Cheap Cds - There Will Be Blood (2 disc Special Edition) [2007]

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Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:

Summary: Powerful and raw
Comment: An extrodinarily powerful film. Forget giant Oliphants and huge action set-pieces, it's the acting
and the relationships between the characters that make this film great. It is also the only film
that has left me feeling completely usnsure as to how I feel about its central character, who in
spite of the terrible crimes he commits, I couldn't help but like on some level. Danile Day-Lewis'
portrayal of him is also mezmirising.

Customer Rating:

Summary: 5 stars for the film 3 for the 'special' edition
Comment: It seems that most previous reviewers discuss the film. I loved it I thought it was one of he best
films I have watched in the cinema. But in this review I thought I'd give some information about the
actual product, the special edition dvd.

I have been waiting for it anxiously and
though the quality of the picture is excellent I was disappointed by the case. It is made of paper,
it's very easy to tear and gives very little protection to the disks. There are only english
subtitles in the film which is fine by me but as I was hoping to share it with some foreign friends
I was let down by this. The extras are ok [there are three sort deleted scenes one of which
-fishing- is rather interesting] and an original silent film used by the US government as
information material about oil. There are no interviews or detailed material about how the film was
made, no little informative booklet with the dvd case, nothing really to make this edition a true
special edition.

I am happy to have the film on dvd and the quality of the disks is ok
[so far so good at least] but the edition is sadly not that special.

Customer Rating:

Summary: There will be 1000 things more exciting than this watching this
Comment: What a disappointment! A good central performance by Day-Lewis cannot make up for a dreary, dull
bore (no pun intended) of a movie. Yet another film where critics shower it with honours without
actually having to sit through it. I wasn't expecting a hollywood blockbuster/action movie but more
than 3 sequences of any action would have been nice. And 20 minutes at the beginning where no
dialogue is spoken??? Do yourself a favour and do some DIY instead.

Customer Rating:

Summary: A film of humanity and corruption
Comment: A fascinating film that charters the birth of the oil business in the United States during the turn
of the 20th Century.

Day-Lewis stars as a self made oil man accompanied by his adopted
son who is told about a small town that may well be sitting on a lake of oil. On journeying there he
finds a small rural community living on the edge of existence in a mid west that while is still wild
carries much of the innocence and generosity that for us in the West unfortunately has become
something of a bygone era.

The first suggestion that there may be a conflict of
interests comes when Day-Lewis buys up land in the area but one member of the community refuses to
sell until he speaks with him personally, something Day-Lewis declines and later lives to regret. A
local religious leader requests that he bless the well when it opens, Day-Lewis a business minded
man only declines and so begins a spiraling conflict between business and religion that sets the
theme of the film.

The town grows and so too does Eli, the young religious leaders
congregation. His fiery sermons grip the community and when an accident occurs at the well causing
injury to Day-Lewis's son Eli is not slow in blaming this on the lack of the well being 'blessed'
before use. There is also a conflict between Day-Lewis and the established oil companies that wish
to buy out all smaller rivals Day-Lewis included.

Day-Lewis ever the lonely man
throughout the film meets what he thinks is his long lost brother, someone who feels could share in
his success. The conflict between business and religion grows reaching a climax when Day-Lewis is
forced into conversion in order to close a business deal.

Day-Lewis does a first rate
job in this film. His acting is superb, his tone and personality carry the viewer back to a bygone
era in American history. The director has clearly gone to some work in capturing a small community
that once 'did not even have bread' slowly turn into a thriving 'oil town' The tone of the film is
dark (Even in the brightest light of the desert) and really does capture the sparse surroundings of
the mid west.

The dramatic conclusion at the end of the film I felt was something of
an anti climax. I actually hoped for something better but I found the dialogue between Eli and
Day-Lewis first rate. Two men who had formed a grudging alliance over the years while remaining
bitterest enemies deep inside.

While Eli is ever the sly sneaky individual, keen to
exploit religion and keep an iron grip on his small community. Day-Lewis the shrewd business man
whose only real love is for his adopted son will stop at nothing to achieve his business aims and
hold on to what he has at whatever costs.

My only complaint about this film would be
the musical score. Why have they chosen to use almost the exact same stuff as was used in Shawshank
Redemption and a number of other films?

Customer Rating:

Summary: A film to be cherished
Comment:
Anyone that dismisses this film as one of the 'worst ever' or something similarly nonsensical
is talking out of their behind. I don't want to hyperbolize and make assertions that it is a
modern-day Citizen Kane, since it is, as other reviewers have highlighted, far too early to tell.
However, its qualities should be self-evident to anyone with half a brain - most of all its refusal
to sugarcoat the issues it deals with. It is not misanthropic, it is only honest in its depiction of
the faults of capitalism and the corruption of religion. Furthermore, I feel, it posits some
profound ideas. The fact that Eli Sunday, the sly preacher, is an unworthy adversary for the
towering and utterly ruthless Daniel Plainview is not, I believe, an inadequacy in the narrative but
fundamental to the film's apparent ideology: that religion cannot compete with earthly power, and
often instead wishes to join with it, and that often man's struggle (as in Plainview's case) is
essentially with itself.
If all this sounds somewhat heavygoing, do not be put off, because
There Will Be Blood will actually be an engrossing film for many. Anyone with a love for the cinema
of Kubrick will probably find, as I did, the film's expressive use of imagery and slow building of
tension completely captivating. The score evokes all the right emotions - like malice, foreboding,
even sadness - and nothing more need be said about the impressive performances. P T Anderson is one
of the bravest and most talented filmmakers alive, each one of his films different from the last
and, since Magnolia, in some way groundbreaking. There Will Be Blood continues and possibly even
exceeds the high quality of his previous films, and I for one am of the opinion that owing to its
courage, originality and artistry, even if it does have minor problems, it should be cherished in an
age of remakes, endless sequels and narrative convention.

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