There Will Be Blood (2007)

Welcome to In The Balcony. We hope you enjoy your visit.

You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Plus, you'll be eligible for the monthly $1 million prize. (Not really.)

Join our community!

If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

There Will Be Blood (2007); Best of 2007
Topic Started: Jan 26 2008, 10:38 PM (376 Views)
Ignatz Ratzkywatzky	Jan 26 2008, 10:38 PM Post #1
Charter Member Posts: 750 Group: Members Member #28 Joined: September 5, 2005	I watched the best film of 2007 today--THERE WILL BE BLOOD. I've liked all of Paul Thomas Anderson's films, but this is his most ambitious and finest work. It's an epic, but it's also a character study, and it works on both levels due to the fine work of Anderson, Daniel Day Lewis, and composer Jonny Greenwood. Don't let the 158 minute running time dissuade you from seeing it in a theater. The film flew by for me, and I didn't want it to end. I kept thinking throughout that this is exactly the type of film that Kubrick would have made if he had attempted a Western.
	Read reviews, news, and features from the world of soused cinema at "Booze Movies: The 100 Proof Film Guide." http://boozemovies.com/


riddlerider	Jan 29 2008, 05:36 PM Post #2
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 799 Group: Members Member #68 Joined: November 26, 2005	Ignatz Ratzkywatzky Jan 26 2008, 10:38 PM I watched the best film of 2007 today--THERE WILL BE BLOOD. I watched the most overrated film of 2007 today -- THERE WILL BE BLOOD. There's lots of good stuff, I admit, but overall I'd describe the movie as a potential CITIZEN KANE gone wrong. I thought the denouement, particularly, was poorly staged and a classic example of a director letting the actors run wild. But then, I've never liked Anderson's films, with the exception of BOOGIE NIGHTS. I never forgave him for the it's-raining-frogs sequence in MAGNOLIA, a pretentious piece of cheese if ever I smelled one.



Laughing Gravy	Jan 29 2008, 07:58 PM Post #3
Revered in the UK Posts: 11,069 Group: Admin Member #1 Joined: August 31, 2005	L I love his films, even the rain of frogs. Haven't seen the new one yet. I just got off the phone with Honorable Son #2, Bone Gravy, in NY where he's a film student. He's seen all five of the Oscar nominees, and proclaimed Atonement the best, Michael Clayton the weakest, and "I would've loved No Country for Old Men if it weren't so damn depressing." There you have it, movie fans, from a Generation Z Gravy.



Laughing Gravy	Apr 13 2008, 06:07 AM Post #4
Revered in the UK Posts: 11,069 Group: Admin Member #1 Joined: August 31, 2005	Finally saw this last night. I thought it was a powerful and engrossing film. Daniel Day Lewis (Oscar winner) is Daniel Plainview, whose rise as an oil baron is fueled by his utter ruthlessness. His descent into madness is not so much a change in personality as a flaking away of the fake gold leaf that covered the rotten soul within. The film has most of writer/director's Paul Thomas Anderson's usual quirkiness but few of his usual conceits, although again he's dealing with major father issues. Also, I've never seen a film of 2 hours and 40 minutes that sped by so quickly; there isn't a dull scene in it, and -- reminiscent of The Godfather -- there are set pieces dotted throughout it that will make this film enjoyable to rewatch. Many of these scenes deal with the relationship between Plainview and the young preacher, Eli Sunday. The ending is shocking and brutal, but hey, the film is called "There Will Be Blood", isn't it?



Sgt King	Apr 14 2008, 03:55 PM Post #5
Charter Member Posts: 371 Group: Members Member #29 Joined: September 5, 2005	"No Country For Old Men" easily gets my vote over "There Will Be Blood."



riddlerider	Apr 15 2008, 06:34 PM Post #6
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 799 Group: Members Member #68 Joined: November 26, 2005	Sgt King Apr 14 2008, 03:55 PM "No Country For Old Men" easily gets my vote over "There Will Be Blood." I'm with you, Sarge.



