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  #21  
Old 12-30-2007, 04:37 PM
Scott Warner
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Re: There will be blood - trailer (teaser)
I saw this at the Arclight Hollywood on opening night. I'll write more later... I thought it was a damn fine film but I'm not sure I liked the ending.
  #22  
Old 12-31-2007, 10:46 AM
grady
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Re: There will be blood - trailer (teaser)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott Warner
I saw this at the Arclight Hollywood on opening night. I'll write more later... I thought it was a damn fine film but I'm not sure I liked the ending.
The more I've thought about the ending since seeing the film on Saturday night, the more I've come to admire it in it's audacity and as a conclusion of the film's story.
  #23  
Old 01-06-2008, 09:37 PM
Aaron Contreras
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Re: There will be blood - trailer (teaser)
Was there a point to any of that?
The discordant music annoys me - I feel it is a cheap wrench of the emotional lever to provoke an audience reaction - perhaps because the actual events of the film are dragging.

I enjoyed the acting and it didn't feel like it was as long as it was...but was there a purpose to any of it?
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  #24  
Old 01-14-2008, 08:06 AM
Strangelet
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Re: There will be blood - trailer (teaser)
Quote:
Originally Posted by grady
The more I've thought about the ending since seeing the film on Saturday night, the more I've come to admire it in it's audacity and as a conclusion of the film's story.
really? i thought it became a parody of itself at the end. delving into black comedy really seemed to make a disjointed mood.

Also the characters were well wrought, it was powerful, beautiful, blah blah blah, but it just didn't mean much to me in the end. mainly because nothing was explained as far as motives go. Why does plainwater hate people? any reason? just does?
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  #25  
Old 01-14-2008, 08:25 AM
kid cue
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Re: There will be blood - trailer (teaser)
i thought there was a point to the film -- not to give a reason for why the characters did what they did, but to systematically break down what definitely *weren't* the expected reasons. i think the ending drove home the film's sort of existential core -- it's not that the things that happen to us are completely random, it's that the way we act fundamentally is?

pasted this from an email exchange i had ... SPOILERS AHEAD
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I thought a central message in the film was that life-defining decisions aren't influenced necessarily by the usual Big Ideas such as love, friendship, spirituality, financial success, etc., but rather by the subconscious or automatic tiny connections performed by the brain in (programmed?) response to idiosyncratic personal urges or needs--for instance, Plainview's pointlessly competitive streak, Eli's overconfidence or narcissism--much more character defining than his apparently incidental spirituality, the father-son bond falsely (!) perceived by H.W.

To me it seemed Plainview had come to love his "son" around the time he went deaf--but this feeling was a function of their having spent time together, and the false relationship he'd projected over the two of them. As soon as his son had grown and no longer served Plainview's own business, the relationship seemed to be one of strangers. Likewise, the son's love for his "father" seemed to disappear as soon as the words "you are not my son" (paraphrased) were spoken aloud. The thesis seems to be that the big Feelings come after the little ones that serve our various personal interests--a sense of self (Plainview's competing), a sense of belonging ( H.W.'s devotion to family), a sense of purpose (Eli's Christianity, basically secondary to what turned out to be his monetary needs--we saw these earlier in his dinner-table dealing with Plainview). I thought it was really cool that we (or at least I) grew fond of Plainview's supposed brother, after the film seemed to depict the two of them getting well on, implying some great future sibling partnership ... until we realized we'd been we'd been subject to the same emotional magic trick as Plainview himself! And then our (my) feelings of attachment for that guy disappeared in an instant.
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  #26  
Old 01-14-2008, 08:47 AM
grady
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Re: There will be blood - trailer (teaser)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Strangelet
really? i thought it became a parody of itself at the end. delving into black comedy really seemed to make a disjointed mood.

Also the characters were well wrought, it was powerful, beautiful, blah blah blah, but it just didn't mean much to me in the end. mainly because nothing was explained as far as motives go. Why does plainwater hate people? any reason? just does?
I can see how it can be taken as a parody or delving into black comedy but at the same time, the ending feels like a sucker punch of sorts that I feel catches people off guard. That said I found it worked for me.

Fair enough, nothing was explained as far as motives go for Plainview other what we glean in his conversations with people like his brother, but the same argument of lack of motive other than the most simplistic can be said for a multitude of film characters and one that immediately comes to mind is Anton Chigurh(sp) in No Country for Old Men.

