There Will Be Blood - a film by Paul Thomas Anderson

Ok, I will probably be misquoting PTA here (which I said I didn't want to do), but since you brought up Punch Drunk Love... After the Oscars incident I mentioned above, he said something to the effect of "I guess audiences just prefer Adam Sandler films to the films I make." But he said this in a very snarky manner of course - Sandler's last hit at that point had been Big Daddy. Not exactly highbrow stuff.

And then PTA's next film was... an Adam Sandler film! I never saw Punch Drunk Love because I was over PTA by that point, but I couldn't resist seeing Daniel Day Lewis in There will Be Blood, and I'm glad I gave PTA another chance. Though he may be (or at least may have been) very full of himself, he is quite a talent.
 
This movie was PURE genius. Absolutely my favorite film of 2007. A damn near flawless examination of the sociopathic personality. Great screenplay. Great cinematography. Great directing. Great score. Great performance from Paul Dano. A titanic performance from Daniel Day Lewis...So what I'm saying is that I liked it.
 
Batutta said:
This movie was PURE genius. Absolutely my favorite film of 2007. A damn near flawless examination of the sociopathic personality. Great screenplay. Great cinematography. Great directing. Great score. Great performance from Paul Dano. A titanic performance from Daniel Day Lewis...So what I'm saying is that I liked it.
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amen brother ;)
 
haven't seen it yet. anyone else think Daniel Day Lewis is channeling John Huston? just going off the trailer here.
 
DeSica said:
Jack Nicholson used to do a pretty good Huston, but that was Anjelica....
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ZING!...It's a day later and I now I think it may be one of the best movies I've ever seen. Belongs on the shelf with movies like Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Scarface, Lawrence of Arabia, The Godfather. That's my not so humble opinion anyway.
 
They laughed at parts that were clearly not supposed to be funny
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same here, some parts genuinely made me laugh, but the audience laughed a little too much

and Daniel Day-Lewis is still a pimp
 
interestingly enough, the screening i went to where everyone knew Paul and co. were in the audience laughed much more then the one i went to last week out in Phoenix. At the time i wasn't sure if it was disrespectful, but Paul seemed to really appreciate the response.

Either way the movies does have funny parts, even if they're also uncomfortable at the same time.
 
I found the film funnier than I thought it would be, same thing with No Country For Old Men. I think there has been a lot of pretentiousness directed towards audience members who laughed during the film. Take a look at IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes for the constant bashing of people who found the film funny.

There Will Be Blood is definitely not the movie I thought it would be.

In case anyone is wondering, I love the film.
 
I don't get people complaining that this movie was slow. Did you expect a movie about turn of the century oil men to be a rip-roaring adventure yarn? I didn't like the characters as people, but I found them fascinating to watch. I think having a "rootable" interest is overrated. If you want that, go watch a football game. I don't root for Travis Bickle, or Tony Montana, or Michael Corleone, or Jake Lamotta, or any of the great screen anti heroes. But there is something cathartic about watching them struggle with and get consumed by their demons.
 
Batutta said:
I don't get people complaining that this movie was slow. Did you expect a movie about turn of the century oil men to be a rip-roaring adventure yarn? I didn't like the characters as people, but I found them fascinating to watch. I think having a "rootable" interest is overrated. If you want that, go watch a football game. I don't root for Travis Bickle, or Tony Montana, or Michael Corleone, or Jake Lamotta, or any of the great screen anti heroes. But there is something cathartic about watching them struggle with and get consumed by their demons.
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Thank you, Batutta. That is almost exactly how I feel. I FINALLY got a chance to catch "Blood" near Cleveland a few days ago (and now it's opening wider...go figure), and I must say that I was completely blown away as I'd expected to be. Even though I'd read the script and saw the trailers plenty of times, I was still somehow surprised, jarred, disoriented, spellbound, jaw-dropped, and genuinely scared at times. I see where some people's complaints spawn from, such as the film being slow, and some of the characters being a little too odd. Personally, I felt the pace of the film was wonderful. There was a walk-out in my showing, but I saw lots of people literally sitting on the edge of their seats through half of the film. It was pretty impressive. I thought every aspect of the film was top-notch, and Anderson & co. should be commended for this work. Also...anyone else eerily creeped out by Anderson's constant use of floating steadicam work? Brilliant.
 
I really didn't find the movie slow at all.

The first time I saw it I was totally sucked in.

The second time, I spent more time paying attention to the details, and even then the movie seemed like it went by quicker than the first viewing.
 
BryantStanton said:
I really didn't find the movie slow at all.

The first time I saw it I was totally sucked in.

The second time, I spent more time paying attention to the details, and even then the movie seemed like it went by quicker than the first viewing.
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same here. I thought it was great the first time, but I felt it's length. Second time it inexplicably seemed much faster.
 
Deepfocus88 said:
How could you not root for Travis? He was the man! :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
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I used to identify with Travis a bit when I was younger, until I realized being around other people is a good thing. What Scorsese does in that movie and a lot of his films, and what PTA does in Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood, is start his protagonist at a place where you more or less can identify with him, and then watch him get sicker, and sicker, and sicker, until he implodes.
 
I am sure people can 'say' they root for characters in such films, but if you knew/know somebody like that in real life, you would never root for them.
 
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