January 27, 2008
There Will Be Blood, but No Virtue
Since I know she’ll never actually set about posting these things, I submit to you this review of There Will Be Blood by the lady who puts up with me, Beth. Respect the genius.
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M & I went to see There Will Be Blood last weekend and I hated it.
I have read a bunch of reviews that throw around the word masterpiece and I am officially not smart enough to comprendo the grandeur. It was a cynical, mean-spirited movie that, except for the final minute, I’ve already forgotten.
Its merits are probably numerous. The first 14 mintues are without dialogue and so you just sit and watch–kind of self-conciously, “I’m watching THIS MOVIE.”
The movie itself is self-conscious–it is about making a perfect movie at some level. Daniel Day Lewis goes for it full-on Acting to the Maximum. He has this voice that he apparently picked up from recordings of gents from the turn of the century. It sounds hokey to a modern ear, but it might be faithful to what some sounded like a century ago.
Like I said, it is a deeply cynical movie. There are no women, no redeeming virtues, no goodness, no beauty. If I were educated enough I would probably be able to say why this is–it feels like a reaction against the romantics or something–there is no perfectability of man.
Man is a base, nasty critter after all. We are ruled by biology, but in this extremely cynical movie, biology of nature has been trumped by the biology of greed. You perpetuate yourself not through progeny, but through collection of money.
So ultimately, I think this is a venture of purity. It exists–it doesn’t entertain, it doesn’t redeem. It has no virtue.
Back to my site, Retired time Bomb
Interesting viewpoint, considering everything I’ve read makes this sound like the most amazing movie ever. I’ll probably end up watching this in 2009 after I have forgotten about it. Thats how I roll.
For some reason it very awesome to me that this post is pulling Radiohead ads from Adsense. Thank you Beth.
First of all, thanks, Matt and Beth, for taking me to tasty mexico lunch and the movies.
To me, the point of the movie was simply that neither wealth (blood from labor) nor faith (blood of Christ) nor family (blood of the veins!) lead to happiness. What is completely missing from Plainview’s unhappy life? Any friends, and the work involved in creating those relationships. What could be more virtuous?
And the last scene? As is often the case, I was the only person in the theater laughing. (I should get that looked into.) It was an over-the-top way to make the title literal to be sure, but if it hadn’t been there, would we still be talking about the movie? It was worth it if only for the last line of dialog.