There Will Be Blood (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition) Reviews

• Great movie, disappointing DVD special edition--5 star movie, 2 star extras--go for the single disc edition

  
  By AQP1VPK16SVWM on 2008-04-03
  When is a "Collector's Edition" not a collector's edition? When the second disc barely has an one hour's worth of additional featurettes and other extras. "There Will Be Blood" deserved to be recognized as one of the finest films from last year. That's not to say the film is perfect but its flaws are pretty easy to overlook because of Paul Thomas Anderson's sweeping and ambitious storytelling. I'd recommend the single disc edition as the "Collector's Edition" doesn't have all that much in the way of extras. The single disc edition is really all you need even though it doesn't have ANY extras.
  
  The packaging for this set is horrible (which I could forgive if the discs weren't scratched up in the process). How did this get past the marketing department at Paramount?
  
  
  "There Will Be Blood" based on Upton Sinclair's novel OIL! gives us two portraits of two very different men both ruled by their own obsession--Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis in his Oscar winning role who seems to be channeling John Huston from the film "Chinatown")an oil man who in spite of his impressive skills as a smooth talking salesman, doesn't like people very much (aside from his son H.W. which he uses to help sell people that his is "a family business") and Eli Sunday (Paul Dano)a smooth talking healer and leader of the Church of the Third Relevation. Both men want wealth and power for Plainview its a means to escape. While Sunday sees the oil leaking out of the ground of his father's ranch to gather a flock, reach out with his message and, in turn, gain the power that he believes he deserves. The two men don't get along from the moment they meet--Eli is on to Daniel's "plain speaking" way of doing business and getting something for next to nothing and Daniel believes that Eli is a charlatan. In their own way each is a hard nosed uncompromising businessman with visions that don't mesh.
  
  The DVD:
  
  Robert Elswit's cinematography deservedly won an Oscar for the film and while the DVD transfer looks good, the night sequences are a bit murky and dark. Detail overall is pretty good with a color scheme that accurately captures the theatrical look of the film.
  
  Audio sounds terrific nicely reproducing Johnny Greenwood's score.
  
  There are no extras on the first disc which has a menu as plain as Daniel's view of the world. The second disc features a vintage silent featurette that runs about 27 minutes and uses Greenwood's score to accompany it. It tells the "story" of oil and shows us how oilmen hunted for it and brought it to market.
  
  We also get "15 Minutes" a collection of vintage stills from the era taken around oil sites, behind-the-scenes footage and various clips showing all the work that Anderson and his crew put into researching the film. It's a silent segment accompanied by music and lasts, yep, just over 15 minutes.
  
  Next up we two deleted scenes that last nearly ten minutes. Under three minutes "Dallies Gone Wild" is an alternate take of the restaurant scene involving Daniel, his son H.W. and employees of Standard Oil.
  
  
  We also get the teaser for the film and the original theatrical trailer both of which remind me of the lost art of crafting a great trailer that will pull in an audience without giving away too much. All things considered, this is a disappointing "Collector's Edition" even with the awkward collectable packaging that is included (where the discs slide inside) and would be prone to damage with time.
  
  Conclusion: A powerful, terrific film and one of the ten best from 2007, "There Will Be Blood" appears in a disappointing special edition from Paramount. The film looks fine and the soundtrack is brilliantly rendered which should be enough to get fans to purchase the single disc DVD and that's what I would recommend.
  
  The extras on disc two of the "Collector's Edition" are slim pickings to say the least. It's as if Paramount rushed to pull this material together in light of the Academy Award nominations and wins the film scored. They are very disappointing for a two disc edition and I can't strongly recommend the two disc edition based on this. If you just want the film, go for the single disc edition and wait to see what the Blu-ray comes packs in the way of special features.
  
  A reminder...Voting at amazon.com is about whether or not the review helped you decide to purchase the product NOT about whether or not you agree with the reviewer. That's what the comments section is designed for. If you have seen the movie and didn't like it, write a review.
  
  
  
  
  

• A Long, Dark Journey into the Soul of Greed and Power

  
  By A328S9RN3U5M68 on 2008-04-11
  Upton Sinclair's epic novel OIL! has been successfully transformed to a film by screen writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson ('Magnolia','Boogie Nights', etc). The film is a long song (158 minutes), covering a fascinating span of time in turn of the century California when oil gained the lure of gold and transformed the land and the people into creatures of capitalism and greed and lust, and were it not for the presence of Daniel Day-Lewis' powerful performance as the man who makes it all happen, the story itself would become tiresome. It doesn't.
  
  Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a silver miner in 1898, but soon discovers oil and begins on a mission to become wealthy, owning most of the oil fields from the mountains of central California to the Pacific Ocean. With his medicine man manner of getting people to do what he wants he pursues his greed relentlessly, disrupting small sleepy towns like Little Boston as he gains access to the wealth of the black gold. There are odd characters along the way, such as the evangelist Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) who become crushable clods beneath Plainview's boots. The progress of the story is well known to most: it is the telling of the tale in the hands of wholly credible, completely physically immersed Daniel Day-Lewis that makes the story seem new.
  
  The film's grimy atmosphere is well presented in Robert Elswit's cinematography and the odd musical score by Jonny Greenwood is as ominous as the vantage of Plainview. Greenwood elects to weave classical works into the fabric of the film: when young HW falls deaf after an explosion the silence is partnered by one of Arvö Pärt's 'Fratres', and the film's credits are displayed over the Anne-Sophie Mutter/von Karajan recording of Brahms' Violin Concerto. Strange bedfellows, yes, but entirely appropriate to the overall mood of the film. The journey is long and depressing, but the power of Day-Lewis' performance is magic. Grady Harp, April 08
  
  

• The American Dream

  
  By A1TJPMB7N776WS on 2008-01-12
  Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" is a big bold, eccentric, crazy film, based on Socialist author Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel "Oil," which proposes the thesis that Capitalism brings about positive change but change that ultimately destroys the future: a double edged sword that cut both ways. So much of "TWBB" reminds me of Nathanial West's Hollywood Novels of the 30's like "Miss Lonelyhearts" and "Day of the Locust," novels filled with grotesques and grotesque, outlandish actions. Plainview would fit right in with West's fringe dwellers.
  At the center of "TWBB" is the towering performance of Daniel Day Lewis as Daniel Plainview, who at the beginning of the film (1898) is a not very successful Silver miner who ends up by film's end as a just barely holding onto reality, whacked out richest Oilman in California. Lewis's performance is feral, animalistic, and fierce...all squinting eyes, guttural voice and slouching posture: Lewis feels every word he utters throughout his body. He pulls out all the stops and creates a character that resonates with pathos and humanity but his Plainview is also a symbol of a time when it was possible to get ahead by setting goals, setting out into a "new" world, grabbing yourself by the seat of your pants and forcing your will upon others and getting ahead: making money, saving, spending wisely...attaining the so-called American Dream in the sense that James Truslow Adams wrote about it in his "Epic of America" in the 1930's. Lewis's Plainview is Evil personified ("I despise success in others") yet writer/director Anderson has allowed him to have a positive inner life primarily centered on his son who he papalbly adores focusing all of his available adoration on him.
  Let no one dissuade you from this: Lewis's performance here is on par with Brando's in "Streetcar" or Paul Newman's in "Hud." It's a performance that actors will be referring to for many years to come.
  Plainview's main antagonist is Paul Dano's Eli Sunday, a young preacher who creates the Church of the Third Revelation in the oil fields. Thomas sets up a battle between the two: the supposedly ultimate Capitalist and the lowly man of God: a kind of Battle of the Titans: Capitalism vs. Evangelism. Their big, penultimate confrontation is as big and bold and over-the-top as even Anderson's own Shower of Frogs in "Magnolia."
  "There will be Blood" grabs you from the first frame and doesn't let you go until the last frame of the last reel spools out. It is poetic, thoughtful, beautiful in many ways as well as ugly, real, ghoulish in others. Because Anderson's vision here is so aggressively solemn and ominous even Calvinist,"There Will be Blood" will naturally be misunderstood by many but ultimately this film will be remembered and revered for many, many years to come.
  
  
  

• Greed, That is. Black Gold. Texas Tea

  
  By A18G7GG53G2X8A on 2007-12-31
  "There Will Be Blood" is probably the absolute best film of the year, and this is due to more than the extraordinary talent of Daniel Day-Lewis. At its core, it tells a story of insatiable greed, of how the lust for absolute power can drive anyone into a state of pure evil. Based on Upton Sinclair's novel "Oil!" the descent of oil tycoon Daniel Plainview (Lewis) is long and slow, but it's definitely constant--he starts off in 1902 with drive, passion, and charisma, only to lose himself to hate, arrogance, and a complete lack of decency by 1927. By the end of the film, absolutely nothing about this man is likeable, and one gets the sense that he wanted it that way all along: "I hate most people," he says at one point. "I look at people and I see nothing worth liking." Here's a character that can't be pitied, simply because he created exactly what he wanted for himself.
  
  The first ten minutes of "There Will Be Blood" contains no dialogue, but it still manages to establish a cohesive story. It begins in 1898, during which a lone prospector digs for oil in the mountainous deserts of Texas. By 1902, an entire team led by Plainview has made camp in the area and has successfully struck oil. One day, a well accident kills one of the workers, leaving an infant boy without his father. For as yet unknown reasons--be they selfless or selfish--Plainview decides to care for the boy and raise him as his own. The story then flashes forward to 1911, which opens with Plainview trying to negotiate a deal with the locals of a small town. When the deal falls through, Plainview is introduced to Paul Sunday (Paul Dano), a young man from a small community called Little Boston; he offers Plainview his family's property in exchange for a handsome sum of money. Apparently, that property is rich with oil.
  
  Without missing a beat, Plainview and his son, H.W. (Dillon Freasier), enter Little Boston posing as quail hunters. After discovering that the Sunday property does, indeed, contain oil, and after setting up camp with his team, Plainview gets acquainted with the devoutly religious Sunday family. The son, Eli (also played by Paul Dano), is thought to be a spiritual healer, and he shows this side of himself during some passionate church meetings. He and Plainview share an interesting relationship, to say the least; Plainview initially states that he likes all churches and thus doesn't belong to any specific sect of Christianity, but as the film progresses, it's obvious that church--or more specifically, God--has not and never will be a part of his life. Eli, who believes he has the power to heal his fellow parishioners, falls into disfavor when H.W. has an oil-related accident that can't be healed.
  
  Things take an unexpected turn when a man claiming to be Plainview's long lost half brother enters the picture. His name is Henry (Kevin J. O'Connor), and he's come from a job in New Mexico to be a part of Plainview's life, to work for him and help him find more oil. Something about him clearly isn't right from H.W.'s point of view, and he makes this clear through a drastic act I won't reveal. I will say that, as time goes on, Plainview also begins to suspect Henry, which actually isn't saying a whole lot since his very nature is to be distrustful. One understands this all throughout the film--with even the subtlest of expressions, Plainview can easily express the anger, hostility, and fear that are slowly taking control. It seems all he has left is to let himself be manipulated, especially by Eli: if he wants permission to run an oil pipe through a piece of property he doesn't own, he must agree to be baptized in Eli's church. And as you might expect, Eli will actually be leading the ceremony. Watching Plainview being forced to say things he doesn't believe is a mesmerizing experience, not only because it foreshadows what lies ahead, but also because the scene is incredibly intense.
  
  Pretty much the same thing can be said about the entire film, which thrives on tension despite appearing to be low-key. One of Lewis' expressions is an almost frightening counterpoint to Johnny Greenwood's score, a Bernard Hermann-inspired opus of screeching, tremulous strings. Such music is heard even during the "calmer," "insignificant" moments, such as shots of Plainview walking from one room to another. This would be inappropriate were this any other film. But this isn't any other film; "There Will Be Blood" is all about expressing Plainview's emotional turmoil, and as such, it's easy to believe that he's never had a quiet moment in his head. It's also easy to believe that entering his mind would be one of the most terrifying experiences imaginable, not just because of his contempt for humanity, but also because of the depths to which his contempt will sink him.
  
