Tonight is the IBJ Night at the Movies screening of Paul Thomas Anderson’s film “There Will Be Blood.”
Many of you will be at the screening, since we gave away passes last week.
So, what did you think of the film? If you happen to be a paying customer and see the film after Friday, feel free to chime in as well.
And since this is in the pack for Oscar nominations this year, let’s start handicapping. What films do you think will get the five nominations this year (the announcement will be made January 22)? Will “There Will Be Blood” be in the pack? “Sweeney Todd?” “No Country for Old Men?” “Atonement”? “Alvin and the Chipmonks”?
Your thoughts?
Many of you will be at the screening, since we gave away passes last week.
So, what did you think of the film? If you happen to be a paying customer and see the film after Friday, feel free to chime in as well.
And since this is in the pack for Oscar nominations this year, let’s start handicapping. What films do you think will get the five nominations this year (the announcement will be made January 22)? Will “There Will Be Blood” be in the pack? “Sweeney Todd?” “No Country for Old Men?” “Atonement”? “Alvin and the Chipmonks”?
Your thoughts?
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As for the film itself, I'm still too flabbergasted to comment cogently. I may need a good 36-48 hours just to process this film. It's tragic and awful and spellbinding and hypnotic.
I think.
P.T. Anderson's films are many things, but none of them are easy. This one is the most challenging yet. And then there's Daniel Day-Lewis. I was simply paralyzed until about halfway into the credits. I just couldn't move or say anything.
I don't know this Brian above, however, the Brians agree. I was physically shaken. Sure, it's a dark, dark film. And I'm not sure how long it will take for this to sink in with me, but....
Gheez. I'm simply blown away.
Elswit's cinematography is stunning. Day-Lewis give possibly the best performance of this young century.
I have long been a fan of PT Anderson, but what I love about There Will Be Blood is that it's nothing like his previous work. There is nothing in Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, or Punch-Drunk Love that will prepare for the dark, patient vision that Anderson presents here.
Those who didn't like it immediately may find themselves changing their minds over time.
50 years from now, when - God grant us luck - we're still kickin' as old folks, we'll be talking about this movie - our grandchildren will be studying it in film classes, and PT Anderson will likely be placed in a canon with the world's great directors.
No Country for Old Men
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Into the Wild
Michael Clayton
and... There Will Be Blood
Spoilers: Atonement & Juno.
Your Oscar Nominees come from those 7 without doubt.
...
Am I setting myself up for embarassment?
:)
OK, so what we were talking about last night before it was way to cold in the parking lot to hang around anymore. . . Character development--did anyone feel cheated by not knowing more of Plainview's history and story? Is that why we're still talking and thinnking about it or did we get cheated? Lord knows, it couldn't have been any longer, and we still felt like we needed more. Thinking about this, we had fun speculating on other stuff--what did the initials H.W. really stand for? Did Paul Sunday ever go back home to visit? OK, gotta get back to work.
As mentioned, I will be thinking about this one for awhile. Don't think it will win best picture, but DDL should win the Oscar.
p.s.
I always love the music in Anderson's films as well and this one didn't disappoint with a score that made my friend say, I don't know if I feel ill or on the set with them! Very affecting!
While I absolutely loved his performance, the movie, for me is not a favorite. I really enjoy Anderson's work as a whole though. I appreciated the camera work and some of the scenery and elements of the film. For me, it brought to mind the movie trilogy, A Fist full of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
What I really didn't like about the movie was the score. I had read reviews where the score was praised, but for me, instead of enhancing the movie, I found it distracting from what I was seeing. Some parts were okay, but that clanking when HW was injured just overshadowed some of the scene for me. It sort of sounded like a bad attempt at a Bernstein sound. And that god awful screeching in the opening scenes that was sometimes repeated throughout the movie! EEEK! I will say that in certain scenes the music worked to highten the tension, but as a whole, I would've prefered a different score/composer. I should also say that I'm not really Radiohead fan either.
I agree with the Brians above that it is a movie that has to be digested and thought about. There were so many things going on with Daniel's character, so many sublties that you would have to view it more than once to get it all.
I also wanted to say that Paul Dano was great in this role as well. He creeped me out!
About the music: I was a big fan of the original and non-original stuff used here. PT Anderson's work in TWBB has already drawn comparisons to Kubrick on several levels, and I think one area where that comparison is valid is his ear for how music and image fit together. Jonny Greenwood's original atonal material is really compelling (I liked the screech that accompanied Mr. Plainview's two very different scenes of digging - which actually calls to mind some of the atonal Gyorgy Ligeti music that Kubrick used in both 2001 and THE SHINING.)
Beyond that, there was compelling (and eventually disturbing) use made of the 3rd movement of the Brahms violin concerto, and a wonderful piece called Fratres for Cello and Piano by an Estonian contemporary composer named Arvo Part. (This was the piece used in a couple of places, including the scene in which Plainview first attempts to speak to H.W. after the accident.) Incidentally, I have used that very piece in the sound design for a theatre production recently. Great minds, etc. :-)
The percussive, clanking piece that accompanied the accident and the oil well fire was just utterly gripping as well - the musical equivalent of being grabbed by one's shirt collar and compelled to stay glued to what's happening in front of you.
I think the score was potentially distracting in some places, simply because it is so different from the usual vein of musical accompaniment for film It calls attention to iteslf simply by not being James Newton Howard or any of the other current hot conventional dramatic film composers.
I am a complete film score nerd, though, so I could go on forever about this stuff. I'm getting to the point now where I could go on forever about several aspects of this film, just because I need to work them out for myself. This film is haunting me, and I can't stop thinking about it. But I'll spare the rambling for now.
Yours,
Brian G. Hartz
Board Vice President
Heartland Actors' Repertory Theatre
I love films that tug on my emotions in all different directions. This one fits the bill.
About the score. I LOVED it! To me it was the perfect musical expression of that time and the subject matter. In many ways the instrumentation could be seen as sound effects for turrning gears, locomotive engines, hammering mallets. In my opinion, the score becomes another character in the film.
Anyway, an interesting film, none the less. I hope Daniel wins the Oscar, lord knows he deserves it!
While I think there's beauty in the film, the frustrating things for me were storytelling problems. The lack of connectivity between moments, the leaps, the unclear motivations, etc. are, for me, what keeps it from being the masterpiece that others seem to think it is.
It feels influenced by such films as The Godfather, Citizen Kane, Days of Heaven and East of Eden--all of which are visually beautiful films with terrific acting. What they also have, though, are characters arcs. There's just too much missing here in the relationship between father and son, between oil man and minister, and between minister and brother. And the universe of secondary characters isn't brought to life the way they are in, say, McCabe and Mrs. Miller (which it also echoes in some ways).
Imporant stuff happens that we in the audience just aren't privvy to it. And that's frustrating.
The four movies I mentioned are ones I can see again and again. While I admire There Will Be Blood, I have no desire to see it again because I think it would only frustrate me more.
All the brilliant detail, immersive acting, and risk-taking music can't hide a script that needs to go through a few more drafts.
IMHO.
Can I just be honest and say that I didn't even realize there were two Sunday twins until the end in the bowling alley? I feel dumb admitting that, but I must have missed something in there. Anyway.
I did think Daniel Day Lewis was just phenomenal, and since the movie was basically a character study of this oil man and his greed, it worked for me. However, I made a huge mistake in going to the movie at 10:15. By the end, I was close to dozing, just between the lines of dialogue alone.
Overall, I thought the movie was great--but I wasn't amazed.