My second publication!

There Will Be Blood is a 2007 film directed, written and produced by Paul Thomas Anderson, based on late 1800's oil prospectors. The film, inspired by Upton Sinclair's novel Oil! (1927) stars Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano. A story about family, greed, religion, and oil centres around a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.
The film has excited the critic, of the New York Times: "The film is above
all a consummate work of art.",Boldly and magnificently strange," according
to Variety, compared to Citizen Kane by many critics, nominated for 8 Oscars. The film has had another 33 wins and 31 nominations.
Despite, all the fuss, I can’t get my head around this “masterpiece” my mind is divided. I don’t think I could say I didn’t appreciate it. I cannot deny the talent of Daniel Day-Lewis who has delivered a magnificent performance that will be a challenge to other actors. He carries the film brilliantly with his interpretation of a monster. His eyes, small and evil, made me uneasy during and even after the movie.
His last line will become part of movie lore, like Robert Duval's 'Charlie don't surf', in Apocalypse Now (1979) by Francis Ford Coppola.
Also, the music by Jonny Greenwood best known as a member of Radiohead adds to the sense of fear.
Visually disturbing, the opening scene presents the landscape of two mountains underscored by violent and powerful music evocative of the soundtrack of The Shining (1980) by Stanley Kubrick.
With a powerful leading actor and strong supporting cast the film has all the ingredients to be an extraordinary feature.
Although, with such a lot going for it, why isn't this film a masterpiece?
As we say in French,the”je ne sais quoi” was missing: maybe the film was too long, maybe my expectations were too high, boosted by all the critics, and my high estimation of Paul Thomas Anderson’s work.
Boogie Nights (1998), and Magnolia (2000) were a turn-on for me, especially Magnolia, an epic mosaic of several interrelated characters in search of happiness and, forgiveness, and mainly about parent-child relationships, father-son estrangement, and the loss of a son…
One of the key plot lines in There Will Be Blood is the father-son relationship: Dniel Fairview (Daniel Day-Lewis) abandons his young son after an explosion in which the child is deafened and blinded, becoming useless in the eyes of his father the oil tycoon.
In spite of that similarity, There Will Be Blood marks a significant departure in the work of Paul Thomas Anderson.
As in Paul Thomas Anderson’s previous work, every shot in There Will be Blood seems exactly right, but its narrative form is more classical and less “auteurist”, which shows a lack of independence, and the creativity seems to be smothered by the big machine of Hollywood. Even the adaptation from the book has been unfaithful to please Paramount.
Perhaps there was too much compromise in an attempt to satisfy the studios.

-Laure Brosson-


Published in www.deadfoxfanzine.com