There Will Be Blood








Director - Paul Thomas Anderson

Genre - Drama


Paul Thomas Anderson's movies are hard to pin down stylistically and thematically. 'Boogie Nights', 'Magnolia' and 'Punch-Drunk Love' look as different as night and day. This latest film by him is just as erratic. The story is told simply but Daniel Day-Lewis's performance and the soundtrack is anything but. Day-Lewis is an acting god in human form. His role as an oil driller driven to expand his influence by any means possible is chilling. The music scored by Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead also deserves special mention for evoking the brutal drama which unfolds.

4 STARS!

All about There Will Be Blood

Comments

Anonymous said…
I've always thought that P.T. Anderson has a recurring theme of relationships between people.
June 16, 2008 at 9:12 AM
Shubhajit said…
Paul Thomas Anderson has really turned out to be one hell of a director (though underrated). He hasn't yet made a single "average" movie. Unfortunately I haven't seen this one yet.
June 16, 2008 at 9:51 AM
Anonymous said…
This is a great site! I will be checking it for reviews and updates...Thanks for checking our site
June 16, 2008 at 11:00 AM
1minutefilmreview said…
Thanks for the comments guys.

Joseph - The recurring theme of human relationships you mentioned is indeed quite true of Anderson's films. What we feel though is that this theme is not immediately made known, unlike say Scorsese's films. And anyway, the theme of human relationships can be said for most films. It is not exclusive only to Anderson's works. So this assumption would be quite vague.
June 17, 2008 at 7:32 AM
DevotedSatellite333 said…
Love the hook to this blog, very clever idea... short-form is such a great way to go. Anyway, I wanted to comment because I was taken aback by the poster art used for this post, I've never seen it before, it looks f'ing awesome! Almost looks custom made.

Also I'm totally on board with this review. I loved this film... probably my favorite PTA due in large part to DDL, he's phenomenal in this role. Some might say it was over the top and grandiose but I don't necessarily feel that's a bad thing... it was handled well and didn't manage to veer into the comical for me.

What this film says about the American spirit and its relation to avarice is... ah! No words.
June 21, 2008 at 4:45 AM
1minutefilmreview said…
We agree wholeheartedly. Daniel Day is a one of a kind actor highly dedicated to the craft of acting. This might just be our favorite P.T. Anderson film too, next to 'Boogie Nights'.

We appreciate your comment very much. Thank you.
June 21, 2008 at 8:05 AM
Anonymous said…
I had the opposite reaction to Greenwood's score which I found utterly bizarre, inappropriate at moments and distracting.
June 23, 2008 at 8:41 AM
1minutefilmreview said…
Hi Patrick, thanks for the comment.

One man's meat is another's poison, eh? Perhaps bizarre is not your thing but we love to just coat ourselves all over with it.
June 23, 2008 at 10:01 AM
Ed Howard said…
Love this film. More so than the general "relationships between people," Anderson's films are more specifically about relationships within families, a theme that is very obvious in this film with the way that Plainview continually attempts to create fake and constructed families for himself while remaining essentially a loner. Anderson's films often feature such pseudo-families, whether it's the porn community, the paternal caring of Sydney for John in Hard Eight, or the many issues with fractured or dysfunctional families in both Magnolia and Punch Drunk Love.

My own review goes into some more detail about There Will Be Blood, though it's such a complex film that I'm still really only scratching the surface there.
June 25, 2008 at 5:46 PM
1minutefilmreview said…
Thank you for pointing this out, Ed. We agree with your views to an extent. The theme of 'pseudo-families' you mentioned, although true, is at best vaguely implied in Anderson's films.

As you said, his films are complex. Why bother nailing it down? Just enjoy them as they are.
June 26, 2008 at 6:48 AM
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