Movie 22: There Will Be Blood

From IMDB: The film follows the rise to power of Daniel Plainview - a charismatic and ruthless oil prospector, driven to succeed by his intense hatred of others and psychological need to see any and all competitors fail. When he learns of oil-rich land in California that can be bought cheaply, he moves his operation there and begins manipulating and exploiting the local landowners into selling him their property. Using his young adopted son H.W. to project the image of a caring family man, Plainview gains the cooperation of almost all the locals with lofty promises to build schools and cultivate the land to make their community flourish. Over time, Plainview's gradual accumulation of wealth and power causes his true self to surface, and he begins to slowly alienate himself from everyone in his life

Thank you Denny Gibbons, you saved me typing a bunch.

So yes, oil. It’s actually quite interesting that through the first half of the movie you basically see the evolution of drilling technology and methods of getting oil out of the ground. Everything I know I’ve learned from movies, so now I know a bit of that. And about 50 years later you’ve got the big assed offshore rigs that I can see if I go down the road a bit. They don’t drill here, but they come in to be sheltered or fixed.

Daniel Day-Lewis plays the main character, Jeremiah Q Crazypants. He starts off seeming like quite a nice guy, talking about how important family is with his (not really) son in tow. Over the course of the film the fact that he’s a bubbling bowl of constant rage and sociopathic tendencies comes to the fore. Quite a performance from Day-Lewis as usual, with a specially tailored dialect and accent to fit the period and some mannerisms reflecting the hard life that the character has had physically.

The one character I was surprised DIDN’T go any more mental was Eli, the local preacher, who seems to be a bit of an early televangelist and faith healer. I fully expect that by the end of the film Eli would be standing in a room full of people mowing them down with a tommy gun and yelling how Jesus was in the bullets. Turns out he’s just a crazy religious guy. Hope that wasn’t much of a spoiler.

This is an entertaining movie, very well shot, well acted, well scripted. Possibly a little bit too long but I’m not sure what exactly could be trimmed. But be careful, because it will drink your milkshake. DRINK IT RIGHT UP!!!!

You’ll get that if you’ve seen it.

SLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURP.