'There Will Be Blood' review by Michael Phillips

[PsychoProductions369]

Draaaaaaaaaainage :D fav line from that

[lehighmark]

i drink your milkshake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[thatcanadaguy2]

@TheJimFlow yeah i know i replied to my own comment saying i mixed him up with somone else

[JELLYSICCLE1]

There will be oil

[1234macro]

there will be pokemon

[winterstellar]

Texas??? Everything happens in California!!! : )

[bsm6776]

texas? it takes place in california

[thatcanadaguy2]

Daniel Day Lewis is Irish and he would be effended by you calling him british.

[thatcanadaguy2]

@thatcanadaguy2 srry mixed him up with another actor

[SamHain1031666]

My sister forgot to buy tampons once and i caught it on tape, that movie was also called There Will Be Blood

[SamHain1031666]

Incredible acting, incredibly boring movie, i cant enjoy films with pointless scenes and no story, id give it 3 out of 5 for the performance alone

[winginater]

@SamHain1031666 Which scenes did you think were pointless?

[SamHain1031666]

@winginater Not so much pointless, more long winded if anything. Like there will be a scene that shows teh oil diggers getting off the train, its a pointless scene and its not a short scene either. No moment springs to mind but i remember watching it thinking christ this scenes extremely long and there not really talking about anything of any particular importance. I honestly think the film could have been scaled down to maybe an hour and 50 minutes, maybe less with some good editing

[Soihurduliekmudkips]

ooo 4/4 ooooooo00o000

[786axx]

The cinematography and the music are both so powerful they almost create an entirely unique character by themselves.

[austinthebookworm5]

@786axx

yeah but the actual characters are one-sided and underwritten

[winginater]

@austinthebookworm5 ? Really? There Will Be Blood has some of the richest, most realist characters of any movie I know of. DDL's performance coupled with the incredible script make him more than just the static 1D villains that seem to have taken over modern movies, if Plainview can even be classified as a villain. I really don't see any logic behind your statement.

[austinthebookworm5]

@winginater

At the start all he cares about is money, and at the end even as he goes nuts all he cares about is money. He lacks a "rosebud"

[winginater]

@austinthebookworm5 I don't think that is entirely true, and in many ways, him and Citizen Kane are very similar. I believe he cared truly about the family connection, and some of his most bitter moments came when he felt those connections were violated, both with the con Henry Plainview, and when HW decided to leave him. Yes, it can be argued that HW was only used as a ploy, but there are certain scenes when Daniel's care for him really shows.

[austinthebookworm5]

@winginater

whatever man, No Country For Old Men was better anyhow :P

[Ichiboy900]

@winginater I think the Citizen Kane comparison was intentional, just look at the movie poster

[FromTheAbsurd]

PTA is the best filmmaker working today

[MelkorNoir]

@79kassius

I agree. This is strongly suggested by the quote "I have a competition in me, I want no one else to succeed". Especially not that twerp Eli...

[79kassius]

I didn't care for the end the first time I watched it. The second time, it felt more right. The third, it felt perfect. You just have to understand the two characters. Daniel was this hard working man, battered, bruised who never had anything easy come to him. He found riches but the only person to admire him, his son, just walked out. At the end, walks in a youthful Eli who shows little scars for his success and much as he acts innocent, he's as greedy as Daniel himself. Daniel sees past him.

[winginater]

@79kassius I agree with everything you said except that HW, "just walked out," on him. HW wanted to start something of his own, and Daniel mistook this as an act of betrayal. Daniel even said that HW had been building his hate up over the years, which I think is just untrue. This is part of the tragedy of TWBB, Daniel has trouble connecting with people, hating most of them, and this makes him very unempathetic towards HW, or any other characters.

[NYerintransit]

No worries. Day-Lewis won the gold for this role.

[dpthomas37]

everybody knows it just had to end with a bowling pin and brains on the lane.

[thefrickenfilmcritic]

LOL if he doesnt win the oscar then there will be blood. Nice.

[Jerridic42]

Just watched this movie for the first time today and fucking LOVED it!!

[kilibot]

I fucking hated this movie. I'm not the kind of ritalin-popping, Michael Bay watching dickhead, but this one was just drier than a fucking sand sandwich. Day-Lewis was enthralling but overacted the hell out of it, and subsequently dwarfed Dano, who mumbles through the whole thing. The entire second half pounds the themes into the audience's head, and by the end of the movie, you just don't really care.

[Fendertastic]

I have a competition in me... I want no one else to succeed... 

[hefnerfilms]

We just re-hired you because you actually got a movie review right. - Chicago Tribune

[Maxobillion]

Daniel Plainview is my hero!

Even though PTA doesn't think he should be. so there. :P

[ultima03]

"I'm finished"

[Izziepalooza28]

Ill just take what the somments say as the truth because I think Mr Phillips is full of shit. Simples :)

[Moviefan7359]

There Will Be Blood is a brilliant film!

[Fapsamup]

"You're a bastard from a basket!"

[SteezeWizard99]

P.T. Anderson has easily written some of the best screenplays.

[clongoram]

Peter O'Tool is Irish you idiot!

[Darean51]

everything about this movie was so good, but somehow they could have explored it all more, anyway got my eye on daniel day lewis from now on.

[DerekTheComic]

Fucking hated this movie. God-awful. The whole thing is exaggerated and over-the-top. Daniel Day-Lewis is playing the EXACT same character from "Gangs of New York," which was an equally disappointing movie. I can't stand the guy - everything he says is so melodramatic and hyperbolic that he's actually hard not to laugh at. The oil tycoon is evil??? Bwahahahahaha! No shit!!! This is horrible, boring, and not worth a minute of your time. Watch "The Assassination of Jesse James" instead.

[southrules]

@DerekTheComic

Thanks for wasting your time, the movie is great, you're a retard. Truth

[kalel0192]

Your whole view on this is so ridiculous, it obviously doesnt make sense. Did you even watch either of those movies? He played evil guys, but they have fundamental differences. One has hatred based from nationalism and other factors, the other is animosity thats based on greed and corruption from wealth. Your whole view is insulting, you didnt even consider the movie, you just wanted it to be bad.

[rockyhorror1297]

@DerekTheComic Why the hell are u here then get a life...... i drink your milkshake!!!!!!

[happyuk06]

I saw this quite recently and thought it was one hell of a film. Definitely the best I've seen in a long, long time. Daniel Day-Lewis plays the ruthless businessman better than anyone else I've seen. Five stars more like.

[soyotello]

what that fuck! 4 stars

best movie of the last years and they give it 4 stars

you people at the chicago tribune are idiots

[2505994]

@soyotello 4 stars out of 4

[Darthmonk3y]

@soyotello

dude, 4 stars is the highest.

so 4 out of 4 stars.

[Beale64]

The films climax may be a dream sequance.

[Gi1BrO]

He says that the climax doesn't come off, but he picked it as the best movie of the DEACADE

[dlh9690]

@Gi1BrO That was just his reaction after seeing it for the first time. If you watched the "At the Movies" show where he named it the #1 movie of the 2000s, he specifically mentions that he's changed his mind about the climax since this review.

[twotonguestalking713]

@Gi1BrO Sometimes, even professional critics tend to change their minds about movies.

[ckad79]

I don't know of many people, who've seen the entire movie two or three times, and don't agree with the end. The first time, it feels rushed and doesn't seem to work. The more you really let the characters sink in, the more the ending just makes sense. I hated the way it ended the first time I watched it, thought it made more sense the second, and loved it by the third. Eli had to go, for Daniel to be "finished".

[skatindayanite]

sorry this movie was horrible.i die a little inside everytime i here that name

[Sabruui1]

@skatindayanite You're just too stupid to understand it.

[skatindayanite]

@Sabruui1 nah i just found the movie unapeiling.it wasnt the fact that it was sort of silent but i found it really boring and it dragged on.im just not excited by oil well explosions or greedy oil tycoons.im a big fan of movies ill watch stuff from the cabinet of dr caligari(silent)to some of the most utterly disturbing movies like rocky horror picture show.(that tranny is in my nightmares).I took your comment seriously and saw it again.as a second opinion it wasnt so bad.still hard to sit thru

[nicky2coats]

i'm really not one to call any work of art the "best", but i can honestly say this is the best film ever made.

[mattyisaguitarhero]

I've seen this film and i have to say that it was the

BIGGEST PILE OF SHIT I'VE EVER HAD THE MISFORTUNE OF SEEING!!!.

[BigBoss1827]

WHAT!!!!!! this is one of the great movies ever made, FACT.

[AngeliaClaire]

Oh DDL SHAG ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am blond blue eyed 36c petite !25lbs you are so HOT! You are awesome! Well deserved! Your wife is so lucky! BE good to her! Just joshing about the shag, but not for sure!;)

[madzikud02]

@AngeliaClaire shag me im ready

[Suqatish]

You're the biggest waste of your moms life LOL.

...

Yep.

[grainofsandfan]

Phony evangelist.

An oxymoron.

[kzundiverus]

I think DDL likes the stash.

[MarkmanT69]

The movie is about Plainview, the relationships he fails to maintain, and his single-minded desire for riches. The religion vs. capitalism or vague messages about human greed are really only minor parts of the movie. In fact, the movie isn't that deep: it's basically one long character portrait without any development. But its a damn good character portrait.

