There Will Be Blood [Blu-ray]
![There Will Be Blood [Blu-ray]](/Images/B0018QCXH8/medium.jpg) | Average Customer Rating: Recommend Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 06/03/2008 Run time: 158 minutes Rating: R… Product details and pricing info |
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364 Customer Reviews Posted
- There Will Be Greed
- Director Paul Thomas Anderson ("Magnolia") achieves something very rare in films, he manages to create a really extraordinary film whose main character Daniel Plainview played by Daniel Day-Lewis ("My Left Foot") is for the most part reprehensible. With the exception of rare moments of affection for his deaf son, whose deafness is caused by an accident at his father's oil wells, Plainview cares for no one on earth, hates most people, is highly competitive and filled with unstoppable greed and ambition.
The film is based on a novel by Upton Sinclair OIL and is set in the early decades of the 20th century when a lot of Americans acted like Plainview-- to a lesser degree we hope-- in their quest for wealth at whatever expense.
The critics could not get enough of this film. Daniel Day-Lewis earned an Oscar for best actor for his portrayal of Plainview. While he is supported by good performances by other actors, notably that of Paul Dano ("Little Miss Sunshine") as the hell-fire minister of the Church of the Third Revelation, Eli Sunday, the film ultimately belongs to Day-Lewis.
In addition to his statement about greed, Anderson also shoots a nice arrow into fundamentalist, crazy religion. The soundtrack works very well, particularly the use of the beautiful Brahms Violin Concerto.
It will be interesting to see how this film holds up in the years ahead, but for now it is still white-hot. - 2008-10-04, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- There will be blood by Brandon
- I thought Daniel Day Lewis was outstanding and evil in this movie, but I thought he was the only thing good in the movie. It has a good story about an oil man, but it is very long and it gets boring.
- 2008-10-02, 0 of 3 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Another one impossible to rate
- There Will Be Blood is another one of those movies that you will either love or hate. Daniel Day Lewis is fantastic in this extensive character study; the acting in general was superb. But the pacing was very peculiar--long passages occur when nothing much happens; and the music was overwhelming more than a few times, literally covering the dialogue. I am a composer myself, and I appreciated the composer's skill, but I think the sound engineer should never work in Hollywood again. All in all, the reviewer below who described this as an "Oily Citizen Kane" was pretty close to the mark, although this movie was more violent. All in all, I was left with too much of a sense that the director was trying too hard to create a film that would last for all time. To my mind, a somewhat more direct method would have made a better film. But perhaps it's me.
- 2008-10-01, 1 of 1 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- TRITE
- The movie is trite. Yes, good acting, good directing, good camera work, etc; but that doesn't make a Masterpiece or even a great movie. The story: There Will Be Blood--you will find such stories in every sidestreet bar. So what makes a great movie? Welles understtod. Humanity. The movie had no humanity. You didn't take anything away with you you didn't already know. It didn't have "Rosebud".
- 2008-09-21, 3 of 10 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- There Will Be ... Extras?
- Daniel Day Lewis rightly deserved his Oscar for his performance as oil-man Daniel Plainview in this stunning film. The casting was perfect including Dillon Freasier as his adopted son H.W. As a young actor, I hope that we get to see more of him in the future.
With only a modest filmography, Paul Dano has already has proved his incredible acting abilities with nominations not just for this film but for other roles including last year's hit Little Miss Sunshine. His calm yet at other times ferocious nature as the local evangelical preacher sent shivers down my spine!
Overall, it is a wholly American film that recalls the nostalgic era of "big oil" in the early 1900's. If you are looking for intense action or special effects, this movie may not be for you. It is long and drawn out but worth every minute if you are interested in the early days of U.S. oil drilling.
The only reason I gave this movie 4 out of 5 stars was because the BluRay disc did not come with many extras. I was disappointed that there was no commentary by director Paul Thomas Anderson or any special features involving the rest of the cast and crew. Certainly a behind-the-scenes documentary would have been sufficient. Unfortunately, the consumer is only left with two alternate scenes, a 15-minute photo montage and a 26-minute silent film from 1923, "The Story of Petroleum."
Excellent sound, cinematography, music and high-caliber acting make this a MUST HAVE for any BluRay enthusiast. - 2008-09-17, 0 of 1 people found this review helpful, Rated:
