Jaw-dropping indeed!

Rating: 10/10 (24 January 2008)

The entire film is amazing, and is rich with themes of betrayal, exploitation, and the murderous animosity of man against man when it comes to the drives of greed and lust for power. In that sense it is especially akin to Kubrick's work.
For me, it was the final scene between Eli Sunday and Plainview when I suddenly realized I was leaning forward in my seat, my jaw literally agape and half-grinning with awe at what I was taking in. It was both the intensity of the acting and the culmination of the currents of the whole tale from the beginning - who's the more greedy, who's the worse liar, who's the survivor and who's the victim - neither, actually, and who wins out when it's hypocrisy disguised as religious fanaticism vs the lust for oil, people and the Earth be damned? I think the final moments give an answer to that last question, and it ought to scare the britches off any fundamentalist preacher who thinks he can play politics with the money boys.