[godfatherofwiseguys]

the last scene shows how he deals with his son leaving him. he goes to his imagination to find comfort. by showing it again to Eli. only this time, Eli is just a fragment of his imagination. and Plainview never changes. that's a beautiful Tragedy told by PT Anderson. i think it's the best film this decade. the music inst a flaw too, it's shows Plainviews mood.

[taurusinfatuation]

By literary standards, this is not a tragedy. It's a comedy.

[leostoltoy]

Thanks for this view of the film. I had thought Plainview really did just use his son to drum up business and didn't love him. Your take makes a lot of sense though - I'll have to watch the movie again with this interpretation in mind.

[godfatherofwiseguys]

thanks for appreciating my opinion on the film. but you know, your opinion isnt neccesarily wrong. it depends on what make sense to you when you watch the film. my opinion is based on what made sense to me when i saw it the second time. i think that's one of the beauty of the film. you see it in any other way.

[CMink7777]

Thats an insight I never thought of before.....Eli not being real in the final scene. It makes perfect sense though. His frustration with Eli's real desire for money over the years despite his fake front mixed with the emotions of how he treated his son, his son leaving, and alcoholism combined

[godfatherofwiseguys]

this film isnt really about Plainview Vs. Eli.

For me, the film is about Plainview. A complicated man who loves two things, money, and his son. besides those two, he hates everyone else. and in the end this is a tragedy because when he gets the "oil", he loses his son. he chose greed rather than his son, but deep down, he loves his son. the scene where HW gets deaf shows it. and when Plainview doesnt know how to deal wth his problems, he shows his frustrations at Eli.

[Sweetheart45745]

I didn't really get into this movie. It's great to look at, and Lewis is magnificent, but when you get down to it, it's two and a half hours devoted to chronicling the life of one of the worst human beings imaginable. I also missed the usual visual wit and style PT Anderson puts into his movies. As far as this review is concerned, how this one got four stars and "No Country For Old Men" got three and a half is beyond me.

[momokid100]

because it's michael phillips opinion and he can give whatever film how many stars he wants to. And There Will Be Blood is far superior to No Country For Old Men in my honest opinion.

[huckstered]

I completely agree. While both were

about greed a drug fueled human killing machine isn't food for thought.

[taurusinfatuation]

You're right on: it chronicles one of the worst human beings imaginable. Now take a look in the mirror. Anderson is saying that that is exactly what humanity has become: inhuman beyond imagination.

[mariob80]

@Sweetheart45745 ditto

[GoWithTh3Flow]

If your up against DDL in the Oscars, good luck haha. The guy is a living legend.

[huckstered]

He is a great actor.

[detriplea]

I WILL NOT ABSCONDER THIS MOVIE.

[GrassBootsReady]

i cried when the phoney preacher kid made daniel day lewis get on his knees and say I've abandonded my child.. cause that was supposed to be hard and I know he wanted to kill that guy right there... fuck church people..

[corbin0688]

i think your not getting the point that Eli isnt exactly "Church people". He's just a greedy as Daniel is.

[GoWithTh3Flow]

Exactly. He was a "false prophet"

[taurusinfatuation]

The substance of his character is in that Anderson conveys a sort of universality of that greed through Eli, not to cast judgment or distinguish archetypes.

[taurusinfatuation]

You should be saying "fuck people." That's the objective of this film: to communicate the contingencies of greed that are in every corner of human behavior.

[kdixon7783]

Daniel Plainview was a beast.

[DCKar2nist]

that he was

[IansUnknownArt]

Its a slow starter

[weepingson]

wow 4 stars it deserves it. I wasnt so so thrilled with the movie but i have such high regard for ddl now and the most brilliant acting i have ever seen.

[etmadness1]

Daniel Day-Lewis is the shit. He's such a great actor.

[Jovian84]

I loved the ending it was awesome

[TheConciseStatement]

It's a real audience divider that ending but I liked it.

In fact it was a stark shift in tone that worked for me, as opposed to the one in Best Film winner, No Country For Old Men's ending. Satire and humiliation is at least set up earlier on in this film, whereas No Country's leap into abstraction was an arthouse too far for me.

[bten132]

Michael Phillips is one of the best if not THE BEST movie critic out there. He's hard to please, which is really how a critic should be. Anyway, I cannot put into words how much Day-Lewis deserved this second Oscar. So glad he won it. HE WAS THE FILM and made it into a pure classic. The performance of the decade by far.

[TheConciseStatement]

Yeah I'd love to see Roeper and Phelps reunite for their own show, because Phelps is a worthy successor to Ebert. Not to keen on the recent At the Movies changes.

[gjendemsjo]

indeed

[zSniperGuyz]

IMO a superior movie to No Country for Old Men, Daniel day Lewis is Extraordinary

[peanut18544]

I love the group-think on this site. Everyone's like this movie is the shit, and once it passes, everyone forgets. lol

[CineRecon]

So true, Lewis took an otherwise boring film and made it so entertaining. He literally put this movie on his shoulders.

