amazing performances, emotional impact, subtle, but no political context

Rating: 9/10 (9 January 2008)

All the good things people are saying I agree with, my little problem is that to really have made this an all-encompassing masterpiece, more political context is necessary, its not that I, perfunctorily, need politics, but in this particular instance, understanding this context would have only deepened the personal power of this movie. Certainly Sinclair, the author of oil, understood this. Who is standard oil, union oil, what about the monopolies of the railroads? which were mentioned by Plainview. These were not periphery issues but marbled the whole context in which all oilmen working and which influenced vast portions of the US. More specifically, the violence of Plainview was a microcosm of the large r violence of the oil enterprise generally, and this simply was far too implicit in the movie, it wouldn't have taken much to bring this out. I realize the director loves to focus on the specific and he'll get all sorts of kudos for this movie, as he should, but there is definitely a lack, that for example, "before the devil knows your dead" does not have, or "no country for old men." I did love the ending to the movie, the very weird tableau of the bowling alley, Plainview initially out drunk on the floor, then roused into monstrous form when he almost casually murders Eli with the bowling pin. This actually hearkens to the book, called "bowling alone in America" a study/indictment of US interpersonal relationships.