Can you say what his motives are other than the pursuit of money? Does everything require explanation in a film or a book? Is ambiguity a problem? Just a few questions to consider as something I view signify one thing in a story is taken entirely differently by someone else. I have a perfect example of this from No Country for Old Men but don't want to get to carried away.
  #27  
Old 01-18-2008, 11:13 PM
GforGroove
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Re: There will be blood - trailer (teaser)
Quote:
Originally Posted by GforGroove
this is going to be my bullet proof with PTA.. since westerns aren't my cup pf thing .... at all........! but i trust him.. probably i'll be bitching about the cowboy thing when i get to see it
First at all. No cowboys. Only oil men. Im zero into countryside type of stories and sort of stuff in the plains before the 50's. but this was fabulous.

Intense!. super intense and wow. Really. that was something.. I dont feel bad about missing Cloverfield at all.!

and the end is fantastic!! so catartic and so over the top. I really dont understand why people dont liek the end if its just a perfect climax. All the "feelings" and "emotions" are so out of control that is just like pure human and animal instict. i think is a really brave ending.

the tension in this film is five stars, Daniel Day Lewis is terrific and that church freak is so crazy good.
I love this subtext about power and guilt.

One thing: the music is SO loud.
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  #28  
Old 01-20-2008, 01:38 PM
Caprice
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Re: There will be blood - trailer (teaser)
I saw this film last night.

SPOILERS:










I thought it was brilliant. IFC has been showing boogie nights almost 3 times a week now and i cant stop watching it. It just, pulls you in. But with that said, PT Anderson's work here is no different. It sucked me in. Oh, and

Jonny Greenwood did a dang fine job on the score. Dang fine.

The score was so, mechanical. Helping us see the transition of Plainview from man looking for silver, then oil (money). Into a machine, the great monopolizing machine that most oil companies were back then. The part where the oil rig caught fire, and was destroyed seemed sort of like, his true baptism to me, a baptism by fire if you will. The point where he hit it big and his time to run higher than before came.
I will admit though. It all had me glued to the screen until the part where he met his brother. Everything seemed to just, slow down and take a break. all the scratching around in the dirt turned into "business."
Paul Thomas Anderson is an amazing director, simply just, amazing. And of course, we know who did a good acting job.
Now the end. I think it was a good ending. I mean, im probably missing something entirely, but it seemed to just, finish the movie but still keep the story of Daniel Plainview going on. Just like the oil monopolies from back then. They crushed whoever and just kept on going until they died alone with all their money.


brilliant film, i give it 9.5/10 just because of that whole, slow down pacing.
  #29  
Old 01-21-2008, 03:19 PM
dubman
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Re: There will be blood - trailer (teaser)
saw it a second time last night and despite taking in the extra details and processing it more critically, i found that when the third act came in i was really just waiting for the final bowling scene.

spoilers

there's the first scene, the baptism, the mudfight, the sermons, the confessions, the business death threat... all those scenes are wonderful to watch, but that final scene is 15 sustained minutes of daniel's final fullfillment of his constant hatred for the things he sees in people and especially what he sees of himself in others. his son was basically what was keeping him tethered, and losing that part, along with having acheived the dream he needed a good business face to attain, let him show/react as he always would to his dim view of humanity and it's structures, especially that of religion, without censor. paul dano's eli was practically a validator of his most misanthropic views, and experiencing a conman trying to con a fellow conman reignites his vicious competition with no business or social restraint to keep him from expressing his full disgust. i'm not surprised it ended in murder, nor that he became strangely comical, because the desire to humiliate necessitates some way of belittling. the first time was slapping him repeatedly, getting on top of him, holding his arms and pushing mud in his face. the last scene was a hatefully condescending and childish lecture that was primarily fueled by eli's desperation (he could barely stand up before), chasing him around, throwing him in the lanes for target practice, acting and hollering in a way that would be funny if the target didnt feel so trapped with a rage that couldnt be reasoned with, so instead it's just terrifying for eli, because it's the thought of them having fun while intending to probably kill you, but funny for us.

the scenes in between the many, many highlights of the movie seem to be there as character building, daily motions, either reinforcing his obsessive/dismissive nature or adding depth to his relationship with his son, but a lot of time i was struck with the feeling that these senes were added JUST for that, as if it was a conscious acknowledgement that this kind of quiet is the kind thats respectable and favored. it's what makes it LOOK like high-end movie making. luckily for PT, it mostly lives up to that idea by being an excellent story overall, but it's still too self-conscious about it to really lose myself in.

