Flawed But Great Nevertheless

Rating: 9/10 (21 January 2019)

21 January 2008. Warning: Spoilers. It's rare that a technically flawed movie can survive to be an excellent movie. Because of a great story and strong acting, this movie even with its problems it is able to overcome them. The very beginning the problems with this movie are apparent with the music that is more associated with horror and science fiction. There is a point in the movie where strains of 2001: A Space Odyssey seem to flow over the musical tones. There is another section of the movie where industrial, early nineteenth century mechanical sounds become apparent and last too long into the scene drowning out the natural landscape sounds. The music was intrusive and inconsistent. Also at the beginning, there is a fascinating look at isolated, primitive prospecting. Yet, when the accidents keep coming, they seem more for script convenience then anything else. How many times would a prospector understand how heavy his tools are and be unable to use a single pulley to lift them out of his small shaft? How careful would a prospector learn to be of his makeshift ladder? A more convincing injured person's crawl can be found in the wonderful Touching the Void (2004) about an injured mountain climber. It is confusing about who the characters are in the beginning and if they are the same person and the transition from mining ore to oil occurs. There's not enough spent on the ore transaction as likely the entrance into the oil business. Does Daniel Plainview really have all these other oil rigs or is he lying about them? He doesn't seem to be directly involved with any of the other rigs at all, ever as he seems to imply in his speeches. His first attempt at a speech is focused almost entirely on him even though as important is the interaction between Mr. Plainview as his rather hostile audience that we can only catch glimpses of. The relationship between Mr. Plainview and his boy becomes more and more ambiguous as well as the boy's own antisocial behavior midway into the movie. There is a inordinate lapse between the boy's accident and his rehabilitation. There is the use of a flashback regarding the accidental death of a worker that seemed to serve no purpose. As a character study, Mr. Plainview isn't of course plain at all and unfortunately the audience is left with many unanswered questions and for all the focus and great acting by Daniel Day-Lewis, Mr. Plainview's character still remains a mysterious, so much so that the audience is left wondering whether to pity him or hate him. Mr. Plainview's outbursts as with what happens to Eli Sunday through out the movie, seems to have a possible source, but again such outbursts appear sometimes more apt to come from a crazed individual. His Daniel Day-Lewis's character actually crazed. For all these problems, the movie is compelling and captivating for its various themes and emotional performances. The man of God versus the businessman (a businessman who seems to be a serious version of The Music Man (1962) about a con man as a traveling salesman. We never understand what makes Mr. Plainview tick, but his behavior on screen is so gripping and intense that we can forget the reasons and experience the tragedy itself. A likely candidate for best actor and best supporting actor nominations are in order. An even though, There Will Be Blood deserves a Best Picture nomination, its imperfections should deny it the Best Picture Award, at least technically speaking. Nine out of Ten Stars.