Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:18 pm Post subject: There Will be Blood, based on Sinclair's "Oil"
It sounds like Oil will have a revival since there is a movie that's coming out inspired by it. Daniel Day Lewis just got a Golden Globe for it. Here's the very last sentences (it won't ruin the book for you):
"...if men can find some way to chain the black and cruel demon...an evil Power which roams the earth, crippling the bodies of men and women, and luring the nations to destruction by visions of unearned wealth, and the opportunity to enslave and exploit labor."
It talks about the early days of the oil age in California. There were fortunes made and dark things going on. The opening of the book is particularly powerful. In 1912 an oil man and his son are riding a strip of concrete over mountains at 50 mph. It gives you the idea of the amazing power of oil, and how it transformed the world. Great book for anyone who's interested in how it all got this way! Bunny is an entertaining young character. You see the world through his eyes.
Like other novels of it's time, Great Gatsby and Babbit, it shows us the worlds of the rich and powerful at the beginning of the oil age, with a bit of socialism to give some balance to the story.
Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 4:13 am Post subject: Film: "There Will Be Blood"
If you get a chance, this movie is excellent.
Based on an Upton Sinclair tale, it is a gritty, realist story of an early oil wildcatter in California.
Wiki wrote:
There Will Be Blood is a critically acclaimed and award-winning 2007 film inspired by Upton Sinclair's novel Oil! (1927). It stars Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano, and was written, produced and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Shooting began in mid-May 2006 in New Mexico and Marfa, Texas, with principal photography wrapping August 24, 2006. The first public screening was on September 29, 2007 at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas. The film was released on December 26, 2007, in New York and Los Angeles, and is set to open gradually in selected markets and in a limited number of theaters. Beginning January 18, 2008 the film played in the top 75 markets and in 389 theaters and opened in wide release January 25, 2008.
The film received significant critical praise and numerous award nominations and wins. In addition to appearing on many critics' "top ten" lists for the year, critics' associations – such as the National Society of Film Critics and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association – recognized There Will Be Blood with awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor. Daniel Day-Lewis received a Golden Globe for his performance, and it has been nominated for numerous AMPAS and BAFTA awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay.
The film has a powerful music score as well by Johnny Greenwood.
Let me tell you, this film has a dramatic impact of which the music is a key component.
Despite Greenwood's brilliant and original score, it has just been disqualified for Oscar nomination because the score used previous work from Arvo Part and Johannes Brahms.
I discovered Arvo Part's music last year - it's stark, austere but inspired and brilliant - and it's used to full-strength effect in this great film about the early days of oil prospecting. If you get a chance to explore the music of Arvo Part, it's a real experience. He is an Estonian Christian Orthodox composer of religious music who is able to bring combine the ancient with the modern.
Despite the glowing review of Greenwood's latest work below, he really doesn't approach the phenomenal intensity of Arvo Part and I was happy to suddenly hear Part's "Tabula Rasa" in the middle of the film.
Elisabeth Vincentelli wrote:
Guitarist Jonny Greenwood has composed a hauntingly dramatic instrumental score for Oscar nominated writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson s ambitious new film, There Will Be Blood. An adaptation of the Upton Sinclair novel Oil!, the movie features Daniel Day-Lewis in what The Hollywood Reporter has described as a powerhouse performance... it s a certain awards contender.
Greenwood s remarkable compositions, written primarily for strings, have already garnered considerable praise in advance reviews. The score resembles his rock compositions only in the level of daring and inventiveness to be found throughout these tracks and in the unsettling atmosphere he is able to conjure at key moments. Greenwood s score is more indicative of his current collaborations with the BBC Orchestra as Composer In Residence activities closely followed by Pitchfork Media and The Daily Swarm.
In fact, the score incorporates material from two orchestral pieces he created in that position, smear and Popcorn Superhet Receiver,
which will have its U.S. concert premiere this January when Greenwood appears at the Wordless Music Series in New York City.
Anderson s new work is a stark period piece filmed on arid Texas plains; critics have likened it to the brilliantly austere work of such revered directors as Stanley Kubrick and Terence Malick (Days Of Heaven). The Hollywood Reporter called Greenwood s score captivating...greatly contributing to the sense that tectonic forces lie beneath the drama.
The soundtrack to There Will Be Blood will appeal to serious movie-music fans, who will appreciate this rare find: an intelligent, beautiful and deeply cinematic orchestrated score performed by the BBC Orchestra and London Sinfonietta that can hold its own next to the classic work of such composers as Bernard Herrman, Elmer Bernstein and Ennio Morricone.
