Today’s Open Thread

Splendid acting and directing. I haven't read Oil!, the book upon which the movie is based, but it was by Upton Sinclair, so it was most likely some kind of indictment of capitalism and exploitation, but the movie was made to be a pleasantly dark and twisted indictment of greed. I especially love the scenes in which there is little to no switching between cameras, such as the original church scene, or the Milkshake scene..

Excellent picture, but bleak and depressing…

Very disappointed in this one. Nuff said.

The book actually came to the conclusion that oil itself was evil and drove men to corruption. No joke. The final paragraph says it explicitly. The first third or so of it is really great (and wildly different from the movie- preacher character is very, very minor). But then it just devolves into a communism glorifying snooze-fest.

A friend and I went to the movie theater and my friend asks, "What should we see? There Will Be Blood or No Country for Old Men?" We decided on Blood and by the end of the film, we were both glued to our seats, just enthralled. Even though we're film school grads, we rarely (if ever) went to see the "Oscar-bait" movies in the theater.

A few weeks later, my friend saw No Country and called me up: "Scott, it's a good thing we saw There Will be Blood and liked it. I just got back from No Country and it sucked!!"

And yes, "I drink your milkshake!!"

Total hambone.

One of my favorite movies, DDL was amazing and Paul Dano's performance was gripping.

However, am I the only person who thinks the surreal ending wasn't real, but was just his fantasy?

I'm ignoring everyone else's posts simply to comment right now:

I. DETEST.THIS.FILM.

I paid to see this crap?!
And I sat through this crap?!

Hey! Hollywood!
You owe me ten bucks!

I would have rather walked on hot coals than to subject myself to this. Only, I didn't realize my two choices at the time.

….Can we rewind time…?

I thought it was a powerful argument for capitalism, frankly. I watched a man sweat and struggle and suffer and sacrifice, and the end result was a huge enterprise that lifted the lives of millions. I thought of Daniel Plainview as a hero, in the same mold as John Wayne in his movies. A man who had to do some hard, unpleasant things to build something out of a wilderness. Always a thankless task.

I was also amused by the "Sunday" family. The preacher gave a sermon which was a word-for-word retelling of one of Billy Sunday's sermons, which I've seen on an old newsreel. I found the preacher to be a totally unsympathetic character, like the real Billy Sunday, who was basically a charlatan. Talk about greed.

I find the idea of the movie being some indictment of greed hilarious. Whatever Daniel Plainview built, he did it with his own sweat and blood. Real greed is government stealing people's hard-earned money by force and amassing power thereby, all in the name of altruism. Now that's a movie that still waits to be made.

I loved the sound track on this piece..

Good perf by Lewis, but to what point I don't know. In. Other. News: TCM is running a marathon of "Time Marches On" shorts tonight. An article I read recently pointed out that parts of many were staged for the the newsreels, showing that media manipulation is as old as the media. Going to check out a few though. Good to be reminded of how limited public access to 'living' news was back in the day.

You sound like me after I came out of "Magnolia." People should not be marking you down for not liking the movie, though.

I just gave you a thumbs up to counteract all the sac-free wonders marking you down because you didn't like this cinematic sludge. And because I agree with you.

Well said.

I really enjoyed this film. It is certainly not your typical Hollywood picture. The pacing of the film was slow and deliberate. The soundtrack used a haunting level of dissonance that downplayed the emotional points of the film (which I thought was very effective in keeping the motives of Plainview ambiguous). It felt more like a well-crafted foreign film to me.

I'm not sure what the political motives were of the producer and director. Since Sinclair's original story was leaning so much towards socialism, one would expect the tone of the film to preach in that direction, but it didn't for me. What I saw was a thoughtful, almost verite look at a self-made man who essentially didn't have a history or even a defined personality. You were privy to a window of the hard work and calculating decisions that realized his business.

Of course his pursuit of success and his strong will lead him into questionable decisions (power play with the preacher, demise of the brother, rejection of the son). He suffered so much to realize his dream of success that as the film progressed, you saw his weakened body and mind (and soul) descending into those bad decisions.

Overall I saw many attributes of Plainview that were admirable–work ethic, focus, vision, risk taking. What was ambiguous was his honesty and moral judgement. Notice that the love of his son and alleged brother were the only situations where he opened up and showed his humanity. It was the betrayal of his "brother" that forced him into killing, and his perception that his son betrayed him which ultimately drives him to the state of mind that allows him to commit the acts in the final scene. To me it was not oil that drove him to excess, but the betrayal by others.

To me, I appreciated the fact the film left me with more questions than answers. Again, this is not something the typical Hollywood film does. The performances and direction were outstanding. Overall I found this film thought provoking and enjoyable.

It's not so much the politics for me, just that I despised all the characters and what kind of satisfaction was I supposed to get out of the movie? That the biggest asshole had to live a long life in lonely solitude with no friends and more money than he knew what to do with? Or that the scam artist got a bullet in his head for his trouble? Another movie like this that comes to mind was Casino. The only satisfaction I got out of that movie was watching Joe Pesci get beat to death in a cornfield with baseball bats. I'm just not that hateful of a person, I'd rather just walk out of the theater and out of the characters' lives. So this kind of movie makes me want to just walk out of the theater in the middle of it.

The other thing that I can't get behind is comedies that center around a likable main character doing things that are incredibly embarrassing. Meet the Parents pops into mind. I'm too empathetic. But I couldn't find any empathy for any of the characters in There will be Blood which is even worse.

I can't think of a movie with a more AWESOME title, but it was kinda disappointing.

Haven't seen it and probably never will. I'm thinking Oklahoma Crude is about as good as it gets…