There Will Be Drivel

Rating: 2/10 (6 April 2008)

I doubt that the writers of this film ever bothered to read Upton Sinclair's book. Who's got time to read in Hollywood? If they had they would have seen a social commentary, a chronicle of the times, some incredible Americana but what we get here is drivel. This film seems to have been scrubbed of all reference to greed, the struggle of working people to unionize in America, the complicity of law enforcement with the rich. What an incredibly disappointing film. So much effort and talent, time and money wasted. The team that made this movie had an opportunity to do much much more.
"Oil!" is full of amazing scenes and characters and while it drifts like the film, at least it has something to say about life. 2008. What a perfect time to learn about oil. As we fill our gas tanks we might be thinking about how hard it was to develop this resource; to find it, release it, and tame it for our benefit. But that would be an industrial film. Of course that is also history, a theme Hollywood has a reputation for playing fast and loose with. Too bad we couldn't have gotten a story about a man with ambition who succeeds. What's wrong with that? Contrasted by his son who observes life and doesn't do much with those observations or his money (except enjoy himself). There are women characters in the book too (not like the film). The book has nudity, and lots of sex (not like the film). The book has some violence but probably not enough for audiences today, so I suppose that didn't sit well with the "suits" at the studio. Can't sell a film these days without killing of some sort can we? So let's get some fights going, and homicide might be helpful. This whole bum-numbing 2 hour mess was probably edited by teams who worked at different paces. But that's no excuse for such inconsistency. We get panoramic shots that never want to end and are boring as hell. It's like the team who shot the B-roll got to edit it!! We get Lewis erupting with no real motivation. What's he so worked up about? He doesn't seem to have any competition, at least not that I can see in this film.
The book has elements of real people like J. Paul Getty, Howard Hughes, William Randolph Hearst, Marion Davies, and Billy Graham. These are people who helped define America (with the exception of Davies). But I guess these figures have been largely forgotten or removed from the record by some sort revisionist new-think ministry that is subtly altering America these days. I can't see any future life for this movie.