DRAMA & COMEDY

The Dramedy Club is where you will find mostly mainstream comedies and dramas. In other words... Here you will find some drama for yo mamma and some comedy for yo daddy!

“THERE WILL BE BLOOD” (2007)

Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Dillon Freasier, Kevin J. O’Connor, David Willis & Russell Harvard
Written by Paul Thomas Anderson (screenplay) & Upton Sinclair (novel “Oil!”)
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

Polly Staffle Rating: *

The proverb “Blood is thicker than water” is normally interpreted as those whom you are related to are more important than any other individuals in your life. In actuality, the blood means nothing. It’s the family bond, even if it’s via friendship, marriage or adoption, that makes the statement hold water. A better explanation for the statement would be human life takes priority over everything else. Of course, most people haven’t learned and don’t abide by either interpretation.

Daniel Plainview in “There Will Be Blood” is a perfect example. He, like many of our political leaders, feels oil is thicker than blood. In his eyes, nothing is more important than making money. People are but morons that live above rivers of oil that are waiting to be gotten. Sons and brothers are but props to help convince the morons that his intentions are good, so he can rob them blind in plain view with their permission. Plainview knows nothing of family. He knows nothing of the importance of human life. In his eyes, blood is to be spilt, not to be cherished.

In the film’s opening scene, Plainview is alone, mining in a deep, dark hole. He ends up breaking his leg just before finding gold and then pulls himself up and drags himself to cash in his find. It’s at that moment, a whole five minutes or so into the movie, that the film could have ended. We at that point know everything we need to know about this character. One, he doesn’t play it safe. Two, he doesn’t ask for help because he doesn’t want to share with anyone. Three, nothing, not even his own wellbeing is more important than cash-money-dollar-bills. Plainview carries on this way for two hours and never learns a lesson for his horrible actions. This rich asshole shows up unexpectedly at a poor farm and demands goat milk and bread. Okay, that’s not his worst sin. He also robs a few people, commits child abuse, emotionally scars a few people, screws over business associates, kills a few people, suffers no consequences, feels no regret and then the film ends.

This is the great Paul Thomas Anderson masterpiece everyone has been praising? Am I the only one that doesn’t get what the hype is about? A better name for this film is “May Cause Drowsiness.” I was bored with this movie. I had to fight myself from falling asleep. Like I said, the film could have ended after the first five minutes. It’s as if Plainview sells his soul to the devil in that scene and the rest of the film revovles around him reaping the benefits and pulling all those around him down. He’s a greedy, grumpy, miserable, obsessive little freak with not a single redeeming quality.

He’s an unlovable, ungrateful loser that says things like: “I want no one else to succeed,” “I hate most people,” “One night, I’m gonna come inside your house, wherever you’re sleeping, and I’m gonna cut your throat,” “I’m going to bury you underground,” and “I told you I was going to eat you!” He’s like Howard Hughes without any of his good qualities or his playboy charm. Sure, Daniel Day-Lewis plays the part well, mixing Borat with Sean Connery and Clint Eastwood, but who the hell wants to watch a convincing performance of a greedy, grumpy, miserable, obsessive little freak for two hours?

There’s no curve to the character. “Scarface” pulled it off with an even longer runtime because we see the rise and fall of its greedy, grumpy, miserable, obsessive little freak. Tony Montana slowly builds his way to the top and then has it all come crashing down on him. Nothing crashes down on Plainview. In fact, if anything this monster grows more obscene as “There Will Be Blood” goes on. We are even treated to his ugliest moment in the film’s finale. Paul Thomas Anderson tries to play the scene for laughs, but fails miserably in my book.

All of the characters of “There Will Be Blood” are not as loathsome. Plainview’s son H.W. - yep, Dubya - (Dillon Freasier), the evangelical reverend Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) and Plainview’s alleged long lost “brother from another mother” Henry Brands (Kevin J. O’Connor) come and go through the film offering a tad bit of humanitarian characteristics and potential interesting plotlines. A good film would have developed the relationships between Plainview and these three, while “There Will Be Blood” has it’s greedy, grumpy, miserable, obsessive little freak backstab them, make fun of them and then some.

Okay, so maybe that’s the point of this film. Well, I could care less. If I wanted to be miserable, I would have drank motor oil to wash down a bite of my brother’s boudain sandwich. Lost you on that one, didn’t I? Well, see, Daniel Plainview is the kind of guy that will drink your milkshake when you’re not looking. I’ll admit I was once that type of guy in my younger years. I may have taken a bite out of my brother’s boudain sandwich once. Yes, I once put a taste of a Cajun sausage sandwich over my relationship with my brother. You see, he used the last of the boudain and I was terribly hungry. Not to mention I really love boudain sandwiches. So I ate part of his sandwich when he turned his back.

But I paid for my sin. My brother went absolutely insane for about 30 seconds. He grabbed the boudain sandwich threw it on the floor, stomped it and went Gary Oldman in “The Professional” on my ass. My brother was pissed. Of course, we laugh about it today as his reaction was a tad over the top, but at the same time I learned two valuable lessons - never eat another man’s boudain sandwich and blood is thicker than boudain. You see, boudain sandwiches will come and go, but my brother will always be my brother and I will always be his, so no grudges have been held by either of us. These are lessons Plainview never learns in “There Will Be Blood.” Had he grew up with an older brother, maybe he would have. Then this movie would have been a little better.

While I’m on the subject of my brother, he happens to like this movie. Ironically, I remember when Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Boogie Nights” came out; my bother hated it and I loved it. My brother said it was “a miserable movie about miserable people.” I’ve always felt it was a perfectly structured film, showing the rise and fall of the fictitious Dirk Diggler and a band of interesting characters in the adult film industry during the late seventies and early eighties. “Boogie Nights” is a masterpiece. “There Will Be Blood” is no “Boogie Nights.” Daniel Plainview is no Dirk Diggler. Simply put, “There Will Be Blood” is a miserable movie about a miserable guy that will not only steal a bite of your boudain sandwich when you’re not looking, he’ll eat the whole damn thing and then bash your brains in.

- CCF, February 2008