References to Eureka and 2001

Rating: 10/10 (23 February 2008)

Similar to epic storyline of Nicholas Roeg's "Eureka" (1982-84), this is one of the most interesting epics in the last decades. In the first speechless quarter I waited for the "2001"-like jump-cut to something referring to the famous bone being thrown into the air, merging to the spaceship with the Richard Strauss music. Well, "There will be blood"'s music is more effective, and its story doesn't need such artificial separations into three different parts. The magic is the same. The raising oil-blood is even more effective than the bone scene.
Finally we are over the realism of the last 20 years, 60-80's overpowering film rhetorics always influenced P.T. Anderson more than contemporary colleagues. Scorsese might be a Coppola Wannabe, Anderson is the real master. And Anderson thankfully didn't made any references to the dreadful 50-style epics, which other critics always refer to.