There Will Be Blood (Single Disc Edition) [2007] - Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm

An Excellent Film - Daniel Day Lewis at his best!

This is a captivating story and shows Daniel Day Lewis in one of his best roles to date. An excellent film and highly recommended.

Let there be sleep...

This has to be one of the most boring, pointless films I have seen for some time. One reviewer describes it as "an all time classic"... they should be seriously committed. A film to buy for someone you really dislike. I thought it would never end. What could have been quite an interesting storyline was completely ruined by pointless silences and over-acting.

There Will Be Blood

'There Will Be Blood' brings us Daniel Day-Lewis in a masterly performance following the life of an oil prospector and the relationships he forges and ruins. Some of the first things to strike me were how this film is beautifully directed with marvelous use of light and shadow and how the soundtrack helps keep things on edge with various percussive elements and discordant notes. But the key to this film really is Day-Lewis' performance and the whole film rests on his portrayal of Daniel Plainview, never has a film rested so strongly on one actors supreme work. This film doesn't have any real resolution, although some parts are tied up, but this looks at the overall life of this brutal and savage man as he exploits both community and nature for his gains in oil. At 2 and 1/2 hours it did begin to feel a touch long towards the end, but Day-Lewis manages to hold you captivated by his rich and in-depth performance and keeps you watching until the very end. The supporting actors play their roles well and Plainviews son was especially note-worthy. A dark tale, in both content and execution, but one that should be watched at least once to soak up it's atmosphere, acting and beautiful direction.

Pouring oil on troubled waters

Daniel Day Lewis ,s towering performance as Daniel Plainview oils( pun intended) the wheels of Paul Thomas Andersons epic film of mendacity , cruelty and greed. The film about the rise to power and wealth ( which has been compared to Citizen Kane [1942] for it depiction of an ruthless man undone buy his ambition ) of one man needed a great actor at the top of his game to make it really resonate and by gum it gets one. Day Lewis fully deserves his Oscar for he is again truly magnetically compelling as Plainview , a man who says "I want no one else to succeed," and "Hates most people".
We first see Plainview , in an audacious dialogue free fifteen minutes as a silver miner in 1898 , even after suffering from a badly injured leg from a fall staking in his claim. He is clearly a single minded determined individual. Next in 1902 he is drilling for oil where success leads to another accident the outcome of which , plays a major part in the films narrative.
Cut to 1911 , and Plainview in tow with his son H.W.( Dillon Freasier- it says a lot about Plainview that he gives his son initials instead of a name) is now a successful oil speculator buying up leases for land to drill on. Paul Sunday ,the son of a family of goat farmers brings Plainview's attention to the fact that their land has oil "Seepage" . On checking it out with H.W. in tow the Plainview operation descends on the small town of Little Boston.
Here, as he talks to the townsfolk eloquently explaining how wonderful the discovery of oil will be for their community , and what wonders it will bring -school's , roads , churches , irrigation, bread- we see how truly duplicitous and conniving Plainview really is. We know he's lying and so it would seems does Eli Sunday( Paul Dano who also played Paul which makes it bit confusing at first ) , eldest son of the family and head preacher of the church who Plainview has pledged $5000 to but clearly doesn't think he will get it.
The moment when they actually strike oil also leaves H.W. deaf . The kid is now clearly as burden and Plainview callously packs him off to a home somewhere, even going as far as to trick the poor lad into going with one of his men. He has more important things to do. Like finally lose his rag with the pompous Eli and discovering he's made an uncharacteristic oversight in his buying of the land around his wells.
Plainview ends up a bitter alcoholic rattling around in a big mansion sleeping where he drops ,still glorying in the moments where he can get one over a rival or a perceived enemy. The film , adapted from Upton Sinclair's "Oil" is multi-layered yet singular in it's message. Nothing corrupts like money and power. Even if it doesn't involve corruption in it's normal forms it corrupts the mind.... It corrupts the soul. Plainview is a man rancid with it and so good is Daniel Day Lewis( he based his character and vocal inflections on old recordings of film director John Huston) his every sleazy nuances radiates from the screen .
Even more impressively the film has great cinematography , great locations ( it was filmed in Marfa Texas with No Country For Old Men [2007] as the neighbouring production) and a startling soundtrack by Johnny Greenwood of RadioheadThere Will Be Blood OST which often sounds like something for a horror movie but at other times is stately and elegiac.
Less impressive on the single disc are the extras which basically amount to a fifteen show of stills explaining the historical backdrop to the early days of oil drilling in the U.S. Still if you want all that kind of stuff they will be available on the two disc version .As with any DVD the real draw should be the film. Modern film-making certainly doesn't get much better than There Will Be Blood.

yes its pace is slow, but it's compelling

When I saw this had a 3 star average rating, I was initially in disbelief. Granted it is slow paced at times, and i can see why it wouldn't appeal to everybody, but for me it's a gripping epic film. The plot is far from complicated, but its beauty lies in its simplicity I feel, simply reflecting the way life was back then. I don't think it purports to be anything that it isn't, either; or that Daniel Day Lewis is selfishly out for his own Oscar winning gains. The end result is a predominantly bleak film that doesn't reveal anything outstanding or new as such, but rather gives a straightforward story of that particular time in American history. Daniel day lewis puts in a dramatic and powerful performance. I enjoyed it.