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

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Customer Rating:

Summary: God awful!!
Comment: This film has to be the worst film I have ever seen, give or take. Reasons? It has no direction, no
build up of characters, just an aimless meandering of incoherent scenes. To top it off the score on
the film is terrible as well. I read somewhere that there is no talking for the first 20 mins which
would have been just as well, but they filled the void with this hideous droning noise that
irritated the hell out of me! Daniel Day Lewis is a good actor no question but having to work as
hard as I did to figure out a plot (I'm not bad!) and still failing left me with questions of
perhaps I missed something - now after a while of reflection, I realise there is only so much
rationalising you can do, this is just a BAD film. DO NOT BUY!

Customer Rating:

Summary: There Will Be Blood
Comment: In 1898, while digging for silver, prospector Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis) discovers an oil
deposit. By 1911, after not selling out to his larger competitors, Plainview, along with his
adoptive son H. W. (Dillon Frasier), is one of the most successful oil-prospectors in California.
On a tip from Paul Sunday (Paul Dano) he travels to a small town where the land bleeds with the
black gold. However, on his arrival, he meets Pauls's twin brother, Eli Sunday (also Paul Dano), an
Evangelical preacher, who places obstacles in the way of his progress.

From the outset
of the film, director Paul Thomas Anderson builds up a massive amount of tension, keeping the
audience on tenterhooks, with a dialogue free initial 20 minutes. The only sound coming from the
screen is the apocalyptic score of Radiohead man Jonny Greenwood, which builds up the feeling of
unease and dead at what is to come.

From the moment the first world of dialogue are
spoken - "Ladies and gentlemen, I've travelled over half our state to be here tonight" - the film
belongs to Daniel Day Lewis. His performance as self-made oil baron Daniel Plainview is completely
compelling, thanks to Day Lewis's emersion in the character. The semi-retired actor's deep and
detailed study of the period and the people have allowed him to create an actual person, rather than
just portraying a character in a film. The voice he uses is also extremely distinctive, and
conjures up images of walrus moustaches and cigar smoking. Plainview is a deeply complex character,
and one which Day Lewis plays to perfection.

Opposite the Oscar winning actor is Paul
Dano an Eli Sunday (and briefly, Eli's twin brother Paul), a crazed Evangelical preacher. Sunday is
the compete opposite of Plainview, and in turn, tries to change the oil's mans wicked and greedy
ways, offering redemption through faith rather than wealth. It is the relationship between the two
which forms the centre of the film, with both embodying the continuing battle between business and
religion. Paul Dano, who replaced another actor after shooting had begun, does well in portraying
the Evangelical mad-man and acting opposition such as respected actor, although at times, the
spitting and shrieking form of preaching can seem overly silly and laughable.

It the
clash between these two massive characters which is at the heart of this film, with a resolution to
their story not coming until some years later, in a California mansion. It is now that the true
nature of each of these characters emerges, and we witness who wins in this colossal battle of
wills.

Around these two, only younger H. W. Plainview (Dillon Frasier) gets a look in.
Although at times, the relationship between father and adoptive son can seem one of convenience,
using his angelic face as the front for his father demonic pursuit of power and allowing Plainview
to portray himself as a family man. There does seem to be a deep bond between the two, however,
come the conclusion to the film, the relationship between the two becomes both clearly and even
murkier at the same time.

It will take a couple of days of reflection, and possibly
another half dozen viewing, but eventually, the masterpiece that There Will Be Blood is, will be
revealed.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Erm...I Don't Get It.
Comment: What don't I get about this film? Okay, I understand the human element - one man's soul being
desecrated by an insatiable greed. I understand how it reflects the current political climate
etc...etc...

What I don't understand is how this film has recieved so much praise.
First off - Daniel Day Lewis' "powerhouse" performance. I beg to differ! In my opinion, Day Lewis'
character is nothing less than LUDICROUS. Yes, almost as absurd as his portrayal of Bill the Butcher
in "Gangs of New York".

Secondly, the film as a whole just does not deliver. It cranks
up the tension from the opening titles, suggesting that the story will culminate with an explosive,
apocalyptic climax. The climax never occurs - unless you call two blokes slip-sliding round a
skittle alley explosive and apocalyptic. Deeply disappointing.

All that said, there are
positive points to this flick. It is very well directed, visually arresting, features a fine score
from Jonny Greenwood and a superb performance from Paul Dano. The tone and the pacing of the movie
reminded me very much of last year's "Assassination of Jesse James". However, the pace of "Jesse
James" seemed to serve a purpose and that movie ultimately moved me to tears. "There Will Be Blood",
on the other hand, frequently bored me to tears. It's far from terrible, but it's even further from
being remotely satisfying.

