There Will Be Blood (2007) **1/2

Rating: 6/10 (27 December 2008)

I always see this movie lumped along with NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN as two of the "new greats", but if I am to be completely honest, this was another disappointment. So I guess it's fitting that I feel similarly about both. Daniel Day-Lewis was pretty intense in his part, yes... even though it often seemed like he was putting on a caricature. If it weren't for his seedy and gradually more declining snake of an unscrupulous oil businessman there wouldn't have been much to stick around for. I had to love the photography and locations, which really gave this picture a vivid feel for the early 1900s. Just about all the scenes featuring both Day-Lewis and Paul Dano (who played the overbearing young preacher) were fun, and often times downright laughable - whether intended or not. The relationship between Daniel and his son was involving.
But when I got right down to it, I had to ask "what's the point?". I haven't read Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel called "OIL!", on which this film was based; so I guess it's yet another tale of what money, greed, power, authority, and religious obsession can do to people? And I had to honestly ask myself if I would have even bothered, had THERE WILL BE BLOOD not been praised at the Oscars? Was it worth dedicating two and a half hours of my life to? Will I ever desire to watch this again and again? For a lot of movie buffs I think this film is a good example of trying to savor something that's popular and deemed an exceptional movie when it's really not all that. I can't imagine that some of the ratings would actually be as high as they are for this, had it never been highly touted, or if there were no pre-conceived standards for it. I found myself almost liking the good qualities about it enough to stretch it to a more respectable three stars, especially considering its supreme status... but forget that. Liking the acting and cinematography, a few odd sequences now and then, but ultimately wishing it was at least 45 minutes shorter and checking the clock ... that can't be "good". **1/2 out of ****