Ignatz Ratzkywatzky	Apr 15 2008, 07:03 PM Post #7
Charter Member Posts: 750 Group: Members Member #28 Joined: September 5, 2005	THERE WILL BE BLOOD drinks NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN's milkshake. Sorry, I had to say it. That said, I liked NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, including the controversial ending. It was easily the Coen's best film since OH BROTHER WHERE ART THOU, but I don't think I'd rank it in the top five of the Coen Bros' movies. Of course, film criticism is opinion. What gets someone in the gut, will leave another cold. And THERE WILL BE BLOOD is definitely not a film for everyone. But for me, it got me in the gut. I don't think I obsessed about any film as much last year, repeatedly replaying scenes in my mind. The film was simply written in the tune of my head.
	Read reviews, news, and features from the world of soused cinema at "Booze Movies: The 100 Proof Film Guide." http://boozemovies.com/


Sgt King	Apr 16 2008, 02:02 PM Post #8
Charter Member Posts: 371 Group: Members Member #29 Joined: September 5, 2005	Speaking of Oscar worthy films - I took my wife to see "The English Patient" after it won best picture oscar. I kept waiting for something . . .anything! to happen and finally something good did happen: it ended!



Ignatz Ratzkywatzky	Apr 16 2008, 05:38 PM Post #9
Charter Member Posts: 750 Group: Members Member #28 Joined: September 5, 2005	Sgt King Apr 16 2008, 02:02 PM Speaking of Oscar worthy films - I took my wife to see "The English Patient" after it won best picture oscar. I kept waiting for something . . .anything! to happen and finally something good did happen: it ended! I'll agree with you wholeheartedly on that one, Sarge. I found THE ENGLISH PATIENT extremely overrated.
	Read reviews, news, and features from the world of soused cinema at "Booze Movies: The 100 Proof Film Guide." http://boozemovies.com/


Bonga	Apr 20 2008, 06:52 AM Post #10
Charter Member Posts: 109 Group: Members Member #19 Joined: September 4, 2005	My experience of these two films wa different than Iggy's. I only sorta-liked No Country when I saw it, but it was the one that stayed with me and grew in my memory the way good films do. (Actually, I saw this on a double bill with American Gangster: a rare Josh-Brolin-Shoots-The-Dog double feature). I wanted to like THere Will Be Blood more, and was ready to, but for all its virtuosity, it was limited to what was there on screen; it hasn't grown for me beyond the admittedly powerful parable that I walked out of the theater with. Both films are directed superbly and have sequences and individual shots that could become film-school staples. They need not be compared with one another simply because they were leading Oscar contenders of the same year--they are both excellently conceived and executed films. I had no problem with the ending of There Will Be Blood; it had a touch of the quirkiness that the Coen Brothers excell at (and sometimes get carried away wtih) and which is a hallmark of real life. And for all the deserved attention on Day-Lewis's performance, an essentail feature of the film is the score, which counterpoints the barren landscapes and low-light scenes with a brooding eerieness that creates a compelling sense of forboding--(a quality that The English Patient could have used more of).



Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer	Nov 1 2008, 07:31 PM Post #11
Balconeer Creeper Posts: 14,168 Group: Members Member #244 Joined: July 6, 2007	I saw this tonight and I remembered this thread being here but I only recalled that Gravy and Ignatz liked it and riddlerider didn't. I was engrossed in the film the entire time. I enjoyed the angle of the egomaniacal Lewis and the zealous preacher. The film cou;d've easily been titled Citizen Oil Driller.
	"She's got style, she's got grace She's got long, long legs, she's got... Savoir Faire"


MovieLover12	Apr 29 2009, 10:57 AM Post #12
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 3,895 Group: Members Member #531 Joined: July 29, 2008	Having got this weeks ago, I forgot to put here how much I liked it. Daniel Day Lewis is fantastic and the ending is just magnificent, the way he killed that young lad in his bowling alley. For me, it also shows an older version of a modern problem: greed in our industries.


« Previous Topic · Nouvelle Balcony · Next Topic »