I Drink Your Milkshake!

Review: There Will Be Blood


This review has been a long time coming. And yes it will be long. If you haven't seen the movie don't read this. Just know that its good, and go see it. I doubt a lover of cinema will be disappointed.

So is There Will Be Blood a maasterpiece? Well I am loathe to say that about any film made in my lifetime. People throw that word and "genius" around quite too often. But is it good? Yes. Yes it is, it's magnificent to be hold in a way that the words I write now can't quite contain. A few weeks ago I sat through a 2 and half hour plus, Jonny Greenwood drench, Daniel Day-Lewis spewing, oil dripping epic of a character study. And I sat there with a smile across my face. Does it live up to its name? Oh yes. Maybe not to some's satisfaction but most definitely to mine.


But then again I am a PT Anderson freak. Super freak. Those that think this is a depature for him are people who think Boogie Nights is his first film. It's not. That's Hard Eight (Sidney) and all that is is a beautiful character study, a love note to Phillip Baker Hall. So if anything this film is a return. A full circle so to speak, except this time his affection is for Daniel Day-Lewis. So no this is not a depature. Boogie Nights is filled with a glee of a 27 yr old who knows how to use a steadicam as says "Eat my continuous shot intro, and my I am Cuba Homage pool shot, and my Scorese coke dollys. Eat it up!" And I love that. But PT isn't 27 anymore he's 37 and has a kid, and There Will be Blood is a return to character study from a man who has matured but still has that kid love of filmmaking, long shots and letting actors act, inside of him. He's just older. As such, There Will Be Blood is more measured in that way but pulses with that school boy glee.


Day-Lewis deserves every award he's about to recieve for his Kane-esque portrait of a man who has a competition in him, yet yearns for an heir, an equal, a family he he blatantly drops to suceed in his goals. This film, like many other of PT's, is a about fathers and sons and the affect they have on one another. The film hinges on Plainview's relationship to his son, HW and all that it implies. When HW becomes damaged, Daniel is torn, because he can never truly be his, he is now part of what he hates and longs to escapes. HW isn't his only son however. Paul Dano's Eli is too, in a way, a spawn of Daniel, though be it his ambition and greed. If HW is Daniel's heart, the Eli is Daniels black inner reflection. You can see Plainviews affect on his "son" when the beating Eli suffers at Daniel's hand is then transfered by Eli to his father Abel. Daniel's influence is clear, wether Eli admits it or not. The false prophet from God stands very much in Plainviews shadow. But that is where they are different. For Daniel knows what he is, and Eli never can truly admit his lie. All this leads to an ending that really does divde people.


Not me, mind you. I find it a fitting end to an epic tale of a man who in yearning for family, deserts and destorys all that he has of it. Some say it may not be in keeping with the tone of the rest of the film. Well that is your opinion. To me, the end caps and fullfils character traits that we have witnessed all along. Anderson makes you laugh until he makes you stop laughing, and that too can be affective. Tarantino has made a career out of it. You are supposed to laugh. It makes the horror more chilling. Watching this scene with the audience was a treat. I heard the theatre's laughter followed by a collective gasp. And I knew he had them.

I drink PT Anderson's milkshake. I drink it up. Find this film in your town and see it and enjoy. There will be greed. There will be vengance. There will be blood. That's a promise.

"I'm finished!"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ThZI-p8SKe0