There will be blood....and briefly the Oscars!!!!

"Drainage! Drainage, Eli, you boy. Drained dry. I'm so sorry. Here, if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, that's a straw, you see? You watching?. And my straw reaches acroooooooss the room, and starts to drink your milkshake... I... drink... your... milkshake!" Daniel Planiview

Exhilarating, suspenseful, chilling and beautiful.

i heard once that the reason people stand whenever the 'hallelujah chorus' is performed is because it was first performed for a king, and he was so moved by it, he simply stood up during the song. this movie is just like that.

i'm happy to be alive and at an age where i can appreciate this sort of thing now, because 50 years from now, people will surely say, 'i wonder what it was like to see that movie in theaters when it had just been released.'

when i say, 'you should go see this movie,' i don't mean it's really entertaining, a good way to spend a Saturday night, worth the price of admission or what have you. i mean it in the way that i think everyone should see the sistine chapel, read hemingway, listen to beethoven's 9th symphony and so on. it will certainly be remembered for generations to come as an important work of art.

Daniel Day Lewis's performance was chilling - the themes of family, good vs. evil, and greed topped with the multi-layered visuals presented by Mr. Anderson had my head swirling in film-geek delight. Brilliant film!


Much talk surrounded “There Will Be Blood” before it even started shooting. Adapted from a 1927 novel called “Oil!”, the lead character Daniel Plainview was a rich and complex one that a lot of people thought Day Lewis would be able to shine in. But for me, I had no expectations walking in because other than buzz… I hadn’t seen one single clip or one single trailer for the film… which doesn’t happen often for me. It was kind of a nice feeling.

THE GENERAL IDEA

Daniel Plainview is a hard working and determined man at the start of the 1900’s who seems limitless in his pure determination to succeed. A miner searching for gold and silver, Plainview changes directions when he accidentally discovers oil on one dig. When one of his crew members is killed in a digging accident, Plainview adopts the man’s baby son as his own, telling no one, not even the boy, that he isn’t his natural son. As the years pass and Plainview becomes more and more successful, he develops a deep and loving fatherly relationship with his son, H.W. Plainview and even tells people the young boy is his “Partner”. But when Daniel is told of a rich oil deposit in a small faith lead community, Plainview begins to reveal his darker side. Pushed by greed and spite, Plainview quickly comes to odds with the community’s young fanatical religious leader, Eli (played by Little Miss Sunshine’s Paul Dano). Hatred, ego, love, greed and deception all boil to the surface like oil.


The entire background set up is told in the first 5 minutes of the film… WITHOUT ONE SINGLE WORD OF DIALOG! It was fantastic! So, i loved There will be Blood!

Now, i just want to take a moment to list the films up this year for Best Picture at the Oscars:


Picture Nominees: No Country For Old Men, Atonement, There Will Be Blood, Michael Clayton, Juno

I saw 3 out of the 5 films...i still need to see Atonement and Michael Clayton! I am conflicted because i loved Juno but honestly, it is not anywhere near the caliber of the other films. We'll see though! Should make for an interesting Oscar night!!!