  The final twenty minutes of this film takes place in 1927, at which point Plainview is more morally than physically aged. He's rich beyond his wildest dreams, yet he's emotionally bankrupt, and this is shown through two brief but significant meetings. I won't describe what happens or reveal whom he speaks to, but I will say he does everything he can to make everyone hate him, including us. In essence, we hate him just as much as he hates himself, which isn't pathetic so much as it's detestable. I realize that such an ending is not a typical crowd pleaser, but considering the story that's being told, typical doesn't apply, here. This goes double for Daniel Day-Lewis' performance, one of the best I've seen in a long time. To sum everything up with a brief phrase, "There Will Be Blood" is an absolutely brilliant film.
  
  

• BLOODY POINTLESS

  
  By A3H9JSM1SUTE4O on 2008-01-12
  What a disappointment.
  
  I bought into the carefully manipulated hype. But you don't have to.
  
  Daniel Day-Lewis does a great John Huston impersonation (a la Noah Cross in "Chinatown') and the clever vintage production design by Jack Fisk is outstanding. But the story, very loosely "inspired" by Upton Sinclair's "Oil!" is totally devoid of redeeming elements. The main character starts out bad and stays bad: a greed-driven psychopath. We get no insight whatsoever. And the only rootable character is mostly mute.
  
  The first half of the movie is a great set-up for a terrific story. But plot-wise, nothing new happens after that. No twists or surprises or character development or complications or payoffs or revelations or redemption. None of the things that make a story a story.
  
  At the end of the movie I was angry at not being entertained or enlightened to say nothing of losing two hours and 28 minutes of my life.
  
  It is incredible that critics can write words that -- even in out-of-context excerpts -- praise this movie. Why are people so intimidated by a few critics superficial praise that they can't think for themselves even when in their hearts they know otherwise?
  
  This movie is not in the same league as "No Country For Old Men" even though both have a psychopath as a main character.
  
  And what did the way-over-the-top ridiculous ending have to do with the story (such as it was)?
  
  Even if you have nothing to do and can see if for free, I wouldn't recommend it.
  
  
• Pruduct review only the movie is 5 stars
  By A109LWN9DUGPDP on 2008-04-08
  Personlly I think this is the best movie I've seen in many years but this dvd release is one big joke...hahaha.The 2 disc and single disc are put in cardboard dvd holders which in turn totally scratches the dvds like nothing I've ever seen.I havn't wacthed this dvd yet but if I can get through it without a freeze or skip I will be shocked.Paramount/Miramax go sit on it you all really put it to us on this one I want a complete refund for one packaged properly.I've never been this dissapointed on a dvd release and I've been through alot of them.
  
  
• Would someone please tell me what is so great about this movie?
  By A3NH7PYU4AD5GA on 2008-04-17
  Frankly, I have tried this film twice and could not finish it. After the first time, when I gave up in boredom about halfways, I thought, it was me, maybe. I might have had a bad day, or maybe even the copy of the movie was somehow faulty. So I gave it another chance. This time I gave up even earlier, after I was convinced that everything was exactly as I remembered from 1st time round.
  What is great about it? The story is a standard cliche plot which hardly merits revisiting. Upton Sinclair was a writer of pamphlets, not novels. Some of his pamphlets served a useful purpose, like the Jungle.
  The cinematography is ok, but then so what, which aspiring film is not able to cover that angle.
  The acting? Gimme a break, DDL did the same stunts in Gangs of New York, even if the accent was different, and nearly killed that movie (which got saved by others). Let me state officially then that I consider Mr.Day Lewis a candidate for most overrated actor of the last 20 years. His 'art' is exaggeration, he plays his parts as if he deals only with morons. Well, he may well be, actually, majoritywise. His characters are caricatures, so that the dumb audience can understand them.
  In short, this year's Oscar batch was marred by wrong award selections, not by unsatisfactory alternatives.
  
  
• His "milkshake" drains all the oil from the yard
  By A37PV5GMP2ILJC on 2008-03-19
  Powerful performances by Daniel Day Lewis and Paul Dano make this film worth watching. As for the story itself, well, it's not a pretty one. The love of money (and oil) changes Daniel Plainview (Lewis) from an enterprising, industrious man and decent human being, into a whiskey soaked degenerate, who eventually alienates everyone close to him.
  
  Preacher Eli Sunday (Dano, in a double role as both Paul and Eli Sunday) serves up fire and brimstone at the pulpit, but even his church is running on oil money, and not immune to corruption.
  
  The movie provides a peek into the early days of the oil industry in the late 19th century and early 20th century, and doesn't hold back on the ugly and dirty side. Well acted, and with great cinematography, I have but two small personal dislikes.
  
  1. The soundtrack, which I found to be discordant and out of sync at times
  2. The length of the film
  
  Short Attention Span Summary (SASS)
  
  1. Silver miner strikes oil
  2. Uses silver tongue to become best little oilman in California
  3. Becomes a father by accident, though not in the fun way
  4. Gets a tip from the man Sunday
  5. Looks at the earth and sees there will be oil
  6. Makes a deal with the Church of the Third Revelation
  7. Breaks a deal with the Church of the Third Revelation
  8. Pays the price, and there is blood
  9. There is also whiskey
  10. Communication efforts with son fall on deaf ears
  11. His "milkshake" drains all the oil from the yard
  12. Everything goes to heck
  
  
  
  Amanda Richards, March 18, 2008
  
  
  
• WORST...PACKAGING...EVER!
  By A39NXAD50F6YVZ on 2008-04-08
  The 1-star is for the DVD packaging, not the film.
  
  WARNING: This DVD is packaged in a flimsy, skinny, cardboard folder, with the disc itself tucked unprotected into a tight, flat pocket. You will be required to slide the entire surface of the DVD across the cardboard everytime you take it out or put it back, so no matter how carefully you handle it, you can expect to see scuffs or scratches on the disc shortly.
  
