There will be blood

[loose cannon]

This is a ridiculously overrated film

You get more plot and character development in a Chuck Norris film.

Plainview (Day Lewis) starts the film as a poor tight miserable c*nt and ends it a as a rich tight miserable c*nt.

Along the way he crosses the path and swindles a fanatical religious fundie – but he’s never developed so we can’t decide how genuine the pastor is or not.

He gets stroppy about being perceived to abandon his adopted son but labels him a bastard later. He has no libido and no women feature in the film. His only interest is cash but even that is not developed.

I didn’t care what happened as the plot jumped around like something an ADS teenager would write.

The film ends with him beating the pastor to death then he turns around to the camera and says ‘I’m finished’ and the film ends. I was expecting a loony tunes logo to pop up with ‘that’s all folks’.

And it’s long. Save time. Watch bugs bunny instead.

[Jimski]

There will be blood

I agree. One of the dullest "highly rated" films I've ever sat through. I know we're meant to enthuse about Daniel Day Lewis' acting, but he just bloody annoys me, to be honest.

[Geoffrey de Ste. Croix]

There will be blood

Nah, I thought it was great, especially Day Lewis' accent which is a tribute throughout to Sean Connery circa The Untouchables. I half expected a scene where Plainview bends down to his young son and and says "he pullsh a knife, you pull a gun, he putsh one of yoursh in the hoshpital, you put one of hish in the morgue. Thatsh the Chicago way".

[alyxandr]

There will be blood

Yeah, not a fan in the otherwise excellent The Unbearable Lightness of Being either. "Our life, it is, so light" -- pretty enough for the part, but his Transylvanian accent didn't do him any favors.

[imp]

There will be blood

Fully agree with the opening post - boring as hell, and Day Lewis's character is barely semi-dimensional.

[dalliance]

There will be blood

I enjoyed it actually. I thought the scene where he has to bow and scrape to the pastor and debase himself in front of the congregation to get the land from the devout parishioner was just fantastic.

[Come along, Min]

There will be blood

It's a 10/10 for me, best Day-Lewis performance I've seen, thought it struck a good balance between being an auteur piece and a more traditional award-winning effort. Easily in my top ten of the last ten years.

[Amor de Cosmos]

There will be blood

I thought it was great, especially Day Lewis' accent which is a tribute throughout to Sean Connery circa The Untouchables.

Funny I thought he was doing a deliberate John Huston knock off.

[WOM]

There will be blood

Not seen it.

[Gangster Octopus]

There will be blood

Not seen it.

[Slightly Brown]

There will be blood

Seen it.

I love Panini movie threads.

[matt j]

There will be blood

Not seen it. This is because I think Paul Thomas Anderson makes terrible films that make me angry (and yet, somehow on many occasions drags really good performances out of actors in those films).

[Slightly Brown]

There will be blood

I think he's fantastic, absolutely fantastic. He does battered people brilliantly. He also has a wonderful eye. I love watching films when you get the sense that the director is saying and showing you exactly what he wants to say and show. Everything he does is a deep plunge. It's invigorating. He knows how to borrow properly too.

The music by Jon Brion on Magnolia also deserve's a mention. The Aimee Mann tracks are brilliant, but his soundtrack propels the entire film.

[Jimski]

There will be blood

My PT Anderson ranking:

1. Magnolia
2. Punch-Drunk Love
3. The Master
4. Boogie Nights
5. There Will Be Blood

(Not seen: Hard Eight)

[imp]

There will be blood

I never realised those were all by the same director - funny, because I really liked Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love and Boogie Nights, and hated both The Master and There Will Be Blood. Which is why, I should add, it's maybe not necessarily a good thing to pay attention to who directed a film.

[Alex Anderson]

There will be blood

erm - maybe it's because I'm one dimensional myself, and lacking any kind of development (morally at least) for the last 30 years but I loved There Will Be Blood.

The Loony Tunes comment is spot-on though. As per Room With A View and The Age of Innocence, D Day Lewis can be shite, in that Meryl Streep way - "Look At Me Acting!" - but he does the biz in this film because the character is meant to be cartoonish. Same as he does in Gangs of New York.

I see a lack of character development is cited by a few folk. Starting and ending the film as a cunt doesnae mean he hasn't been through the emotional wringer though. I thought the whole point of the plot - where it positively bursts with drama, darling - was when Plainview's avowed refusal to develop as a person (He just wants a "plain view" of life and morality) or to stray from his wholly venal path, is tested by the appearance of a son and a brother, eliciting a secret - or previously "untapped" - craving for love.

The fact the brother turns out to be a fraud - just using Plainview - hurts him to the point where he takes it out on his "son", who genuinely loves him.

The oil - under the surface and dangerous to expose - is a metaphor for emotion/love - and he has to blow out both relationships with all the violence of, ye know, one of those gushers which gets out of control ... and deafens the wee guy he adopts as his son and - yeah ... I'm reading this back now and there's no way my argument's convincing anyone because it's even more boring than you found the film.

But - hey - Daniel goes from punching the shit out of the Christian fundamentalist who's all about the love to having the shit slapped out of him by the same wee preacher who then reveals he is actually all about the money ... as Plainview's emotions go in the opposite direction ...

Nah? Okay. It's a film that made me feel clever anyway.

[Alex Anderson]

There will be blood

... plus he looks really good in a hat.