Wondrous

Rating: 10/10 (14 January 2008)

WONDROUS, wondrous movie.... It single-handedly restored my faith in American cinema. A masterpiece of movie-making on all accounts: Story, script, acting, photography, lightning, staging, location, casting, wardrobe, makeup... Nothing left to inertia or careless overlook. It is utterly beyond anything I have seen in, lets say, the past two decades. I am serious people. I am even considering reducing all my ratings (several hundred) by one star so this one deservingly stands-out.
You see, there was a time, lets say the seventies, when American film-making had something new to say, something that even European cinema was desperately trying to mimic..... Yes, even the French looked up to us.
Then came Steven Spielberg and Hollywood has never been the same again.
Since then, the studios brought us colorful effects, cheap thrills and laughs.... But nothing as sensibly well-rounded as, lets say, what Robert Altman was capable of with "3 Women" or "McCabe & Mrs. Miller", Sidney Lumet with "Dog Day Afternoon", Terrence Malick with "Days of Heaven" or the best first half of Michael Cimino's "Heaven's Gate". That way of visual storytelling paid attention to the charged loudness of a long pause, to the mastery behind long, single takes, to the worship for a steady camera and focus on subtle acting, to the faithful reenactment (not trendy interpretations) of historical artifacts. On those times a wink of an eye was so loaded with meaning, a single note so fully embodied with tension, a prop utensil so beautifully reproduced... There was complexity and thick, layered stories. I loved that period of narrative introspection.
This is what "There Will be Blood" brings back: True purpose on its enactment: Archetypal stories with humble stories of epic proportions. Evil and good intertwined. God through human ambition and frailty. Open endings, interpretative meaning... Love for storytelling, not the pursuit of lowly bucks behind mass-produced "blockbustering" science.
I am so happy today... This movie is truly a gem to my eyes. Please visit it with open ones, and yes, an open mind perhaps already narrowed and pre-conditioned to the "expected". But please do visit. Only the symbolic end scene can be judged as overplayed somehow.... The rest is beyond reproach. This movie is a demonstration of what cinema should be all about. A textbook classic to be taught to future generations of filmmakers. I hope.