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No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood discussion (spoilers!)
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Tullaryx

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 12:57 pm    Post subject: No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood discussion (s Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

This film is one of the few I have on my to-see list for the year. It stars Daniel Day-Lewis in another role which brings to mind his turn as Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York. The director of There Will Be Blood is one Paul Thomas Anderson who directed Boogie Nights and Magnolia. I thought his work in former title was great while I thought he got a tad too preachy in the latter.

In There Will Be Blood (loosely adapted from Upton Sinclair's book, Oil!) it looks like P.T. Anderson is going the Citizen Kane route with a healthy dose of Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Old Testament Bible storytelling. This movie will not be for everyone who prefer their movies to be of lighter fare and something that doesn't require one's full attention, but as Daniel Day-Lewis has shown in Gangs of New York he can make even the most tedious movie worth watching if just to see what he will do next.

There Will Be Blood trailer
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 12:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Everything I've heard about this movie is gushing about it. There hasn't been a single negative review come across my eyes. So I'm looking forward to it.

My only fear is that it won't be up to the high standard that's being shaped inside my head. Hopefully I won't be disappointed.
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Tullaryx

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 2:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Well, There Will Be Blood just made my top 3 for 2007. I wasn't fully sure about the film when I first saw it two weeks ago during an advanced screening. But seeing it again for a second time this past weekend I'm able to fully digest and absorb what I just saw to say that this film was one of the best if not the best film of 2007. It doesn't get top spot for me, but only because an even more excellent film from the Coen Brothers beat it out by a hair.

If there's a film I could compare it to in terms of themes I would say that Paul T. Anderson's There Will Be Blood came across as very Citizen Kane-ish when broken down to its most basic elements. It would be quite the crime if Daniel Day-Lewis doesn't get nominated for Best Actor for the Academy Awards. Really, he's quite the lock to win that award for that category the way Javier Bardem is the lock performance for Best Supporting Actor.
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 2:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

They aren't showing it in my pissant county yet. DAMMIT I want to see it!

I also missed No Country For Old Men. Guess I'll have to get the DVD of that one.
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 10:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

I saw it two weeks ago at the Arclight. One of my friends wanted to see it because he's a fan of Upton Sinclair and another loves Radiohead (the film is composed by Johnny Greenwood). I was just hoping it would be worth it for the 14 fucking bucks we paid for a ticket.

I have to start off by saying that you will not be disappointed by Daniel Day-Lewis's performance. He is brilliant. Don't expect a deep, involved plot though. Not a lot happens but there is a lot of intrigue and good character development. The music is very unsettling (and felt a bit out of place at times) but it was unlike anything else I've ever heard in a movie so I appreciated it in that aspect. There is a bit of humor thrown in there as well and they deliver a few surprise punches.

The only negative thing I have to say is that I absolutely hated the ending. It really depends on how you look at it though. Even though one of my friends tried to convince me otherwise, I just did not like it.

It's overall a good film and I definitely recommend it.
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 12:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

The music is often intentionally out of place in order to get you to pay attention and think about what's going on. Whereas a normal film score just reinforces what's on screen, There Will Be Blood uses it as a whole separate layer. I like the score a great deal, and the strings are similar to Toru Takematsu's film scores, especially Woman in the Dunes. Greenwood's a bit more melodic and not quite as... otherworldy sounding though.

It's a great film, though I'd have to agree with Tull that I like No Country just a little more. Both are wonderful, and I need to see them again, after I see everything else I need to see first.

And I think the ending was fantastic. What didn't you like about it Darko, the abruptness?
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 1:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

The ending for There Will Be Blood actually wasn't too surprising really. I know that for those who saw the film with me over the weekend prefer it over the last quarter of No Country for Old Men. The two films actually end up having something similar together with their endings in that they could be both seen as being apocalyptic in nature.
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 2:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Yeah, Blood at least offers the audience a climax, even if it cuts out shortly thereafter. No Country steers around such things completely. I enjoyed both, but No Country is definitely the one that caught me off-guard, and it's hard not to think, is that it?

I read an interesting article tying the rise in these snap endings lacking resolutions to anxiety about today's world. Makes sense, considering situations like Iraq, terrorism, and even the economy are about as far from resolved as can be.
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 2:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Yeah, I suppose it was the abruptness of it. It caught me completely by surprise. (Spoilerage ahead)I mean, he was chasing the 'fallen priest' around and I was laughing, thinking he was just going to screw with him a little and the BAM he starts bashing him upside the head with the bowling pin. This ended up changing my thoughts on Plainview greatly. Whereas before I only pitied him and the way his life continued its downward spiral into emptiness, after that scene I found myself hating him a little. Sure, the priest was a complete hack but I don't think he deserved to be murdered like that.

