J-Film #2 - 'There will be blood'

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Now, to the matter at hand, 'There will be blood' is good, very good, better than 'Mandy Lane' in fact and thats saying something. But, although it may be good, its is reaching around the 3 hour mark, which, to some, is far to long for a film; but then I'm a Cine-art Fag so feel free not to see this film on the premise that its long and boring to the common or garden chav. But with the insults out of the way its time to focus on what makes this film so spectacular.

The film does suffer a little from some areas of disjointedness, but this is to be expected as it is developed from an equally arty book entitled 'oil!' and these sorts of art-to-art cross-medium transfers are always hard on the subject matter, but in truth its extremely artistic and seems to lose none of its actual direction during the cross over.

The story begins with an out of luck miner named William Plainview discovering some sort of diamond or something (I was picking up my drink at the time, while simultaneously trying to open my minstrel packet) which makes him wealthy, or at least wealthy enough to start digging for oil with his some H.W. and after finding some 'black gold' he becomes truly rich and begins to spread his arms around the whole state. While working on a new and recently successful derrick, Plainview is approached by a young man by the name of Paul Sunday, who is handed some money for an exciting oil prospect; so, with his son in tow, Daniel Plainview heads up to 'Little Boston' and quickly buys the whole place, which is where our tale of ever increasing corruption, greed, revenge at the world and of 'having a fulfilled life' begins.

Most of the story seems to lead nowhere at the time it is viewed, but upon the close of the film the artistic destination and 'point' come vividly apparent, if you can ignore the soundtrack, yes thats right, although it shows how good I think this film is, that i can only find two flaws to this film, the soundtrack is awesomely crap, in fact allot of the subtler plot movements and messages that the film likes to bring up can be missed by pondering "Where the hell did they dig up this horrifying soundtrack!?" It really is horrifying and thats because it is a Horror soundtrack, it barely ever fits the pace or the plot of the film and when it does its still a lump of steaming turd among the pristine cinnamon rolls that are the other aspects of this great work of art. You all remember that air raid siren remix thing from uncounted horror movies? even that makes an appearance in the opening moments of the movie as does that strange soundtrack where you can just about hear whispers in the background! It's appalling, but luckily you can eventually numb yourself out to it at around the 1 hour mark.

Well the acting is fairly awesome (I have never been one to spot acting and an actors performance has never really done much for me) and the shooting is quite nice with some lovely oil fire scenes and the characterization is absolutely superb, with all the characters reacting perfectly to their situation and developing on levels more complex than anything mainstream like 'Jumper' or even the masterfully characterized 'Spider-man' films.

Theres not really much more to say, this film delves into unexplored crevasses of art and philosophical speculation, It has one of the most memorable end scenes and lines and cannot be faulted on anything but the stupid soundtrack and occasional leaps in the story, which is obviously more better suited to a book, but still retains an ultimate aura of tantalization and wonder, that your sure not to forget any time soon, if at all.

Next time, i shall be reviewing 'Rambo' (if i dont finally sucumb and go an watch 'Jumper') and you should look forward to 'Diary of the dead', George A. Romero's Zombies gone the way of 'Blair Witch' and, note the groan of disappointment, 'Clover field' with a 'Steady Cam' twist

Rundown -

Shooting: 7

Characterization: 9

Soundtrack: 3

Plot: 9

Effects: 8

Variable field dependent on context and genre - Artistic Direction and Questions raised: 9

Overall J-score: 8/10

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