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2007 THE NOMINEES |
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"There Will Be Blood"  |
“There Will Be Blood”
Amounts to A Bloody Bore
By STAN ISAACS
of TheColumnists.com
Let me be subtle about “There Will Be Blood.” I hated it.
I found it pretentious, often incomprehensible, dishonest in conception, an intellectual sham, overly long and frequently boring. Otherwise….
I think it was a shining example of what we are increasingly seeing in movies: what I call director’s diarrhea. We are aware in every scene of the heavy hand of director Paul Thomas Anderson. (I always am a little suspicious of people who use three names).
The director is saying, look at me and what I am doing--aren’t I a clever auteur--as he constantly moves the camera through light and darkness, long shots and close-ups. He lingers and lingers ad nauseum over scenes.
We are given an immediate clue to what we are in for when the movie opens with a 14-minute passage in which no dialogue is spoken. A man at the bottom of a huge hole pickaxes, searching for silver. He digs and scrapes, digs and scrapes. The New York Times reviewer said this scene was “a stunner--spooky and strange.” I found it interminable. I was thinking, “Get on with it for God’s sake.”
As I watched this story of greed and man’s inhumanity to man, I found myself wondering if this movie was anything like Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel “Oil” upon which it was allegedly based. It turns out that Sinclair, the socialist, wrote a book about a decent man who loves his son, has a shrewd mind for business, and is a success. It is much about socialism vs. capitalism. The movie pays lip service at best to “Oil” and I suspect that Sinclair will be turning over in his grave if “Blood” wins the Oscar for best picture.
The story chronicles the life of Daniel
Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) a slick-talking, amoral businessman
who transforms himself from a down-and-out silver miner into
a self-made oil tycoon. There is a tender scene with his son,
some puzzling business in which the viewer has to determine if
actor Paul Dano is playing one or two characters. There is also
a bloke who mysteriously turns up as Plainview’s brother,
only to be murdered. I think. And the religious gobbledegook
lost me for sure.
Some of the critics have likened this film to “The Treasure
of the Sierra Madre” and “Citizen Kane.” I can
see something of “Treasure” in it if only because that
movie is about the pursuit of gold and how greed afflicts the
Humphrey Bogart character. But “Citizen Kane”? Because
this, too, ends with the collapse of a powerful man? Maybe Orson
Welles will be turning over in his grave, too, if the flick wins
the Oscar and somebody gets overly flowery about it at the award
ceremonies.
Many critics do love this movie, which is why it has a good chance to win the Oscar. Some of my friends like it, too. But others said it was too long. “I kept looking at my watch,” was a refrain I’ve heard more than once.
There’s no questioning here the superb performance of Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview. There is a touch of John Huston’s gravelly diction in his portrayal. If there is such a thing as a sure thing for a best actor Oscar, Day-Lewis is it.
The movie ends with Daniel Day Lewis saying, “I am finished.” After two hours and 38 minutes…hooray.
©2008 by Stan Isaacs. The ad for "There Will Be Blood," featuring an image of star Daniel Day-Lewis, is courtesy of Paramount Vantage Films.
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