custody of their children. Of these, one died at age seven, and the other committed suicide due to events related to the Teapot Dome scandal, so one has an idea of the evil seen by Anderson (and by Sinclair Lewis in the original novel).
Science fiction author Larry Niven's great-grandfather, by the way.
posted by maxsparber at 9:35 AM on May 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
Science fiction author Larry Niven's great-grandfather, by the way.
posted by maxsparber at 9:35 AM on May 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
The last link in the post mentions Doheny along with the (apocryphal?) origin of the milkshake analogy in the Teapot Dome hearings.
posted by fleacircus at 11:37 AM on May 21, 2018
posted by fleacircus at 11:37 AM on May 21, 2018
...so one has an idea of the evil seen by Anderson (and by Sinclair Lewis in the original novel).
Sorry, I thought one Sinclair and typed another. Upton Sinclair wrote the original book, called Oil!
posted by ubiquity at 11:37 AM on May 21, 2018
Sorry, I thought one Sinclair and typed another. Upton Sinclair wrote the original book, called Oil!
posted by ubiquity at 11:37 AM on May 21, 2018
I hold the unpopular opinion of liking neither this nor No Country for Old Men.
[Flips coin]
Call it.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 4:21 PM on May 21, 2018 [4 favorites]
[Flips coin]
Call it.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 4:21 PM on May 21, 2018 [4 favorites]
other than knowing it would have a fabulous soundtrack
Oh yeah the score was great, even after I adjust for my Arvo Pärt bias.
posted by fleacircus at 6:12 AM on May 22, 2018
Oh yeah the score was great, even after I adjust for my Arvo Pärt bias.
posted by fleacircus at 6:12 AM on May 22, 2018
For the life of me, I just cannot muster-up much love for this movie. I can’t say I hate it, but I don’t care much for it, either.
Co-signed, and I think watching Phantom Thread this year finally helped me pinpoint why: It's because Daniel Day Lewis is a good actor who has lately been playing terrible people.
Meaning: Daniel Day Lewis was spectacular at embodying the character of Daniel Plainview; or, more accurately, at becoming Daniel Plainview. Just as he was equally spectacular at becoming the character "Reynold Woodcock" in Phantom Thread.
So when I saw There Will be Blood, I wasn't just watching a movie, I was hanging out with Daniel Plainview. And the problem with that is - Daniel Plainview is a total thundering grade-A douche. So while everything about the film was technically superb, it was still two hours that I was forced to spend in the company of a total thundering grade-A douche, and I did not enjoy that experience.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:31 AM on May 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
Co-signed, and I think watching Phantom Thread this year finally helped me pinpoint why: It's because Daniel Day Lewis is a good actor who has lately been playing terrible people.
Meaning: Daniel Day Lewis was spectacular at embodying the character of Daniel Plainview; or, more accurately, at becoming Daniel Plainview. Just as he was equally spectacular at becoming the character "Reynold Woodcock" in Phantom Thread.
So when I saw There Will be Blood, I wasn't just watching a movie, I was hanging out with Daniel Plainview. And the problem with that is - Daniel Plainview is a total thundering grade-A douche. So while everything about the film was technically superb, it was still two hours that I was forced to spend in the company of a total thundering grade-A douche, and I did not enjoy that experience.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:31 AM on May 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
This film wanted to be epic so bad, and it falls short. DDL delivers his usual role, but the supporting characters weren't very well written or acted. I still don't like Paul Dano to this day.
posted by Sphinx at 10:40 AM on May 22, 2018
posted by Sphinx at 10:40 AM on May 22, 2018
Plainview interested me in ways that the Phantom Thread guy didn't.
Maybe it's because he was involved in greater things; he had a relationship with society. He had problems and blind spots that weren't going to just collapse into a hurt/comfort fanfic whose endgame was maintained status quo. (There Will Be Status Quo would not be the best movie title.)
Clearly he had feelings for his son, but he could not admit to them. He had feelings for his fake brother as well. But money and greed would always come in between these things, in ways that felt very applicable to the common mindset which is often incredibly reductive when it comes to money and morality.
Like, I don't think he only thought of his son as a help to his business, but the idea that he was slowly consumed everything he felt for him. That idea appeared and ate everything else. Then with his fake brother, things were going great until he was at the beach, talking about his own success, his own glory, then he looked at his brother and saw the unhappiness there, and the difference in money reared his head. But it wasn't until the fake brother asked for a little money that he decided he had to kill him.
I thought he was a more interesting kind of monster.
posted by fleacircus at 10:45 AM on May 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
Maybe it's because he was involved in greater things; he had a relationship with society. He had problems and blind spots that weren't going to just collapse into a hurt/comfort fanfic whose endgame was maintained status quo. (There Will Be Status Quo would not be the best movie title.)
Clearly he had feelings for his son, but he could not admit to them. He had feelings for his fake brother as well. But money and greed would always come in between these things, in ways that felt very applicable to the common mindset which is often incredibly reductive when it comes to money and morality.
Like, I don't think he only thought of his son as a help to his business, but the idea that he was slowly consumed everything he felt for him. That idea appeared and ate everything else. Then with his fake brother, things were going great until he was at the beach, talking about his own success, his own glory, then he looked at his brother and saw the unhappiness there, and the difference in money reared his head. But it wasn't until the fake brother asked for a little money that he decided he had to kill him.
I thought he was a more interesting kind of monster.
posted by fleacircus at 10:45 AM on May 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
Also I thought it was hilarious that he never paid the church the $5000.
posted by fleacircus at 10:47 AM on May 22, 2018
posted by fleacircus at 10:47 AM on May 22, 2018
Googling around I haven't been able to find exact numbers for the amount of silence/no dialogue in There Will Be Blood or No Country For Old Men. Both are among my very favourite movies*, and I think that characteristic, or at least my perception of that characteristic, is a big part of that.
*Very favouritest movie? The Road Warrior, which can easily be watched with the sound off.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 1:39 PM on May 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
*Very favouritest movie? The Road Warrior, which can easily be watched with the sound off.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 1:39 PM on May 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
Does anyone else see a firm nod to Days of Heaven in the oil derrick fire sequence?
posted by the duck by the oboe at 9:50 PM on May 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by the duck by the oboe at 9:50 PM on May 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
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posted by Carillon at 10:34 AM on May 20, 2018 [2 favorites]