I am an oil man
I Just saw PT Anderson's new movie "There Will Be Blood" last night at a special early Castro theatre benefit screening. It's one of those movies I have to let sink in a bit more before I can present the best review of it, but so far I respect and admire it more than I love it. It's a very bleak and pitch-black epic about a diabolical oil man(played by Daniel Day-Lewis), and his destructive rampage through the people and landscape of California. He's a vile monster in many ways, but, also sympathetic and fascinating, and the same goes for the wormy charlatan preacher he comes up against. Everyone talks like, well, a character from a melodramatic 19th century play or novel, which makes sense, as it was adapted from Upton Sinclair's sensationalistic-sounding novel "Oil!".The score is odd and intense, the cinematography is gorgeous, and the acting is also flawless, but I need to think about the movie some more before I can give a coherent verdict, as it feels like a kick in the head. I won't spoil the ending, as the movie actually isn't coming out until late december, but Daniel Day-Lewis' closing lines will probably be the most quoted dialogue of the year, and I came out of the film feeling exhausted, horrified, but also a bit exhilarated.