Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
THERE WILL BE BLOOD - 2-DISC EDITION (DVD MOVIE)

Amazon.com:
Unmistakably a shot at greatness, Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood succeeds in wild, explosive ways. The film digs into nothing less than the sources of peculiarly American kinds of ambition, corruption, and industry--and makes exhilarating cinema from it all. Although inspired by Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel Oil!, Anderson has crafted his own take on the material, focusing on a black-eyed, self-made oilman named Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), whose voracious appetite for oil turns him into a California tycoon in the early years of the 20th century. The early reels are a mesmerizing look at the getting of oil from the ground, an intensely physical process that later broadens into Plainview's equally indomitable urge to control land and power. Curious, diverting episodes accumulate during Plainview's rise: a mighty derrick fire (a bravura opportunity that Anderson, with the aid of cinematographer Robert Elswit, does not fail to meet), a visit from a long-lost brother (Kevin J. O'Connor), the ongoing involvement of Plainview's poker-faced adoptive son (Dillon Freasier). As the film progresses, it gravitates toward Plainview's rivalry with the local representative of God, a preacher named Eli Sunday (brimstone-spitting Paul Dano); religion and capitalism are thus presented not so much as opposing forces but as two sides of the same coin. And the worm in the apple here is less man's greed than his vanity. Anderson's offbeat take on all this--exemplified by the astonishing musical score by Jonny Greenwood--occasionally threatens to break the film apart, but even when it founders, it excites. As for Daniel Day-Lewis, his performance is Olivier-like in its grand scope and its attention to details of behavior; Plainview speaks in the rum-rich voice of John Huston, and squints with the wariness of Walter Huston. It's a fearsome performance, and the engine behind the film's relentless power. --Robert Horton

Rating : - COULDN'T QUITE "DRINK.IT.UP."
Paul Thomas Anderson films always leave me feeling a little empty by the ending. I've never known how to feel about him as a director, but in my eyes, he takes a lot of elements in all of his movies, builds a stack of emotional and poignant moments, and then sort of halfasses it onto film. Just my opinion. Usually, by the end of the movie, I'm baffled. Like, what the hell was the point? BUT then, next thing you know, it's 3am, and I'm laying in bed, still thinking about it.
THERE WILL BE BLOOD, is pretty much in the same element. I am not quite sure what the overall point of this movie was, and I can't say that there was very much here in the way of character OR story development througthout this entire film. It's almost like, a near three hour stack of what COULD be emotional or poignant moments, somehow lined up in a row, but missing alot of the glue that would hold them together. There is almost a real conflict between Daniel Plainview and Eli Sunday, but not quite. There is almost a story about greed and hatred, but not really. There is almost a story about the ways of the oil industry in turn of the century America...but not exactly.
STILL... Daniel Day Lewis manages to be brilliant at the role. He is at his best as a guy you hate, but admire at the same time. Of course, he did it better when he was Bill The Butcher in Gangs Of New York... but he doesn't slag here at all... even if the overall film itself does. The movie has some excellent dialougue... in fact, I can easily say that the words spoken in the very last scene, may go down as some of my favorite words ever spoken in film, although a little bit bizarre. There were other memorable scenes in the movie too, that were either freakishly weird, or laugh out loud funny.. but...
Basically, I feel that this movie could have been great, had there been a little more in the way of character development, or conflict development. It just wasn't quite there... and thats a shame, because there were a lot of good scenes, and Paul Thomas Anderson ended it on a very Stanley Kubrick-ish type vibe, that I enjoyed... but there were a lot of holes that I just couldn't ignore... I don't care if you call it art or not, to me it was more like careless editing. I'm gonna give it a five, only because it's worth seeing for Daniel Day Lewis' superb character acting. The rest of it, I sort of felt like I wanted to mark up with a red pen.