There Will Be Blood

Thank the stars above we have the Academy and the critics or I just may not have noticed THERE WILL BE BLOOD was a "modern masterpiece". Nope, would have sailed right over my fucking head and off into the sunset.....but let me be clear...I've have a love/hate relationship with Paul Thomas Anderson's films. I loved PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE and BOOGIE NIGHTS, absolutely hated MAGNOLIA which I can see in the movie pile which means I'll have to sit through it again soon......perhaps I'll like it better this time....who knows. What I do know is THERE WILL BE BLOOD is a film with some serious flaws and the worst of them is the score. Call me daft but I'm of the school which states the music is there to compliment the work not dominate it and the case here is the worst example of the latter I've ever had the misfortune of encountering. It is so in your face it almost breaks the fourth wall and for the life of me I have no idea why Anderson did this...it serves no purpose and it does ruin the movie....a movie which I quite enjoyed and would have loved if it were not for this. Then we have Daniel Day-Lewis. He has always struck me as an actor who like to push his personal boundaries and deliver characters entirely different from any he has tackled before. With Daniel Plainview I swear we are looking at the genesis of Bill "The Butcher" Cutting and if the time frames weren't off it would make for some interesting speculation. Make no mistake, his performance here is great and he shoulders the whole film, point is we've seen him do this before and I gather it will cost him the Oscar this year. Another thing about this character is you are supposed to dislike him and think him obsessed and mad and to me he was in fact the only decent and sane member of the whole lot! There are other problems I had with THERE WILL BE BLOOD but I shan't bother to go on about them....rather I'll let you see this one for yourself because it is a must-see but it is no "modern masterpiece" which I guess brings me to my biggest complaint which is with the syndicated critics as such. When they hail this as brilliant I can't help but think they are being paid off, don't know a damn thing about film or are just plain fucking stupid...maybe all three but I must say I grow weary of it.