Customer Reviews
Tedious, obscure - or both? 
2008-07-01
To answer the question posed in the title of my review - BOTH!
Daniel Day-Lewis turns in a powerful performance, but his character is not a person the viewer can identify with - which is fine, or would be if there were a sympathetic character in the film to offset his greedy, steely-eyed oil man.
The movie confused me initially by leading me to believe that it was set in Texas - the landscape certainly bears no resemblance to the Southern California oil country - and its opening quarter hour with little or no dialogue was off-putting.
Bleak, depressing, tedious - and deliberately obscure: not characteristics I look for in a film.
Part Greatness, Part BS 
2008-07-01
I'm shocked to see that the overwhelming majority of reviewers are giving this movie a five star review. Why? The movie does look stunning, and the acting of Daniel Day Lewis is superb. The movie is well done, but the ever important story is not.
Lewis' character in this film is Daniel Plainview. He's a loner and an ambitious beyond belief (really) oil tycoon. He is evil and somehow gets away with being evil unchallenged by anyone. He embarasses the town's preacher multiple times, yet no one in the town seems to care. He kills a man and no one bothers to ask what happened to him. In the end, he is so drunk that he can hardly stand, yet once he does rise, he drinks a lot more and then is able to chase around a sober man and beat him to death. These story flaws ruin the movie. There is very little drama here - just one bad deed by Daniel after another. No explanation why he is the way he is. We know nothing of the man even after having to watch him for over 2 1/2 hours other than that he apparently loathes everyone - including himself.
The attention to detail was remarkable. The oil rigs were authentic as were the townspeople. This movie could have been a very good look at the heart and soul of a robber baron in the early 20th century, but instead was nothing more than a cheap shot at ambition. Unfortunately this movie joins a growing list of movies that could have been great, but chose not to be.
There will be boredom! 2008-06-29
Daniel Day Lewis is truly a wonderful actor but this is one long, drawn out movie that goes nowhere. The bowling pin scene at the end is truly bizarre.
I'm Boycotting All "Green" DVDs 2008-06-28
I've got a nice collection of DVDs. I wanted this one, too, but it's only available in a cheesy cardboard folder, instead of a nice plastic case. I don't want to stick that crappy looking thing on my shelf with the nice ones. I'm not against going green on THROWAWAY packaging, but not for something that's going into a permanent collection!
Studios: you will lose business if you continue this penny-foolish trend. I will not buy DVDs in cheap cardboard wrappers. Fortunately, I found a nice used copy of the movie at Blockbuster that was in a proper plastic DVD case.
I gave a one-star rating because the packaging was a turn-off. The movie, itself, is worth four or five stars. Rent it and send a message to the studio packagers. Maybe they'll get the message if sales are weak on the first few cardboard entries in the market.
Not my kinda movie... 
2008-06-26
This would not normally be my "type" of movie, however I thought it was great. Maybe it was long in spots and didn't need to be but the acting alone was absolutely PHENOMINAL. Anyway, don't listen to what a lot of the reviewers said... I would check it out anyway!
Extraordinary 2008-07-08
Truly a masterful work of film making from P.T. Anderson, who has clearly found his footing as one of our leading directors. Daniel Day Lewis delivers a commanding performance as the oil tycoon Daniel Plainview, who creeps in on unknowing farmers to claim his prize. Based loosely on Upton Sinclair's 'Oil!' There Will Be Blood is masterful in its rich colors and textural sounds. It is a highly engaging allegory about the hypocritical bargain between the bourgeoisie and the church. It is at once a tragedy and an excruciatingly painful portrait of the demonic underbelly of the American dream.
Excellent movie! 2008-07-07
Excellent movie with an excellent leading man. Daniel Day-Lewis definitely proved he deserved the Oscar he won for his role as Daniel Plainview. He did such an amazing job with his performance...I mean everything right down to the movement of his mouth and the twinges and ticks and squinting, everything! Paul Dano did well as Eli Sunday, and he was so creepy and perfect for his part. Ciaran Hinds also has a supporting role, and I was so happy to see him again. He's one of my favorite actors. The movie wasn't slow-going, but it was slow in the beginning. It spanned several years in the early 20th century when everyone was on the quest for oil. I liked the story of the two main characters striving for wealth and power by the same means but for two very different goals. It was interesting to watch this movie develop and "finish"... I know the ending was kind of sickening, but I liked it and thought it was actually kind of funny. The ending really made the movie for me.
