There was blood, eventually

Rating: Null/10 (28 March 2008)

"There Will Be Blood" is an epic, based upon the 1927 book "Oil!". I didn't know much about it going in, except that it had Daniel Day Lewis playing an oil tycoon. For me, that was enough of a sell. If Darren picked a movie to go and see called "There Will Be Blood", I probably would have declined, but to his credit I picked it and he agreed, knowing full well it wasn't going to be up to his normal gory standards.
I'd been wanting to see this for a while and knew an Adelaide visit presented a good opportunity. I checked out session times and it was only still being shown in 2 cinemas, very infrequently. I pre-booked some tickets online for the first time, meaning I'd get to experience what they show in the movie ads where you stroll straight up to get your tickets,lights shining on you and all the suckers who are waiting in line go "man, we should have booked online. We're such losers". Sadly it wasn't like this at all. The funny thing was when I booked they encouraged you to collect your "pre-booked, allocated seating" ticket 30mins prior to the movie, which seems ridiculous. Luckily I ignored there I advice as when we got there there were only a handful of people in any lines, plus the cinema only had 2 other people in it.
Anyway back to the movie. It starts with Daniel Plainview (Day Lewis) down a hole digging about. Then we skip forward a few years and he discovers the first of many oil wells. All of this (about 20mins in screen time) is done with no dialogue. Weird. Luckily I still followed what was happening. Soon Plainview has a small portfolio of oil wells and is doing very nicely. He starts to build a little empire, working with his adopted son HW, whom he became guardian for after his father died in a digging accident. One day while trying to gain some more land he gets an offer from a young guy about a likely potential boom area where he has seen oil seeping through the land. the kid asks for some money to advise where it is and Plainview agrees. He goes to check it out and discovers an absolute gold mine (in an oil sense). Plainview buys the land from the ignorant family, part of the deal being the establishment of a church on the lands so the son can start his own ministry. The rig is soon underway and the community is greatly enriched. From the moment the rig starts digging however, trouble upon trouble comes Plainview's way. Plainview starts to get a more sever mean streak, majorly affecting his relationships with the church, business associates and his family.
I wont go on much more from here as it will ruin many of the subplots. Now to the review.
First of all, your "Fast and the Furious" types will probably hate it. It's set in the early 1900's and the story is slow at times. The story is rather intriguing and leaves a fair bit of food for thought. It's not what i expected, I had in my mind much more boardroom dealings and a fiercer pace, but the story just rolled on. The cast was outstanding, most notably Day Lewis as Plainview in one of the truly great performances of cinema, Paul Dano as Eli Sunday and Kevin O'Connor as Henry. A good story, perhaps a modern day "Dances With Wolves", just a lot better. I didn't want to review it straight after as I was still a little bewildered, and three days later still am unsure how I felt about it. Certainly worth seeing though, probably not a great chick flick though.
*As far as the violence, it's pretty moderate. For example, about half way through Gary whispered to me "there's been no blood yet", to which I replied "yeh, but I'm pretty sure there will be blood".