  I have received junk-mail CD-ROMs (e.g. "Try X-brand Internet service for 3 months FREE!") that were better packaged than this DVD! I don't know if this was an attempt to be environmentally friendly, or just a trial-balloon to test the general public's tolerance for cheap packaging, but if you're going to pull stuff like this, HOW ABOUT COMING DOWN A FEW BUCKS ON THE PRICE??
  
  
• To be blunt, this movie sucks
  By A2U83VDVJMAB2U on 2008-04-09
  Great cinematography, so I don't mind the one star I'm forced to give it.
  
  Other than that, this movie is pretty much a train wreck. Daniel Day-Lewis spends the whole movie doing a John Huston imitation, as others have noted and is frankly impossible to ignore.
  
  The music track sounds like it was written by the Marquis de Sade, with screeching violins making me want to level my 12 gauge shotgun at my speakers.
  
  The script itself was a lame attempt to take muckraker/socialist Upton Sinclair's novel "Oil" and couch it in a contemporary "morality", with major story revisions. A dismal failure on all counts, unless you're a die hard socialist, in which case it may resonate.
  
  Essentially a series of mini-stories with continuing characters, fairly incoherently strung together, to carry the characters through a few decades to an ultimately senseless finale. Story lines are left incomplete, characters vanish into the ether.... just basically a mess.
  
  Other than the cinematography, as I noted earlier, this movie has absolutely nothing going for it.
  
  Wow! It won an Oscar! Quite a statement on the politicization of Hollyweird, I have to say.
  
  
  
  
• Epic Film Making? Maybe...
  By A1W661TC1P6VQI on 2008-02-13
  P.T. Anderson is a director to keep an eye on. The man only has five films under his belt, but he's already proven that he has the talent and the ambition to be the next Martin Scoresese. It's been five years since his last film, "Punch Drunk Love," was released, and you may remember that film as the first Adam Sandler vehicle that showed the former Saturday Night Live star had some serious depth and acting skills. Now Anderson is back, full of confidence and skill, with his new film "There Will Be Blood." So confident is he, that he credits himself with his full name, Paul Thomas Anderson, which is most likely a deceleration to the world that he is ready to be a serious film maker. Instead of bringing out unusual depth from an actor people didn't think much of before though, Anderson is directing the one and only Daniel Day Lewis.
  
  Though Lewis is an acclaimed Academy Award winning actor, he only makes a movie once in a blue moon. That is, he only makes a movie if he likes the script. In this film, Lewis carries the film as an oil man named Daniel Plainview, a name that is one of the better in-jokes I've seen in a movie this year. Plainview is a successful oil tycoon who has open three successful drilling stations, and he heads to California to open a forth based on a tip from a young man name Paul (Paul Dano). When he gets to California oil is easily found, and the land is easily swindled from the families who own the land. Though easily taken, the one person who has reservations about Plainview is Eli Sunday (also played by Dano), who is an spiring pastor of a local church. He sold the land on the condition that Plainview would pay $5,000 to the church if the land produced oil, a fee Plainview doesn't exactly volunteer willingly.
  
  Then there is Plainviews son, H.W. Plainview, who is nothing more then an innocent face for Plainview to exploit at business pitches. Once the boy loses his hearing, Plainview's indifference to the boy is shocking and cruel. Of course, how can Plainview be expected to be anything but indifferent? He needed the boy as a political tool, not a sick boy who needs loving attention. Though not Anderson's best film to date, there are many signs as to why the director stills holds his position as a auteur artist. There are some great shots and cinematography in this movie. Much like another desert bound drama, "No Country For Old Men," Anderson does what he can to make the desert a major character in the storyline. Though more occupied then in the aforementioned film, this film is also barren to a certain extent.
  
  We don't leave the oil rigs much, and so we get the sense that we are truly only involved in Plainviews own personal, enclosed world. It's just more happens in this particular world. A couple of oil accidents provide two of the most visually stunning scenes in the film. But credit due where credit is due, this movie lies on Daniel Day Lewis's gripping performance as Plainview. Though the story is light and a little fluffy, Plainview is an interesting character to watch from beginning to end. Really, the whole movie rests on this guy, as the storyline is a bit thin at times, though always interesting. That said, for such a thin storyline, the movie is two and a half hours, about thirty minutes longer then it needs to be.
  
  I've forgiven Anderson on the length of his films before, but I think the time has come to start editing the films better. People shouldn't be getting bored with climax's that feel drawn out to no real purpose. And while we're speaking of climaxes, the aesthetic ending this film has is a tad bit shocking to see. Though Anderson has never claimed whether he had any spiritual beliefs, it can't be denied that many of his films (particularly "Magnolia") contain strong spiritual themes, as well as spiritual characters that are portrayed (almost shockingly) as positive and influential people. To say that this new view caught me a little off guard is saying something. Still, overall this is a good film. It has it's problems with the pacing and ending, but it still is a good movie, and I find myself excited once more for Anderson's future projects.
  
  Rating: *** and 1/2 stars
  
  
• Mind Boggling!!
  By A1EP6R5Z1WGGXA on 2008-03-07
  The word "BRILLIANT" appears a lot in reviews of "There Will Be Blood." The only brilliant element to this film is Day-Lewis, otherwise the viewer is enclosed in PT Andersons ego for three audience punishing hours. "There Will Be Blood" has nearly no connection to "Oil!" by Upton Sinclair and the film actually contains only three scenes from the book. The character names are changed and most of the film stems from Anderson desire to have his audience leave the theater slack jawed at his brilliance. Which everyone seems to be doing, marching off lock step calling this film brilliant. "Boogie Nights," was a waste of time and "Magnolia?" Well that is best left alone.
  
  "There Will Be Blood" contains long plot and sub-plot gaps making dramatic tension imposable. That tension is made up for by the inappropriate music pounding away shouting at the viewer, "Bow down before me uncultured American filth for I am Paul Tomas Anderson!" I did see the film because I'm game and have liked films from people whose work I have otherwise disliked. But to call "There Will Be Blood" an adaptation of "OIL!" is cutting it thin. So thin in fact I think Anderson is trying to claim that he too is an American master like Sinclair. Moreover, saying this is American history or is in anyway an extension of Sinclair's beliefs is like putting a silk hat on any number of pigs ignorant of American history.
  