I drink your milkshake! 2008-07-07
Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) is an oilman, pure and simple. He searches for it, buys, cheats, or steals the land where he finds it, and then he drills for it. He has little patience for human realations, but sees everything as a magnificent struggle, with the land, with the oil, with the workers he must hire to drill for it. You wouldn't like this man, but you'd respect, or at the very least, fear him. He is like a force of nature, and only pretends to have normal human feelings in order to negotiate a better deal when he is buying, cheating, or stealing land on which to drill for oil. Daniel Day-Lewis has really thrown himself into the role, and he aims to play the role to the hilt, without caring at all about the audience liking his character. In fact, the less you like him, the better he is doing his job. But it can be lonely, and when he thinks he has found a long lost brother, Henry Brand (Kevin J. O'Connor), he confesses his feelings:
Daniel Plainview: I see the worst in people. I don't need to look past seeing them to get all I need. I've built my hatreds up over the years, little by little, Henry... to have you here gives me a second breath. I can't keep doing this on my own with these... people.
[laughs]
He adopts a son, if only to have a friendly face to distract the people when he comes to buy, cheat, or steal their land. When the boy becomes ill, he sends him away. A preacher from the Church of the Third Revelation, Eli Sunday (Paul Dano .... Dwayne in Little Miss Sunshine) is trying to manipulate him into giving money to his church. Eli sunday tries to make him feel guilty in order to exploit him.
Eli Sunday: So say it now- I am a sinner.
Plainview: I am a sinner.
Eli Sunday: Say it louder- I am a sinner!
Plainview: I am a sinner.
Eli Sunday: Louder, Daniel. I am a sinner!
Plainview: I am a sinner.
Eli Sunday: I am sorry Lord!
Plainview: I am sorry Lord.
Eli Sunday: I want the blood!
Plainview: I want the blood.
Eli Sunday: You have abandoned your child!
Plainview: I have abandoned my child.
Eli Sunday: I will never backslide!
Plainview: I will never backslide.
Eli Sunday: I was lost, but now I am found!
Plainview: I was lost but now I'm found.
Eli Sunday: I have abandoned my child!
[Plainview glares at him]
Eli Sunday: Say it... say it!
[Plainview mumbles]
Eli Sunday: Say it louder... say it louder!
Plainview: I've abandoned my child! I've abandoned my child! I've abandoned my boy!
The Sunday farm is only fit for growing weeds, and raising goats. The soil is alkaline, and the water is salty but there is oil. The only problem for Eli is that his brother Paul Sunday (also played by Paul Dano in a dual role) has already sold the land to Plainview.
Eli Sunday: Daniel, I'm asking if you'd like to have business with the Church of the Third Revelation in developing this lease on young Bandy's thousand acre tract. I'm offering you to drill on one of the great undeveloped fields of Little Boston!
Plainview: I'd be happy to work with you.
Eli Sunday: You would? Yes, yes, of course. Wonderful.
Plainview: But there is one condition for this work.
Eli Sunday: All right.
Plainview: I'd like you to tell me that you are a false prophet... I'd like you to tell me that you are, and have been, a false prophet... and that God is a superstition.
Eli Sunday: ...but that's a lie... it's a lie, I cannot say it.
[long pause]
Eli Sunday: When can we begin to drill?
Plainview: Right away.
Eli Sunday: How long will it take to bring in the well?
Plainview: Should be very quick.
Eli Sunday: I would like a one hundred thousand dollar signing bonus plus the five that is owed with interest.
Plainview: That's only fair.
Eli Sunday: I am a false prophet and God is a superstition. If that's what you believe, then I will say it.
Plainview: Say it like you mean it.
Eli Sunday: Daniel...
Plainview: Say it like it's your sermon.
Eli Sunday: This is foolish.
[long pause]
Eli Sunday: I am a false prophet! God is a superstition! I am a false prophet! God is a superstition! I am a false prophet! God is a superstition!
[pause]
Eli Sunday: Is that fine?
Plainview: Those areas have been drilled.
Eli Sunday: What?
Plainview: Those areas have been drilled.
Eli Sunday: ...no they haven't...
Plainview: It's called drainage. I own everything around it... so I get everything underneath it.
