Epic western...

Rating: 10/10 (6 March 2008)

They are few and far between (epic westerns), but they crop up now an' agin. THERE WILL BE BLOOD (for OIL!) (sounds like a Republican slogan, does it not?) will go down as one of the truly great epic westerns, thanks in equal parts to both Lewis and Anderson. Absorbing viewing for the most part (though, being a second-guesser, I would've done away with the second doing-away with, ending instead with the revelation that the two were not related). The ruthlessness that the prospect of big money engenders is given about as thorough a scrutiny as is cinematically possible. Put this one right up there alongside the likes of HEAVEN'S GATE, where it belongs.