  If you would like to see a film about greed, and the evils of capitalism, and has actual history involved in the story, I suggest one sees "Matewan," by John Sales and infinitely better film about a coal strike in 1920.
  
  And come on, do you all really think "There Will Be Blood" was so great? Or are we all just falling into line to sound smart?
  
  
  
• this must be a joke
  By A1FZYGS1FHD1MG on 2008-04-08
  so I am in walmart today and I was going to get this dvd but when I picked it up I thought I was holding a folded piece of cardboard. I worked all night so maybe I am mistaken. Even america online packages their free instal cd better than this and aol gives them away. the final outcome is no sale I will wait for blu ray and if they pull the same silly packaging stunt then I will just pass this movie up
  
  
• Performances, Plot, and Refined Style Make for an Oscar Gusher
  By A3EE0H0NWQ9QVL on 2008-01-26
  Upton Sinclair was a socialist writer. He lived in times when the contrast between wealth and poverty was massive. His novel `The Jungle' famously brought reform to the meat packing industry, and his story zeroed in on an immigrant living in squalor during the early part of the last century. Similarly, `Oil!' upon which `There Will Be Blood' is based, packs the same satirical bent against the excesses of exponential capitalism in story form.
  
  As I write this review, the movie has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Daniel Day-Lewis for Best Actor. Only having seen the film from the first day of its debut in my city, I can only say it's all well deserved. Day-Lewis's complex and convincing performance will be hard to beat on Oscar night. He knows his character thoroughly and the emotional range from hardened misanthrope to money zealot is masterful, indeed.
  
  The movie begins with Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), an oil prospector. He is surveying potential oil fields, using explosives to uncover the oil, and working in wells to test a new site in Coyote Hills. After making a discovery, he calls a town meeting where he assures the gathered flock that he is a family man, that he can deliver the oil, and he can eliminate the middle men who muddle up so many oil arrangements with contracts going out to several interests. With him is his adopted son, H.W., who is both an able learner and a reassuring presence. Daniel works every crowd like a seasoned politician, assuring them an oil field will bring their community roads, education, and bread on their tables. We get used to Daniel's speeches, but we soon get even more accustomed to his sharp negotiating skills, which include being able to cut a deal to the highest bidder for the oil fields he finds. His coercing methods with big oil men set him apart and at least prove that Daniel, the bully, goes after the big fish as well as the small .
  
  Off the streets, Paul Sunday comes in his office with an offer. If Daniel will pay him money up front, he'll tell him where some oil land is located. They agree to split it up: Some of it down, some of it when it's discovered. To see if it's the real thing, Daniel and son head for the land, asking the Sunday family if he can go quail hunting and camp on their land. The Sundays are a zealous, religious family. Elder Abel and his wife present them with real hospitality. At the dinner table, Daniel meets Abel's other young son, Eli, whom the family believes is a spiritual prodigy. In the midst of dinner negotiations, Eli insists on $10,000 for their community's Church of the Third Revelation, over which he presides.
  
  From there Daniel and Eli lock heads with their priorities at odds with one another. Both players have a lot at stake and counter one another with revenge. At one point, the oil field is guzzling over with oil, is set on fire, and the explosion hurls young H.W. from the oil well. From there a concussion of sorts leaves the young boy deaf and disillusioned. This development gives Eli a leverage tool he needs for his ever growing church.
  
  Once Daniel achieves a measure of success, a man introduces himself on his property as Henry Plainview, Daniel's half-brother, and is able to identify all his main relatives from his native Fond du Lac, Wisconsin home. When that connection is made, Daniel shows another side of himself. He shares later with Henry "I look at people, and I see nothing worth liking." He also expresses his desire: "I want to make enough money to get away from everyone." Daniel confesses that Henry's company has given him consolation from his growing hatred.
  
  Much of the movie sorts out the rivalry between Eli and the oil man, and Daniel's negotiations with the other oil companies and land owners. The film also calls into question the relationship between father and son. Daniel sends H.W. to San Francisco to be tutored in sign language and other important skills, but many question his method. He also finds out something about Henry, which make the estranged man's motives suspect.
  
  `There Will Be Blood' has many atmospherics that go in its favor. The intricate score either sports a smooth, fluid old-fashioned appeal or is so eerily frenetic that it goes through your entire nervous system. Between all the nuances, a fine story, and fascinating portrayals, the movie's clock time of nearly two hours and forty minutes never produces fidgeting. No small feat. The epic is as absorbing for the character sketches, which are identifiable, and the marvelous story telling, which draws so well from a compelling author.
  
  
• Pointless, Aimless, Tiresome
  By AK711PMW4ZJWP on 2008-02-10
  This film is a great character study and showcases Daniel Day Lewis' superb acting skills. If you wanted it to be anything other than that, don't waste your money.
  
  The first dozen pages of script must have been all white because there is no dialog for the first 10 minutes. An hour later, you are beginning to wonder where this movie is going as there is no inciting incident and no story arc to hold your interest. Two hours later, the movie ends with sub-plots dangling from the theater ceiling and no redemptive theme in sight. Not a movie Americans will like (although I'll bet the French will love it).
  
  Cinematography is rich and acting and casting very enjoyable; DDL has his hunch and limp down pat. The music however hovers between nerve jangling percussion rimshots to a screeching discordant violin torture from some Strauss etude.
  
  All in all, a terrible waste of money, which means it will no doubt sweep the Oscars.
  
  P.S. There is very little blood in There Will Be Blood
  
  
• Grinding
  By A92U5ZWQ79KMV on 2008-03-11
  This is a relentlessly unpleasant film, whose consistant depiction of some of the more apalling aspects of human behavior is not in the least bit redeamed by any historical accuracy.
  
