There Will Be Blood - Now With Added Spoilers

[A Horse called Juan Face]

Bit over-rated, solely in the fact that as an allegorical film it doesn't hit just as hard as it's made out to, at least not for me. I don't identify with the characters personally, so couldn't take as much out of the film as some other people did. All characters started off as reprehensible and went from there, so you can imagine the character arcs.

Day Lewis is awesome as Plainview, the scene where he is watching the oil burn when he should be looking after his son is superb, you can actually see the greed in his eyes. His secret may be the way he lives his private life though, he's created a mysterious aura about himself that means we as an audience don't know who he is, and therefore allows him to throw himself into certain characters and thus make it much more believable than his contemporaries could. And Paul Dano is almost as good as Eli, he never really slips into the hokeyness that the character couldve forced. But the film as a whole isnt as good as its cracked up to be. It is good and it is entertaining, but not to the extent that the media are expressing. If the performances werent so special then the film would not have got so much attention. In saying that though, I was struggling to stay awake, so my perception may be a bit off. The bit where the old boy fires the gun to wake Plainview up actually woke me up too.

Its almost guaranteed to sweep the Oscars although.

[jock the boat]

fuk sek horse - spoiler alert!

[bill]

"Atonement" beat "There will be blood" for the best film at the BAFTA's and "Atonement" was absolute keich.

Ofcourse it is all the "Luvies" that cast the votes.

Welcome back "John Rambo"

[A Horse called Juan Face]

Not seen Atonement. Will see it at some point though. Rambo is out in Australia next week.

Not that anyone on here cares, but here is my review of There Will Be Blood that I posted on imdb. Yes, I am a geek with too much time on my hands.

I'm still not really sure what I thought of the film. It's neither the best nor the worst film I've ever seen. In terms of film-making There Will Be Blood is a stunning piece of work. I just wonder if it couldn't have been tightened up a bit.

The main problem I have with it, is that as a perceived antagonist, Eli Sunday is just not in the film enough. I mean there is a whole 30-45 minute stretch without him, which I realise is left to concentrate on Henry, but couldn't both characters have been in some of those scenes. I'm also not convinced that it's telling us anything new. The love of money is the root of all evil is a biblical phrase, and other films have covered this territory over the years, including PT Anderson's personal favourite, The Treasure of Sierra Madre. Scarface covered similar areas as well. Plainview's arc isn't really explored as well as it might have been either. He starts off as an unlikeable character and then goes bananas from there. It's acted superbly well, the scene with the oilwell burning actually shows the greed in Plainview's eyes, but I wouldn't have minded seeing what made him such a despicable chap. Plainview is a character that is supposed to make us wonder if we could end up like that, but I can't identify with him at all, as I just don't really care about power and control the way he does. Because of this, I don't find the character terrifying, just a bit pathetic.

I don't have a problem with the ending other than that it took a man burning with hatred, who had acheived all that he wanted and had been driven to drink and madness by the emptiness of it all, 20 years to find and kill the snivelling little *beep* who embarrassed him publicly. Yes, it is capitalism beating religion over the head, but isn't that what has happened in the real world?

I must admit though, that I have spent almost every minute since watching this film thinking about what it meant. So in that aspect it is job well done. I also want to go and see it again just to see if it elicits any more feelings within. Still think Into The Wild is the best film of 2007 though.

[jock the boat]

aye your right. No one cares