I think I might find myself liking it a little more if I saw it again. I'd be prepared for it at least! ;)
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 3:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

I actually thought the ending for There Will Be Blood just reinforced what I thought of Plainview. That's the trick, or I should say point, of the first two-thirds of the film. It lulls the audience in falling under Plainview's huckster charm. Everyone knows they shouldn't sympathize with him for any reason, but the audience does anyway thinking the film will either redeem or, at the very least, bring him low for his hubris. What he does in the end just lifts up the mask he's shown for most of the story and we see Plainview for what he really is.

I know some people who thought the ending just too different from the tone of the rest of the film. How it almost became an about-face from what was being told for most of the film. It almost seems like what was such a film almost biblical in nature suddenly becomes a Scorcese mob picture. Like No Country for Old Men if the audience sees the film literally the ending would be confusing, if not a disappointment.

I think that's what I liked about There Will Be Blood. While I'm sure PT Anderson didn't know what the Coen Brothers were going to be about with No Country for Old Men his film does hit on the inevitability of life and death and how people really have no control over it. Things could end at any moment and never in the way we want them to be. Anderson just goes about it in a less maverick way than the Coen Brothers did with their ending. An ending which I thought was audacious and didn't pander to the idea that audiences weren't smart enough to understand what their film was all about.

I think if there was some sort of clear resolution to No Country for Old Men the film would be quite diminished in its impact. Cormac McCarthy was saying something about the inevitable slide of civilization towards its end and nothing anyone does will stop it from happening.

I'll be changing the topic title to discuss not just There Will Be Blood but also No Country for Old Men to make things easier to reference.
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 3:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Well, I have not yet seen There Will Be Blood, but after a bit of discussion about No Country For Old Men with Tull in IRC, I was encouraged to post up a few thoughts here.

- Bardem is terrifying as Chigurh. Those who are going to give him his academy award should grovel at his feet for the honour. He also has a very, very bad haircut in the film. I'm sure that was the point, but it was hard for me to deal with.

- Of particular interest to me is how absolutely pointless the actions of everyone in the film will ultimately prove. Moss is unable to escape, and his wife pays the price as well. Chigurh doesn't seem particularly interested in the money, and kills the people who hired him in the first place. Bell simply quits. It's also seen in the various murders that Chigurh commits, besides those which actually pertain to his mission. The only person who survived an encounter with the man was the gas station attendant, who did so purely on random chance. This was the biggest impact of the film for me, and is really what made the movie.

- The ending to the film definitely caught me off guard. I'm not sure whether I liked it or not. Obviously, the ending was intended by McCarthy to make a point, and I understand it survived its translation to the screen relatively intact. From a literal 'this is a movie' standpoint, the ending was very frustrating, but the unexpectedness of it actually made me like it quite a bit more.

Incidentally, I really wanted to see There Will Be Blood, but of course, the only theater showing it in my "vicinity" is still two hours and expensive parking away, on top of an expensive ticket...this means I'll just have to wait for the DVD. Disappointing, but I'll see it eventually.
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 1:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Parallax wrote:
- Of particular interest to me is how absolutely pointless the actions of everyone in the film will ultimately prove. Moss is unable to escape, and his wife pays the price as well. Chigurh doesn't seem particularly interested in the money, and kills the people who hired him in the first place. Bell simply quits. It's also seen in the various murders that Chigurh commits, besides those which actually pertain to his mission. The only person who survived an encounter with the man was the gas station attendant, who did so purely on random chance. This was the biggest impact of the film for me, and is really what made the movie.


Which ties in directly to the ending. Some people think the ending was really when Llewelyn Moss was killed, but I always thought Llewelyn Moss' story was just part of the greater scheme of things in the film. In the end, it was just an example of how the world was changing and how Ed Tom Bell was powerless to deal with it let alone have to try and prevent it.

That's where the Coen Brothers did McCarthy's novel a great service by not shying away from using the awkwardness of Moss' death. They could easily have tried to make it more accessible and palatable to the audience, but instead they stuck to the themes and vision of McCarthy's book even if it meant alienating audiences who were more used to being handheld to happy endings, or at the very least endings with a satisfying conclusion.
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 3:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Yes, absolutely. We should all be glad that the film kept faithfully to the book, because to change the ending would have gutted it, in my opinion. Without some meaning behind the events of the film, it's basically just a thriller / action movie with a very creepy villain.

I think the Coen Brothers recognized that though, and they were a very good choice to direct this particular adaptation.
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 3:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Did you notice how there was barely any sort of soundtrack in the movie. It took me until the movie was pretty much over to realize the whole time there wasn't any sort of musical cues.
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 7:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Yeah. I noticed sometime during the film, too. It's another thing that I think contributes to the gritty 'statement' aspect of the film. Many movies are made purely for the purposes of entertainment, but this one has an ulterior motive as well. I think the lack of a rousing musical score to remind our subconscious of how we should be feeling and let us discover things for ourselves was a nice touch.
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