The thing is, when films like this elude me, I usually feel
compelled to watch them a second time in order to reassess my opinion. I feel no such compulsion
with "There Will Be Blood". This movie left me cold. I wanted my hunger to be satisfied but was left
with an empty stomach.

I believe director Paul Thomas Anderson has misfired with "There
Will Be Blood". For a far more satisfying example of his work, watch "Magnolia" - a 3 hour
masterpiece of intertwined stories and the director's finest work to date.

Customer Rating:

Summary: More beastlike than that you die on the spot
Comment: The latest film on the subject of the oil conquest, here in California. It is all there, the setting
and the West, the Far West, and the humanity of these greedy days. So what makes this film
different? First it deals with a small oil man who has to fight against Standard Oil but cannot
fight alone and has to sign with a competitor of Standard Oil to be able to make his money instead
of being bought out, even for a million dollars. In the case of a little oil man there is no way to
show the violence that comes along with this oil as being not the fact of the boss but of the
underlings. It is the boss himself who is cleaning up the plate when necessary, killing someone here
and beating up someone there. He is thus shown not as a conquering adventurer but as a criminal, a
successful criminal for sure but a criminal nevertheless. The second element is that they set their
camp in a totally desolate area where only goats can manage to breed and develop. This environment
is then in the hands of some absolutely fanatic Christian church under the only authority of a self
declared and proclaimed prophet, priest and intercessor. It shows how that young man manages to
blackmail now and then the oil man into subservient submission and how the oil man is resisting when
it is possible, escaping when it is necessary and fighting when it is unavoidable. The film leads to
the total defeat of that preacher first because he sinks into greed and luxury and all other sins,
and second because he is begging for money from the oil man and is in his turn humiliated and
eventually put to death with quibbles, with a bowling alley pin. And that's the end of him. The last
original element is the figure of the son of that oil man, not his son but an orphan he recuperated
on an old oil venture from a basket. The child gets through some accident one day and becomes deaf.
The father will never be able to cope and will try to get rid of the child in a specialized school.
The child though will come back, will be educated on the spot by a specialized teacher, will fall in
love with the youngest sister of the fake preacher, marry her and then decide to go away to Mexico
and create his own company. The father will not be able to accept that and will in a way curse him
away. The film then is cruel, rough and tough, admirably inhuman and bestial, and we can even go as
far as beastlike. That sounds like a new generation in those films that show how greed is the only
feeling, passion, impulse that moves a capitalistic entrepreneur who is a businessman for himself
and an undertaker for all his opponents or competitors. Yes indeed, there has been a lot of blood
on this road to money.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University
Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Customer Rating:

Summary: 21st century american masterpiece
Comment: Where do I begin? At what point do I start? How do I attempt to convey what this film is
about?

It is clearly about oil. It is about Father and sons. It is about California.
But what I really think it is, at it's nucleus(and I hope this is what Anderson had in mind when
writing it) is the titanic clashes in human nature.

These opposing views are
represented in Daniel Plainview and Eli Sunday. One, an oil hunter, the other, a preacher. />
Now, it's been noted by previous commenatators that they think Daniel is an evil man. Not
so. Daniel, to these eyes at least, is not an evil man at all. Here is a man who wants to achieve
things in life, to dig for oil, to build an empire, to be a king.

Not exactly virtues,
but neither are they vices. When Daniel attempts to persuade the Sunday family to give up their
land in order to drill for oil, Daniel uses his surrogate son as sympathy bait. The father is a
little stupid, and hastily agrees to the paltry sum Daniel is offering. Eli see's this fallacy.
Daniel has met his match.

Now, so far, so what? But as these two men compete with
the land, and religion and oil, each man is pushed to their individual moral boundaries. Daniel
tries with all his might to just get along with these peasant people, but at every turn, he is
challenged by the sly Eli, who as we learn, is the real darkness beneath the earth.
/>What follows is one of the most moving, tragic experiences I have ever had in the cinema. There
is a scene, when the oil suddenly explodes from the ground, sending his son flying through the air,
only to hit his head on the bank. Daniel rushes to his side, sweeps him into his arms, turns and
runs back down the hill, cradling the boy as he goes.

The sequence made the hairs on
my balls stand on end. My soul was touched. The music, the photography, the production design are
all outstanding. I can think of few other times that that has happened to me in the cimena, the
others being 'The talented Mr. Ripley' in 1999, then 'Mulholland Dr' in 2002. That moment of
trancendense comes so seldom, that we have to wait a decade to feel only three times.
/>Along with 'Erich Von Strohiem's 'Greed' and Roman Polanski's 'Chinatown', 'There will be blood'
also represents a great film in the tradition of California and it's earthly treasures. The first
film dealing with dazzling gold, the second with sparkling water, then the third, the black liquid
that is oil.

A marvellous trilogy and sure sign that American film-making is still
alive and beating.

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