Thoughts on 2007: There Will Be Blood

In 1999, Magnolia was my favorite movie ever. That was almost 10 years ago and it actually feels like it. When I go back and watch the film, it's certainly not the same. Maybe my tastes have changed and I've matured, but I am constantly aware that there was something deeply profound about that experience at time. It was perfect for that very moment, when I was a high school kid looking for a kind of new look at the world. Sure, I had seen Boogie Nights a few years earlier and liked it, but i didn't "get it" the way I did just a few years after. For In 1999, I worshipped PT Anderson and thought he the next coming of Aslan.

Now in 2008, I'm a borderline adult. My tastes are more muted. I like sharp and economical screenwriting. It's kind of the perennial neo-classical vs. romantic literary comparison and I find myself more like the prior. Before this year, PTA defintely kept his streak as a romantic (how else does one explain Punch Drunk Love). After those four wonderfully personal films, he set off to make an period Oil epic based on an Upton Sinclair book with Daniel Day Lewis. Yikes. Had PTA grown up too?

In short? Yes... but he's still punk at heart. And the results are fascinating.

There Will Be Blood manages to be both exacting and loosely constructed at the same moment. It's rife with singular focused moments of detail in a wide rolling sea. It's also an uncompromising character study. A lot has alredy been said in that regard, but I just wish to speak briefly on the matter of the film's ending . [ENTERING SPOILER WORLD] When we have that final jump forward in time and see the summation of the life pursuits of Daniel Plainview, we get just that. Once during the film, he speaks of his desire to get away from people and ends up doing that very thing. He secludes himself within a mansion with only butlers and therefore goes batshit insane. He has completely severed his emotional connection with his son and goes so far as to tell him that he never loved him. A lot of people took this as a final statement fact and that bothered me quite frankly. Daniel clearly loved H.W. in that crotchety old school dad way and while there was definitely some self-serving stuff in there (the "this does me good" line), it was still a genuine thing. The problem stems from the fact that Daniel doesn't especially like the feeling. He doesn't know what to do. Love and conscience corrupt his ambition. So Daniel sets himself on a quest to rid himself of the things that dilute the purity of his ambition. And with that ending, he succeeds... or to put it in his words "I'm finshed" [END SPOILER STUFF!]

The other thing I wanted to mention is something I find to be unique of PTA. In many of his films, a character repeats a line over and over again, only every time the line has different meanings. For There Will Be Blood, the baptism scene is out-and-out lesson messner-ism. It's a fascinating scene and the one I couldn't wait to see again.

A tremendous film. Some people might find it boring, but that's okay. I don't think this is a flick for everyone.

Oh yeah and that Daniel Day guy was pretty good too.

Recommendation: Must see. I feel like an old friend has just done something grand. This was also my brother's favorite film of the year whatever that means.