Blood, and whether there will be any or not...

There Will Be Blood....

Eventually.

We went to see There Will Be Blood the other night and found it was excellent in almost every way, except the length.

The good points are glowingly positive, and I must say that this movie deserves all the praise that it's received. The story is different, something you don't see on the big screen everyday. The acting is phenomenal by the entire cast, though there are some obvious stand-outs we'll talk about a little later. The cinematography is stunning all throughout, there's a spectacular dolly shot that seems to last forever that might not seem like a big deal to most people, but for me definitely showed a level of commitment to the scene that I found impressive.

Those points are good.

There are some things that I didn't like. First, the music in this film is enjoyable at first, but after a while it begins to grates on your nerves. It's all very progressive with it's off key violins and out of tempo drum beats. I can't say that any of it feels out of place at all, it's simply annoying after a while.

Second, and trust me, I'm going to need this new paragraph, the pacing and length are almost unbearable as you're nearing the end. To preface, this movie is nearly 3 hours long. For a movie called There Will Be Blood, there wasn't really any blood until the last 5 minutes of the film. In the first scene, there's a little splatter when a drill bit crushes a man, but to be honest I couldn't tell if it was oil or blood. Later, in the second act, a man dies during drilling and again, there's a bit of blood there. The remainder of the film has pretty much no blood. Perhaps there is some sort of subtext to this that I'm not understanding, and it's really not that big of deal. It just bothered me a bit.

Pacing, though, is what really brought down my opinion of the movie. Basically, this story is a cross section of a man's professional career in oil drilling around the turn of the century leading into the great depression. We see him striking oil for the first time, and then follow him as he grows from precarious wood rigs to fancy high-end pneumatic drills. The pacing in the story tends to drag a long for a majority of the movie, something that would be forgivable if there was a real high note that we'd been building too. And it should be said that the final scene was certainly powerful, but it almost felt too little too late.

As an afterthought, though, I think it appropriate to mention that I went into the movie without the expectations of being as long as it was, and I was extremely exhausted from the day. I think my opinions might have been somewhat clouded by this, but I don't think it completely negates them.

Now, I mentioned performances and those who stand out. Obviously Daniel Day-Lewis gives an incredible performance, his character's personae as a hard as rock oil man with a deep loathing for all man-kind and constant battle for supremacy is nothing short of powerful.

The performance I wasn't ready for was Paul Dano's portrayal of Eli Sunday. His first appearance in the film is as Paul Sunday, but the remainder of the film is spent in his role as Eli. When Paul Sunday first comes on screen I spent a moment trying to remember where I'd seen him before. When I remembered his role as 'Klitz' in The Girl Next Door, I chuckled. When next we see him, he's Eli Sunday, and he's determined to make money for his church. It's not until well into the second act that we see his real power as a Fire and Brimstone up and down the aisles evangelical preacher of the Church of the 3rd Revelation. His performance was amazing, and certainly not what I expected from him. His range of emotion in the film is brilliant and well received.

There you have it. What exactly you have now, I don't know, but there it is. I liked the movie. It definitely wasn't what I expected going into it, but having seen it, I'd like the chance to watch it again. I think I'll enjoy more the second time, this time more mentally equipped to watch it.

That's it for now...

There are a lot of things going on in my world, and I hope I'll have time to talk about them soon. Right now, though, it's time that I get some sleep.