There Will Be Blood

My epic quest to see more movies continuums.

This is, in effect, a two and a half hour character study. Daniel Day Lewis
plays Daniel Plainview, a prospecter turned oil driller, and tells the tale of
his life and struggle to make it big in the oil business in the late nineteenth
and early twentieth century. Starts in 1898 when he's a poor silver prospector,
and takes us up to about 1927.

Essentially, we're watching Daniel Day Lewis the whole time. Other characters
come and they go, but it's his show with no challengers. You could see it
working on stage as a one man show.

It's ambitious, it's long, it's weak in places because of this ambition, but
Daniel Day Lewis carries it through. It's him we're here to see, and he
delivers.

Cinematically, it reminds me a lot of Once Upon A Time In The West. There's a
lot of long, still shots, in which nothing much happens but the desert dust
blowing around. The thing has a hypnotic quality, and you can just sit back and
let it flow over you.

I usually feel that if a film's going to go over 120 minutes, it has to be
something special. This is. Recommended.