There will be Blood (DVD)

I can’t understand what made this film so special. After hearing so many great things about this “masterpiece” and “epic drama”, I just had to see it for myself. With expectations high based on its ratings, and I was really looking forward to a couple hours of great cinema. Instead I found myself listless and uninterested. The movie dragged in so many areas I lost count, yet I continued to watch the film in search of any hint that it might get better. Unfortunately, it never did.

There will be Blood albeit its originality was tedious and completely overrated. The screenplay for this film could have been great and its message was strong and powerful. It had all the right elements for a great film. Everything from the cinematography, acting, and music was fantastic. Daniel Day-Lewis’s performance in particular was absolutely Oscar award winning.

However this film disappointed me. Without a real plot or character driven story, all the rights could not make up for this wrong. The beginning of the movie was completely forgettable as was the horrific and distasteful ending. The story lacked any cohesiveness and by the movies end, I lay in bed scratching my head and wondering why I put myself through 157 minutes of pure boredom.

Synopsis:

Set in the early 20th century, the film follows the rise to power of Daniel Plainview — a charismatic and ruthless oil prospector, driven to succeed by his intense hatred of others and psychological need to see any and all competitors fail. When he learns of oil-rich land in California that can be bought cheaply, he moves his operation there and begins manipulating and exploiting the local landowners into selling him their property. Using his young adopted son H.W. to project the image of a caring family man, Plainview gains the cooperation of almost all the locals with lofty promises to build schools and cultivate the land to make their community flourish. Over time, Plainview’s gradual accumulation of wealth and power causes his true self to surface, and he begins to slowly alienate himself from everyone in his life. Written by Denny Gibbons