There Will Be Blood

[Wolf04]

Based on several comments in the No Country For Old Men thread I thought I should watch this film. WTF! nothing happened and worse it took two and a half hours for it not to happen! Please tell me if I missed something extraordinary because it seemed to be a complete non event!

 

[col]

I just watched this also and found it slow but strangely interesting, even though it was as you said.

 

[MajorMantra]

I thought it was great. Daniel Day-Lewis was rather good at being a pschopath and characters like the creepy preacher guy were kind of fascinating. I vaguely remember it having good music too.

Matthew

 

[Cathryn]

I gave up. Tried so hard and got so bored!

 

[Piemaster]

I didn't give up. I slept quite soundly all the way through to the credits rousing me from my slumber.

 

[MajorMantra]

Philistines.

Matthew

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Brillant film, about one mans greed and how it consumes him.

Absolutely. Yes, it requires a little more patience than some films these days. There are no car-chases and no CGI. But, sometimes making an effort is worth it...

 

[Wolf04]

Absolutely. Yes, it requires a little more patience than some films these days. There are no car-chases and no CGI. But, sometimes making an effort is worth it...

I've got no problem with patience but there has to be a payoff at some point. Seems to me the whole crux of the film was that he adopted the kid strictly for business reasons and waited over two hours of my life to throw it in his face. Also what was with the leap in time? Bad writing it seemed to me, nothing in the plot or the Oscar winning performances was designed to draw you into the film. They could have left Daniel Day Lewis at the bottom of the shaft during the opening scenes for me.

 

[accountantpete]

Try a film called The Killer for a spot of blood and heavy male bonding.

 

[theclaud]

Please tell me if I missed something extraordinary

You missed something extraordinary.

Well, you did ask...

 

[Flying_Monkey]

there has to be a payoff

You mean apart from the great performances, taut script, superb music, classic cinematography etc. etc.?

What do you want as a payoff? A twist? (as if him beating Daniel Plainview to death wasn't shocking enough?) A 'deus ex machina'? A lady jumping out of a cake?

I guess you either like the film as a film, or you don't... I thought it was a worthwhile experience.

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

It was an interesting film.

Yes, it was very slow, but in a film which is focussing almost solely on the human psyche what did you expect apart from some fairly deep character building?

The ending was not what I expected at all, but was a fitting climax to the film, IMO.

I don't know whether I'd watch it again, but I'm glad I've seen it.

It reminded me very much of City of God in its aims. That too was pretty slow, but an excellent film.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

It reminded me very much of City of God in its aims. That too was pretty slow, but an excellent film.

??? I'd agree that City of God is a great film, but I don't know how you can call it slow? It's all jump cuts, pace and oodles of shooting... if it was a person, it would have ADHD!

 

[Wolf04]

You mean apart from the great performances, taut script, superb music, classic cinematography etc. etc.?

What do you want as a payoff? A twist? (as if him beating Daniel Plainview to death wasn't shocking enough?) A 'deus ex machina'? A lady jumping out of a cake?

I guess you either like the film as a film, or you don't... I thought it was a worthwhile experience.

I'll give you the cinimatography and score were excellent, my problem with the film was that I didn't see the script as taut or any of the characters as being interesting enough to care what happened to them so however good the performances, they were wasted for me, or should that be on me. Reminded me a great deal of Gangs of New York, another film I need never see again.

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

??? I'd agree that City of God is a great film, but I don't know how you can call it slow? It's all jump cuts, pace and oodles of shooting... if it was a person, it would have ADHD!

Lol - I think I meant slow in terms of character development (i.e long building up of a picture of the relationship between the main characters) rather than the pace of the collection of 'incidents' which were used to do this... did that make any more sense?

Thought not!