[oxidindigo]

literally? that doesnt sound like much of a feat to me, a DVD cant weight more than a few ounces.

tee hee

[moabvfoab]

Beautiful, but I had to get up and do something in the lobby every once in a while. It didn't grab me all of the time. I thought some scenes were unessescarry, but I guess they added their touch. I dunno I was all set for a comedy that day.

[jackasspiper]

amazing acting, shit script and story, absolutely no attempt is made to keep you interested in this movie.

[Philfa]

That makes no sense. Do you need bells and whistles to hold your interest?

[thisisthegloaming]

were you even listening to the music.

[soccaboydude11]

There Will Be Blood > No Country For Old Men

By a longshot.

[josephpejovic1]

i would't say by a long shot

[popdisastertour]

You don't associate this acting with anything. This is not a film to really associate anything with. Perfect score, perfect acting, perfect cast, perfect film. five stars, bitch!

[speaknoevil2007]

This was good but AvP:R was better. Daniel Day Lewis may be a great actor but he can't compete with human psychotic, angry aliens.

[soccaboydude11]

Oh God I feel sorry for you.

[jordanschunk]

pretty sure they're kidding

[MaggieLeonard]

euhm Alien Vs. Predator was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson (Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil = Big shit films) this is Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia, Boogie Nights, Punch-Drunk Love = Masterpieces)

[Neptunion118]

when i first saw the movie, i thought it was about cowboys, and i did'nt want to see it, well i saw it and OMG it is amazing!, nothing what i thought it would be like!

[zackington]

It is out of 4 stars. Most newspaper critics use the 4 star system. So this got the highest score possible.

[Garfler]

4? lol I woulda given it 5. if it's a range from 1 to 5.

[OsvaldoPaese]

Just saw this movie this past week.

Fantastic movie.

I was expecting any less however.

It's PT Anderson. His track record is flawless.

This movie progressed marvelously into madness. I love seeing the emotions Daniel Day Lewis's character goes too. It's a bit of a tearjerker at some points.

This movie is relentless without being full of sex and violence.

Glad it was noticed.

[t0mmyb0y75]

he is right about the final sequence. a little too awkward and comical for my taste.

[mencken]

I didn't think it was comical despite laughing out loud at the milkshake- I thought it added to the sheer horror of it, and I loved it: I love it when there is no good at the end, where it not only ends meanly or horribly but also peters out and doesn't have "an ending" per se...that's an artistic statement in and of itself. I thought it was perfect: he just indicated to the butler that his morning's nastiness was done. Beautiful.

[thinkfloyd1973]

i agree. i think that the music that they played during the credits adds even more to what you were saying.

[stacydrennan]

Have you seen No Country for Old Men? If not YOU need to.

[mencken]

Yes, and I had the same reaction there. I like the Greco-Shakespearean version of drama, which is tragedy. But I'm not a complete downer about endings: I agree with Aristotle's original forward on Tragedy: there should be good endings even more than unhappy ones.

But we overdose on happy endings, so it's nice to see this as a necessary antidote to the Hollywood ending. I'm not against happy endings, I just like the contrast, so storytelling can be really dramatic. You were right about Old Men.

[sherrilina]

Yes I have--this one was MUCH better! And, ironically, less violent, despite it's bloody title!

[fekiramic]

I think there will be blood was a whole lot more impressive

[Jimmel920]

Yes, the Brahms piece just fit the mood perfectly.

[mencken]

I agree, but the earlier music made for the film (like when the first derrick blew up)was even better- the score doesn't get enough credit here in this movie.

[Jimmel920]

Yeah. Unfortunate that it was ineligible for the Best Original Soundtrack Oscar.

[mencken]

I don't know if it was that quality. I agree it was ONE of the best that year, but the best? A soundtrack that's the best of the year isn't necessarily what I was giving it props for: being good FOR THE MOVIE. Do you know what I mean? Choosing well doesn't mean fantastic music, it just means fantastic placement. Does anyone ever call you Kimmy Jimmel?

[Jimmel920]

On XBox Live yes, thousands of times. It's my initials (JML).

[Jimmel920]

On XBox Live yes, thousands of times. It's my initials (JML).

[gypsypunk333]

I agree with mencken about the milkshake comment making it more terrifying. I loved that end sequence, and it probably has the creepiest last line of any movie I've ever seen.

[mentalfive]

I have to say I'm tired of hearing people just randomly spouting out "I drink your milkshake!" I think that since this movie has so many great lines, such as "I am a false prophet, God is a superstition," that people are going to to continue to spout off these lines out of context and give others who haven't seen the movies a false preconception about such a flawless work of cinema.

[mccdh]

Can't wait to see this! :)

[slyfoxx7]

he is the best critic. look no more.