  I can appreciate a truthful telling of an difficult slice of history...Band of Brothers, Matewan, but that is not what this movie does. It creates two deeply flawed individuals and rubs them and their moral decline into your face for three hours.
  
  Can this really be a movie that viewers enjoy? Are their people whose lives are so wonderful, so happy, so completely untouched by misery that they need There Will be Blood to show them what they're missing?
  
  Or is it possible to appreciate the skillful rendering of something awful? Can people take pleasure in well crafted torture?
  
  Beats me.
  
  
• The Worst Packaging Job
  By A363HA1C36OWJK on 2008-04-11
  Could not recommend buying this DVD if you are a serious collector for that the packaging is a joke. It looks like something you have got for free for filling up your tank w. gas. Hollywood is complaining that the sales of new DVD is down - no wonders!
  
  
• Fiction Based on Fancy
  By A1MC81HLJ6Z9ZQ on 2008-04-27
  If one were to take a quick glance at the biography--such as it is--of Paul Thomas Anderson, one would learn that he grew up in Studio City, CA; that his father was the "voice" of ABC; that he has no education beyond high school; and, like Tarantino, that he learned his film craft from watching thousands and thousands of movie videos. These are, of course, perfect credentials for one who is making a cartoon or a movie about pornography; they would seem to be much less so for making a film having to do with American history.
  
  This one is about an oil-man--the rugged entrepreneurial oil-man of American myth and legend--and spans about a twenty year period in the American southwest of the early twentieth century. Not surprisingly, with this director and his Hollywood background, the oil-man is portrayed as a hateful, evil clown. His sole ambition is his lust for oil, and he uses everything important in his life to attain it. He has not an ounce of morality and by movie's end we find that he is in fact a serial killer. This, the movie would have us understand, is our heritage.
  
  The side story has to do with the oil-man's rather odd, long-term relationship with the Christian minister of the town. Again unsurprisingly, the Christian minister is also portrayed in an unrealistic fashion. In this case, he is a histrionic, prancing, strutting maniac--way too young--shrieking at his docile flock, and even slapping them around on occasion to git the divil outta'em. And of course, by movie's end, we find that his religion actually means nothing to him at all, as he--while wearing a bright, silver cross around his neck--renounces his faith and his God for, you guessed it, a chunk of the black gold.
  
  Neither of these people even remotely resembles a real-life, early twentieth-century American, but to the film's credit, it remains consistent: nobody else does either. The townspeople look and act like they're brain-dead, standing out in the desert sun without hats on, listening dully to yet another harangue. The landowner from whom the oil-man wants to lease property is so fervently religious he comes across as a buffoon. The capitalists--the big four we are meant to know--are perhaps slightly more realistic, but only in the way of the hackneyed, Hollywood stereotype: they wear suits and top hats and smoke cigars and harrumph, just like every other capitalist in every other movie since the dawn of film.
  
  There are many other ludicrous elements of this film and the plot leaves a whole slew of unanswered questions too. Just how is spouting, burning oil from an oil well contained and managed anyway? This would be one thing that might be interesting to know. Where are the houses or the town that these townspeople live in? Except for a couple of oil wells, a church and a desert, nothing else is shown. Just what did the minister do that caused him to be so desperate for money? It had to have been pretty horrible for him to react so outrageously. What women did the oil-man lust after? He was accused of this by the minister but the movie never even hints at it and there's barely any women in the film at all. And why does everybody slap each other around so much? Good lord, nobody seems to be able to simply walk up and say hello to someone without giving them a belt across the chops. What is with these people?
  
  The more important question is, what is it with Hollywood? This mediocrity gets nominated for an Academy award? Nothing in it is real, nothing in it is provocative, nothing in it even remotely resembles any sentient human being's life experience. Instead, it is a cartoon, a mish-mash of political correctness and historical revisionism, submitted to us by one who has spent his life in a dark room held spellbound by reel after reel of celluloid.
  
  
  
• The Most Overrated Film of 2007!
  By A1RNMPOY4XIAA8 on 2008-02-06
  Paul Thomas Anderson once again fashions an original and ambitious film of layers filled with challenging themes that, despite producing an occasional scene of brutal realism, fails to be that good. This two-hour and forty-minute story of one man's greedy ambition and his unwavering quest for wealth at whatever cost, reminded me of a Charles Dickens story where all the characters are caricatures--and that is not a good thing.
  
  
  Daniel Plainview is an oilman who is seeking to make a fortune by finding a piece of real estate with a profitable oil well. He has no family except for a baby boy he adopts and quickly turns into his young prodigy. He is approached by a boy, Paul (played by Paul Dano), who tells him of a ranch where there is such an abundance of oil it is seeping out of the ground. This is all Daniel needs to hear before setting off to find it. When he arrives he quickly goes about buying up the ranch as well as all the surrounding land and then with a crew starts drilling. He does run into some confrontation with Eli (also played by Paul Dano) the brother of Paul. Eli realizes the oil is worth something and wants a share of the profit for his church which he is minister of. Daniel agrees to this, but once he strikes oil and starts raking in money, he completely ignores his deal with Eli as his true colors are shown and he slowly turns completely bitter to everyone around him.
  
  
  This is one of those films that seems to easily garner many award nominations and termed "masterpiece!", but when you go see it you are left wondering if you saw the same film. There were simply too many flaws in this film to be even close to a masterpiece.
  
  
  To start, as I said before there are moments of true brilliance and some scenes were so engrossing that you would hang on every motion and line of the characters only to be shut back out the moment the scene was over or the acting would become so ferocious that serious parts were almost humorous. PTA, the director, seems to have this style of pushing his actors almost into the territory of over-acting (as was the case of Tome Cruise and Julian Moore in Magnolia).
  
  
  The production was nothing new or magnificent. The cinematography was mediocre almost annoying at parts as it showed close-ups for extended periods of time. The score was a "nail-on-chalkboard" type with every note out of tune and absolutely no melody just repetitive clicking, banging, or stringing contrasted against the silence of the plains.
  For the story to be almost three hours long it was too focused on the main character, so that the supporting characters (none of who are women) appear more like those extras who just have a few lines before they head to the next studio. Because of this fact I felt the reality was taken out of it as Daniel Plainview seemed to exist in his own world were there was no society and the people surrounding him were so vacant of any character that everyone did as he said. Also the lack of a female character (supporting or main) was a big mistake.
  