Eli Sunday: But there are no derricks there. This is the Bandy tract. Do you understand?
Plainview: Do you? I drink your water, Eli. I drink it up. Everyday. I drink the blood of lamb from Bandy's tract.
[How can this be? Plainview is really taking delight in turning the tables on the 'false prophet.']
Plainview: 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!
[sucking sound]
Plainview: I drink it up!
There Will Be Blood is a tour de force performance from Daniel Day-Lewis. You might not like the character he is playing, but you have to admit that he is totally commited to that character, and matches Plainview's intensity, pound for pound, every second he is onscreen.
The cinematography and settings are magnificent. The composer of the film's music was Jonny Greenwood, primarily famous as the guitarist for the British rock band Radiohead. There is some Brahms and music from other composers, but the bulk of the music was by Greenwood, and it really adds to the epic granduer. This is an epic of man against nature. There are long stretches where there is no dialogue at all, just man battling against nature, struggling and striving to pump that oil out of the ground. Living in Bakersfield, an oil town, I see oil derricks all around me. Some of the action takes place right here, for instance, scenes were shot in Santa Clarita, and they talk of a pipeline through the Tehachapi Mountains. That is right down Kern Canyon. We have a Kern County Oil Museum, and other historic sights in Taft. All that history is right around us, and it made me curious about how they got all the oil pumping. There Will Be Blood tells that story very well.
TEN PIVOTAL ROLES OF DANIEL DAY-LEWIS
Gangs of New York (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) (2002) .... Bill 'The Butcher' Cutting
The Boxer (Collector's Edition) (1997) .... Danny Flynn
The Crucible (1996) .... John Proctor
In the Name of the Father (1993) .... Gerry Conlon
The Age of Innocence (1993) .... Newland Archer
The Last of the Mohicans (Director's Expanded Edition) (1992) .... Hawkeye (Nathaniel Poe)
My Left Foot (My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Germany ] (1989) .... Christy Brown
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Two-Disc Special Edition) (1988) .... Tomas
A Room with a View (Two-Disc Special Edition) (1985) (as Daniel Day Lewis) .... Cecil Vyse
My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) (as Daniel Day Lewis) .... Johnny
I drink your milkshake!
I wanted to like this movie ...then i watched it 2008-07-04
I'm a pretty big Daniel Day Lewis fan. I think he's one of the great actors left in hollywood. He does not dissapoint in this movie either. He does a great job creating the character that in many ways is very similar to the Butcher character he played in Gangs of New York. However, setting the great acting aside this movie sucked. It was one of those movies i came into expecting to love but ended up hating. I sat through it once and I will not ever set through it again. It was long boring and pretentious. The movie was well acted by all involved but a well acted movie without a true storyline makes it a very unwatchable film. Its a mess from beginning to end. As such i cannot recommend it to anyone out there. I know for some reason a lot of people love this movie but for regular "joe American" this movie will be a borefest. I actually like artsy movies but this one was too much of nothing for me to like it. Not to mention i hated all the characters in it except for maybe Plainview's adopted son and his bit part didn't help out the movie in the least. So there you go. I know I'll get hated by a lot of you out there who love this but i just can't bring myself to review this movie anyway other than honestly. 1 star avoid it if you can.
A Gem for those who love complex Characters 
2008-07-01
There Will be Blood is a movie that I wanted to see and it did not disappoint. The movie based on the the book "Oil" by Upton Sinclair is a complex story, and kept my attention from start to finish.
The music was great. The mood created by the music made me feel like something was going to happen at any moment that would change the course of the whole movie.
For me, what made the movie not just Good but Great had to be the actors and the characters they portrayed.
Daniel Day Lewis was masterful and deserved the oscar. His Character, Daniel, was my favorite. I wanted to like him so bad. The way he went about his life, the passion he had for his work, His unquenchable thirst for success were qualities they made me root for him. But, and this was what made him such a rich character, his flaws were so overshadowing, I couldn't look past them and embrace him in the movie.
My other favorite was the young H.W. He played did such a masterful job in the role, that I liked him immediately and that never changed from beginning to end.
This movie is heavy on drama and story, and light on humor, action, and anything else that hyptnotizes the masses today. It truly is a GREAT movie, and it's one that should be seen and talked about for years to come.
