Film Review Vault: There Will Be Blood

Film: There Will Be Blood

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 92%
Award: Won 2 Oscars (Best Actor, Best Cinematography)
Wikipedia
IMDB

Coop's Take: There are few actors working today that truly capture the screen; Daniel Day Lewis is certainly one of those special talents. In a time where most movies aim for big action and fluff, every so often a film comes along that heightens the art to a level worthy of its history and its potential as a medium for story-telling, for expression. There Will Be Blood is a great achievement by Paul Thomas Anderson & Co. It's definitely on my top 3 for 2007 (and ahead of No Country for Old Men).

2007 was a good year for film: No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Once, Sweeney Todd, Into the Wild, Juno, King of Kong and a handful of others (Breach, American Gangster, Sicko). I'll have to look back to see if I already completed my Top 10 for 2007 (I usually wait to see movies on video--unless we're talking about a film like Iron Man; I think my next post will be to start building my Top 10 list for 2008)

Favorite Acting Scene: The bowling alley scene where DD Lewis puts on an absolute clinic in acting.

Trivia:

• While on location in Marfa, Texas, No Country for Old Men was the neighboring film production. One day, director Paul Thomas Anderson and his crew tested the pyrotechnical effects of the oil derrick fire, causing an enormous billowing of smoke, intruding the shot that Joel Coen and Ethan Coen were shooting. This caused them to put off filming until the next day when the smoke dissipated from view. Both this film and No Country for Old Men would eventually become the leading contenders at the Academy Awards a year and a half later.
• Anderson told Entertainment Weekly magazine that the fake oil used throughout the movie included "the stuff they put in chocolate milkshakes at McDonald's."... (more trivia)
  

Coop's Movie Rating: 9
Coop's Trailer Rating: 8

Robert Ebert's Review

Trailer

(HD version)

Charlie Rose (a look at Blood and No Country)

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A frothy Guinness to you for stopping by and another for coming back,
Stagekid