Of Derrick's and Godfathers

Rating: 7/10 (16 February 2008)

OK, lets get this out of the way. I liked There Will Be Blood. It has a solid cast, great setting and great performance by Daniel Day-Lewis, but is he ever anything other than great? So yeah, the first third is quite astonishing. But then it drops from astonishing to a slow simmer, and finally to a "well time to get my jacket, I think this one is almost over." There Will Be Blood is striking at times, old-fashioned at others. But for much of the film, i believe it is also a bit one note. Also, PT Anderson and DP Robert Elswitt need a better focus puller, either that or this digital projection i saw is out of calibration, it just seemed like there was a lot of missed focus.
There Will Be Blood is a lot like The Godfather Part 2. For some people, that is all they need to hear. For some reason, many people think Godfather 2 is vastly superior to the original. I am not in that group of people. How can you possible think Godfather 2 is better than part 1? I mean really now? Back to my point...
So Godfather 2 is about the corruption of Michael Corleone. The film begins, and it isn't too long before we notice Michael is quite shrewd, in fact, he is corrupt. Save for the wonderful flashbacks, mostly of De NIro and Bruno Kirby, we watch for 3 hours on how corrupt Michael Corleone is, until the final image and find we are either bored to tears thinking "Ok I get it, he is corrupt." Or as some others think "Oh my this is a profound study of corruption and power! What a masterpiece!"
Riiiiiight.
Well the same applies here in There Will Be Blood. The film begins and we are shown a hard- working business man and then all too quickly we find, he is not just hard working, he is greedy. For nearly three hours we see greed in one form or another. In the final scene we lean back and think one of two things. "Ok I get it, he was greedy." Or, as many critics or viewers may think, "My god what a wonderful study on the depths of human greed!"
Riiiiiight.
Well much like Godfather 2 or Natural Born Killers, after a few minutes we get the point and then for another three hours, it just goes in circles until somebody is beat to a pulp and the credits roll.
Call that whatever you like, but brilliant isn't it.
I'm finished.