first time i saw it i was blown away by the end scene enough to give it a 9. seeing it again did make the faults more apparent: the half brother storyline helped to flesh out daniel some, but felt unwelcome and awkward (fitting i guess, but not especially enjoyable to put up with all the same). and while the poker-faced character of HW was fun to experience and unique, skipping ahead 12 years from a sensory and emotional victim into someone thoughtful, emotional, married, and sensitive was, if not a big jump, then at least noticably ignoring that transition. again, maybe necessary for the sake of a movie, but lacking nonetheless. but i cant tell if i like those 'faults' because a perfectly oiled (haha) movie is a boring one, or because these faults never really distrupt the tone or feel out of sync from the overall vision.

i wouldnt rate it any lower, it's just not the blown-away, movie-of-the-year, oh-my-fucking-god experience that the gradually building climax had me thinking as i left it the first time, though it is a truly excellent movie.

that last 15 minutes though... i mean, i couldnt be happier with that.

DRAAAAAAAAAIIIINNNNNNNAAAAAAAGE

Last edited by dubman; 01-21-2008 at 03:29 PM.
  #30  
Old 01-21-2008, 10:59 PM
dubman
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Re: There will be blood - trailer (teaser)
looking for other reactions to the movie, i had no idea that the ending was so controversial. i can't see how it doesnt make sense or that it isnt fitting. it wasnt jarring at all, and if you didnt see it coming while watching the movie, you could at least have seen it coming in hindsight.

but i guess not. yes, the scene itself is bizarre, but not in the way that it doesnt make sense.

i found this excellent article someone wrote about it that explains it better than me here:
http://www.thesimon.com/magazine/art..._hysteria.html

...this shift in venue is vital for making sense of the end. We’ve never seen Daniel completely enclosed in these kinds of ornate, wealthy surroundings. He’s always been either in a mine, in an oil field, making a play for someone else’s property, or ever so briefly in the small shack where he slept and the roughly built church where Eli preached. He’s been in process, outdoors, claiming the final frontier. Now he owns everything. He has nothing left to carve out and conquer. A mansion is not his natural habitat, and so he amuses himself by shooting his rifle at a stuffed buffalo head—when he’s not getting snockered in an indoor bowling alley one suspects has never been used. The monomaniacal energy for empire building, and the hatred he feels for just about everyone on earth, have nowhere “productive” to go. And when that kind of inner sewage builds up, well, think of what happens with that flaming oil geyser. Yep, it explodes over the top. His first confrontation with the adult H.W. reveals how any affection he may have felt for his son has been curdled by his circumstances. Daniel is a man who has become accustomed to having his way and getting whatever he wants. He’s also deeply invested in how his personal father-son myth is as key to his identity as his business. H.W. getting married and leaving Daniel’s company is a double betrayal. He puts his wife, a Sunday, first, and dares to become the competition. Daniel lashes out accordingly. That he doesn’t inflict violence on H.W. is, perhaps, just plain luck. Eli, of course, isn’t so lucky. Kudos to Paul Dano for both holding his own against Day-Lewis, and making Eli such a baby-faced and believable snake in the grass (and snake oil salesman, I suppose). When he shows up in Daniel’s bowling alley, you just know this isn’t going to end well. Daniel’s been primed: he’s been waiting (and wanting) to crush Eli for years. He’s also lost his hope for a family man tycoon legacy with H.W. He’s pissed (in all senses of the slang term). And anyone who gets his jollies by firing his shotgun inside his house isn’t going to respond with rationality and self-control when he finally gets his chance to take out all of that pickled rage on Eli. Daniel plays it straight at first, stringing along Eli in a manner that recalls their baptism face-off. Once again, he gets his last financial laugh. This time, however, there is nothing and no one to hold him back like the first time Daniel shoved Eli in the mud years earlier when he asked for money. No bystanders to grab him. No son he must consider. No business to build. No community to woo. No “civilization” he must abide. Needless to say, he goes absolutely off-the-rails, head-over-heels, batshit crazy. And what better way to viscerally convey madness than with a jarringly lunatic ending featuring a truly horrifying murder with a bowling pin? The bizarreness of Daniel and Eli’s fight in the indoor bowling alley becomes a metaphor for Daniel’s cracked psyche, complete with his deceptively simple response when his unflappable butler comes to check on him. For all the damage and exploitation his fanatical drive for success has engineered, Daniel Plainview does not deserve anything resembling a triumphant or happy ending.
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