  
  I give this film points for trying to bring a message, but there were too many messages and themes that got mixed together so at the end I was wondering if it was trying to show the affects of greed, money cannot buy happiness, capitalism vs. religion, etc. All of these themes are good but when they are not made clear enough.
  
  
  Lastly I feel that since it is not an entertaining film, it is more a character study filled with different themes to critically analyze (which I LOVE) the director should have chosen a different actor and story to illustrate those themes instead of oil drilling, Daniel-Day Lewis and nearly three hours of screen time (half of which has Daniel covered in oil beyond the point of recognition).
  
  
  
• What No DVD Box?
  By A2IIN38LNXNZDG on 2008-04-12
  I bought a copy of this DVD. It was packaged in a folded cardboard envelope. I was disappointed. I watched 20 minutes of it and the scratches on the disk from the packaging made it lock up. Took it back, and the store swapped it for another. Same problem, but this time I got 40 minutes in before it yorked. Took the 2nd copy back and asked for my money. They gave me a hard time but I finally prevailed. I will wait until the jerk who picked out the packaging gets fired and an adult decides to spend the 23 cents for a proper plastic DVD box.
  
  
• Deeply flawed, overhyped rubbish
  By A3BAQ8F0SJRZLC on 2008-05-26
  Somehow, writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson can never get it right, and when he's combined with producer Scott Rudin ("The Addams Family Values"), the result is profoundly worse. Anderson's fetishist tendencies tend to prevent him from any real human understanding (call it "Quentin Tarantino Disease"). In this movie about an ambitious oil wildcatter, the audience is never given a reason to care about the main character, Daniel Plainview (histrionically played by Daniel Day-hyphenation), or to understand the roots of his unbridled ambition. He is evil, and so what? That he is contrasted with an equally unlikable evangelical preacher is totally without dramatic effect. If the oilman character is intended to be emblematic of mindless, ruthless capitalism, then "There Will Be Blood" is yet another boring morality play. Why not turn the same lens to Hollywood, where soulless accountants (Scott Rudin) produce "art" by investing in bankable comic book characters and movies by Anderson, whose deeply flawed works inevitably look cartoonish?
  
  
• Nothing Quite Like Damaging the Disc By Taking It Out Of Its Case
  By A2V36Q11XV2K4Z on 2008-04-09
  I purchased the single-disc version of this film, so I cannot comment on the collector's edition.
  
  I have to say, I think this movie is spectacular, so I have nothing to add as far as that goes. However, this is the single worst packaging of a DVD I have ever seen. I don't object so much to the fact that it is in a cheap cardboard case, but more to the fact that, by simply taking the disc out of that case, the DVD was seriously scratched. A space as large as my thumb is now completely scratched, and I have not even watched the movie as of yet. Simply put, there is no way that I will be able to watch this movie more than once (which is the point of buying the movie, rather than renting it) without eventually damaging it too much to watch it.
  
  I did not pay $16 for a package that will eventually require that I purchase the movie a second time. It's going back to the store tomorrow.
  
  
• So near and yet so far away.
  By A147CCGVA79NQ0 on 2008-02-26
  
  This film had some excellent dramatic elements and thrilling cinematography. The actors did a professional job and the characters were interestingly and even compellingly drawn. The film promised a lot and that made it so disappointing when it did not deliver.
  
  The story begins well. I kept waiting for it to open into something magnificent, surprising and creative. Instead it lost energy and momentum and became sort of meaningless. I finally lost patience and was in the process of walking out of it when it ended.
  
  
  
  
• "There Will Be Scratches!"
  By A3OHH0XV1KIQ0X on 2008-04-09
  First off, I think that this is an amazingly epic piece of work which, in some ways, reminded me of a kind of big sprawling 1950's esque epic that someone of a George Stevens caliber might have made.
  
  Now, on to the mundanely disappointing packaging. What the hell was Paramount thinking!!! Cardboard stock dvd case???!!! If you decided to purchase this movie, be forwarned, you will have a hell of a time getting the discs out of the case and an even harder time with not scratching the darn things by doing so.
  
  I am giving the movie 4 1/2 stars and 1 star to the packaging Einstein who thought up this mass produced cardboard mess of a case housing these discs. Absolutely terrible...
  
  
• Id rather go to the dentist.
  By AMXMQEDREDUHR on 2008-01-20
  The acting was amazing but the story lacked an real substance. I ended up leaving 30 minutes early as I could stand no more!
  
  
• A bad way to package a movie
  By A2707EQ5WXZICB on 2008-04-12
  Loved the movie hated the packaging . Moved it off to a slim jewel case. What's up with that!
  
  
• There Will Be Blood Movie Review
  By A2MYUI8IT6UBUU on 2007-12-25
  Featuring a phenomenal performance by Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood brings to life as charismatic and captivating a character as any to grace the screen this year. Comparable to the epic journeys of Charles Foster Kane and Fred C. Dobbs, the mesmerizing progression of Daniel Plainview from prospector to oil entrepreneur and "family man" makes a compelling character study rich with the flaws of greed, hubris, and competition. Traversing several decades of Plainview's struggles with family, the church, and the business he so loves, There Will Be Blood meticulously recreates a time, a place, and a man with feverishly brilliant detail.
  
  In 1898, Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a determined prospector who strikes silver in Texas and in subsequent searches discovers oil. By 1911 Plainview is a self-proclaimed "oil man" who operates several wells with his adopted son. When he's approached by Paul Sunday, who swears there is oil literally seeping out of the ground on his father's ranch, Daniel expands his business and begins buying up all of the property in the area. Such aggression doesn't go unnoticed however, and the ambitious businessman soon finds himself at odds with larger oil companies and the fanatical local church led by the guileful Eli Sunday (Paul Dano).
  
