THERE WILL BE BLOOD: This Is How An Epic Should Be Made

Cinemanyak Rating: 9.0/10
IMDB Rating: 8.8/10
Tomatometer: 91%
Rotten Tomatoes Critics' Rating: 8.3/10
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Awards and Accomplishments:
Nominated for Best Picture, 2008 Oscar Awards
Nominated for Best Direction, 2008 Oscar Awards
Best Actor (Daniel Day Lewis), 2008 Oscar Awards
Best Cinematography, 2008 Oscar Awards
Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, 2008 Oscar Awards
Nominated for Best Picture, Berlin Film Festival
Nominated for Best Picture, 2008 Golden Globes
Best Actor, 2008 Golden Globes
Best Actor, 2008 Screen Actors Guild Awards

2 hours and 45 minutes. Extreme production design. Heavy screenplay. Eye candy cinematography. World class acting -- all the ingredients for an epic are in There Will Be Blood. The great thing with the movie is that they have just put in the right amount of each: not too sweet yet not to sour.

Touching a very timely and sensitive topic -- Oil -- the film brilliantly showed how people fight for black gold in the 19th century. Paul Thomas Anderson intriguingly held information during the film that it keeps you guessing and awake the whole time. "How will this film end?". This is how an epic should be done. Dramatic, yet interesting. Heavy, yet fulfilling at the end. Critics say that this is the best film of the year, or even a decade. I seem to agree, by not abosolutely.

Daniel Day Lewis is amazing! He was able to hold his character from beginning til end, and was able to manage the drastic tansformations of "Daniel Plainview" in the middle -- from the charismatic oil-man to a repentant christian, from a good father to a cold-hearted dad, from a businessman in the right mind to a tycoon murderer.

"Set in the early 20th century, the film follows the rise to power of Daniel Plainview -- a charismatic and ruthless oil prospector, driven to succeed by his intense hatred of others and psychological need to see any and all competitors fail. When he learns of oil-rich land in California that can be bought cheaply, he moves his operation there and begins manipulating and exploiting the local landowners into selling him their property. Using his young adopted son H.W. to project the image of a caring family man, Plainview gains the cooperation of almost all the locals with lofty promises to build schools and cultivate the land to make their community flourish. Over time, Plainview's gradual accumulation of wealth and power causes his true self to surface, and he begins to slowly alienate himself from everyone in his life." (written by Denny Gibbons)

An Oscar favourite, There Will Be Blood got the most nominations this year.