Even the good stars can fall from grace and falter

[sovay]

What surprised me most about There Will Be Blood? It's not by Werner Herzog.

I do not mean that it is derivative; I mean that its epic-scale obssessions, the grime and grandeur of its characters' madness would not have been out of place in Fitzcarraldo or Aguirre, the Wrath of God. (By the finale, certainly, the upper hand in sanity between Daniel Plainview and Don Lope de Aguirre might have to be decided by a coin-flip.) It has the same elemental grip, towering oil fires and black apocalyptic rains. Perhaps for this reason, of the three films I've now seen by Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood is far and away my favorite. I don't know if it was the best movie of the year. I would have called Paul Dano a revelation more than Daniel Day-Lewis. But it etches in the right language. It dreams in blood and steel and bone.

Comments

[clarionj.livejournal.com]

So glad to get your take on the movie. I haven't seen it yet, and sometimes the hype makes me wonder ... but from what you say here, it's as good as they're saying. AND I'm glad you brought up Fitzcarraldo again. You had mentioned that film in a post some time ago, and I'd jotted the name down, but then my computer lost my "notes" file! That's one I definitely want to see.

[sovay]

So glad to get your take on the movie.

Glad to be of assistance!

I haven't seen it yet, and sometimes the hype makes me wonder ... but from what you say here, it's as good as they're saying.

It was good in an entirely different way than I had expected, or been led to expect. The reviews I had read mostly talked about its unforgivingness, its fearlessness, its contempt for the touchstones of movie epic; Daniel Day-Lewis. No one said, American mythscape. I'd double-bill it with The Night of the Hunter.

That's one I definitely want to see.

Enjoy!