  The music by composer Jonny Greenwood is sensational, and perfectly complements every scene. At times the violins screech like a frenetic horror film, amplifying the atrocities of Plainview versus himself or presiding over introductions to marked location shifts, and at others it is melodic and impassioned, contrasting the contemplation of despicable character choices. Music plays during most of the film, tying together speechless segments and narrating the tone of conversations. Beautifully orchestrated, it is ever-present and manifest, but never interrupts the visuals onscreen.
  
  Religion plays a strikingly offbeat role in the film, primarily in the form of Eli Sunday. A truly fanatical leader and a proclaimed "false" prophet, Eli attempts to further himself and his church through interfering with Daniel's oil prospects. Although Plainview is also unscrupulous and irrational, Eli's unbalanced preacher role is so immoderate that it clearly displays religion as discordantly nonsensical. His performance is obsessively masterly, and his comeuppance at the conclusion packs a bigger punch than this year's Michael Clayton, with its undeniable crowd-pleasing finale.
  
  Daniel will do anything for his oil pipeline, symbolizing the idea of wealth and perseverance as opposed to necessity, including receiving a baptism in Eli's Church, an act he loathes. Grimacing through the entire derisory process, with which Eli takes perverse pleasure in tormenting the unbelieving Daniel, he gets his pipeline and later his revenge.
  
  Daniel Day-Lewis embodies Plainview with such passion, authenticity and an overwhelming screen presence that an Academy Award certainly won't elude him. His dismal declension from a two-faced, shrewd businessman to an emotionally unstable soulless shell, who can barely stay sober and who, despite having everything has lost everything worthwhile, is effortlessly the greatest of this year. Comparison to Citizen Kane is natural due to Plainview's downward-spiraling character arc and his aberrant greed slowly separating him from humanity, but There Will Be Blood covers ground that Orson Welles' masterpiece approached dissimilarly- the love of his son and the times they spent together replace Kane's cherishing of his childhood.
  
  Daniel's separation from his child both physically and emotionally doesn't come entirely from avarice, but from Daniel's inability to enjoy other's company sincerely. He hates most man and sees the evil in everyone, a self-loathing complex that causes his brash decisions to steadily become more volatile. "I have a competition in me," Daniel seethes. "I want no one else to succeed." Never forgiving himself and unable to deal with his son's deafness and his decision to ignore it, like Kane there is nothing but tragedy waiting for Daniel. He is unable to revisit the love he once possessed for his son and abandons everyone and everything in the pursuit of his fortune. Likely never fully realizing that his greed has distanced him from humanity, Plainview finishes with so much and yet so little.
  
  - The Massie Twins
  
  
  
• Awful
  By A3QE8AC7OV87AV on 2008-04-01
  I watched this movie twice. The first time I could barely get thru it.
  
  The second time was no better. Such poor acting and the music...and I do use that term lightly, was enough to make me want to gouge out my own ear drums.
  
  I so rarely give movies one star, but I this one I wish I could give even less than that.
  
  
• The Dark Underside Of The American Success Story
  By A1TPW86OHXTXFC on 2008-04-12
  10 stars
  
  "My advice to approaching There Will Be Blood is to sit back and let it engulf you. Day-Lewis' resonant voice is a potent magnet. It evokes the deceptively dulcet tones of John Huston in Chinatown, charm slathered over wolfish perversity, the better to cheat you with, my dear." Peter Travers
  
  In the first few minutes after the final moments of this film, I sat in silence. I felt like I had been punched in the belly, the impact of this film and the performance by Daniel Day-Lewis is monumental. Daniel Plainview, is a man who was scratching for a living in the beginning of teh 1900's. He scratched for silver at first and developed a bum leg after falling down a mine. He moved on to oil and after striking an oil well he moved on to become an oil tycoon. At this time he adopted a young boy he named HW. This boy became the love of Plainview's life, and the only tender moments we see are with HW. Plainview's nemesis is Eli Sunday, a preacher in the Evangelical mode. He and Plainview get under each other's skin, and the true embarrassments in life that both feel occur because of the other. Each of them are preaching a sermon the other has no belief in.
  
  Plainview also meets a brother with whom he feels close and is able to share his inner feeling until the day that he discovers a truth that changes things forever. Daniel Plainview is a man like no other, he represents to us the dark, the evil of power that enfolds someone in the grip of living a life that does not bother with human relationships. Plainview told his brother,"I look at people and I see nothing worth liking."
  
  From the opening scenes of darkness and strife until the final scene that will cut to your core, we sit enmeshed in this story, this film. Paul Anderson, the director has more than a memorable film, it is a monument to the epitome of film making. I could find nothing to criticize in this film. It will long be remembered as a masterpiece. From the musical score to the photography to the actors all, everyone and everything is perfect.
  
  Highly, Highly, Highly Recommended. prisrob 04-11-08
  
  In the Name of the Father
  
  Magnolia
  
  
• Dude lost it
  By A2FUOXFJ74B32M on 2008-05-16
  This film had a lot of potential but I found it ultimately disappointing. The story basically follows Daniel Plainview, a harsh, rags to riches oilman who makes his fortune by drilling in the vast deserts of the early 20th century American West. Daniel is an ambitious but disturbed character and by the end of the film he appears to have completely lost his mind. The film is beautifully shot with some decent acting, but I just couldn't really get into it. It has it's moments for sure, but a weak story line and somewhat exaggerated premise ruined it for me. I'm not sure if it was just a story, or if it is trying to make some larger social point. If it's the latter, what's the point? Oil makes you crazy? Greed makes you crazy? This seems to be a bit of a stretch.
  
  I will defend Daniel Day-Lewis to the death as a tremendous actor, and he is impressively intense as usual here, but he didn't have much to work with in the way of a script. The film was pretty weak in that regard. All in all, this film could have been great, but in my eyes, it fell way short of the mark. 3.5 stars.
  
  

• No Country for Old Men
• Juno (Single-Disc Edition)
• Atonement (Widescreen Edition)
• Charlie Wilson's War (Widescreen)
• Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street