1. Open Spaces - Jonny Greenwood
2. Future Markets - Jonny Greenwood
3. Prospectors Arrive - Jonny Greenwood
4. Eat Him By His Own Light - Jonny Greenwood
5. Henry Plainview - Jonny Greenwood
6. There Will Be Blood - Jonny Greenwood
7. Oil - Jonny Greenwood
8. Proven Lands - Jonny Greenwood
9. HW/Hope Of New Fields - Jonny Greenwood
10. Stranded the Line - Jonny Greenwood
11. Prospectors Quartet - Jonny Greenwood
Joined: Apr 06, 2006 Posts: 3401 Location: 3 miles NW of Champoeg, Republic of Cascadia
Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 9:06 pm Post subject: Re: There Will be Blood, based on Sinclair's "Oil"
Anxious to see this one, too. DD-L just utterly rocked in Gangs of New York. Hear he got a little bit too much into his role, too. _________________ Cogito, ergo non satis bibivi
Could you slide your shorts down please?
Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 10:32 pm Post subject: Re: There Will be Blood, based on Sinclair's "Oil"
Only in America does a story about a poor asshole becoming a rich asshole by being a ruthless asshole to all the other poor assholes who are trying to suceed at becoming rich assholes but who lose in head to head assholism contests with the numero uno asshole . Be considered worth paying to go see.
If I want to go a see a movie whose main theme is assholes it will have blondes, redheads and brunettes with big titties too. Other than that, I can see assholes every day for free most of them kool aid drinking , suv driving , married to fat plain janes with an attitude high maintenace ho's . Along with backseats full of mouthbreathing reject children in dire need of a tasering or three.
America be an asshole or get Fark in it . God I can't wait to watch the lemmings chasing rats with spiked clubs for protein on the evening news )
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 2:31 am Post subject: Re: There Will be Blood, based on Sinclair's "Oil"
Chesire wrote:
Only in America does a story about a poor asshole becoming a rich asshole by being a ruthless asshole to all the other poor assholes who are trying to suceed at becoming rich assholes but who lose in head to head assholism contests with the numero uno asshole . Be considered worth paying to go see.
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 9:23 am Post subject: Re: There Will be Blood, based on Sinclair's "Oil"
I must be out of step with my culture because I found this movie and the other darling, No Country for Old Men to be repulsive in the final analysis. Yes, I know that evil exists in the world, but do they have to glorify it.
Oil is the better of the two pictures, but may be the sadder.
I know too much and left feeling depressed rather than enlightened by this film. Maybe the zeitgeist is evil, but I don't want to be a part of it. _________________ Deep in the mud and slime of things, even there, something sings.
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 11:43 am Post subject: Re: There Will be Blood, based on Sinclair's "Oil"
Chesire wrote:
Only in America does a story about a poor asshole becoming a rich asshole by being a ruthless asshole to all the other poor assholes who are trying to suceed at becoming rich assholes but who lose in head to head assholism contests with the numero uno asshole . Be considered worth paying to go see.
If I want to go a see a movie whose main theme is assholes it will have blondes, redheads and brunettes with big titties too. Other than that, I can see assholes every day for free most of them kool aid drinking , suv driving , married to fat plain janes with an attitude high maintenace ho's . Along with backseats full of mouthbreathing reject children in dire need of a tasering or three.
America be an asshole or get Fark in it . God I can't wait to watch the lemmings chasing rats with spiked clubs for protein on the evening news )
That is one world class rant. Can we start a thread about world-class rants? I might just do this because you have nailed rantism in it chest, right next to the jesus-hole.
Where would this thread go? 'Open Discussion' or 'House of Flames?" _________________ ree rah rip ram. sunofabitch godamn. hidey didey christ almighty. rah rah crap
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 8:13 pm Post subject: Re: There Will be Blood, based on Sinclair's "Oil"
Nice rant, Chesire!
After thinking about it, I did like the Model T's and the desert. I liked the narrow gauge railroads that they always seemed to be getting around on.
It was a movie that made you think. I guess after a few days the movie grows on you.
The depiction of the oilman as the bad guy is timely.
I guess it was worth seeing now that I've had 4 days to digest it.
I had just read the book, and was comparing it to the movie. The movie only starts out inspired by the book, and then takes a much darker turn.
As with a lot of these movies that are set in the past, this movie really is a commentary on the present. _________________ Deep in the mud and slime of things, even there, something sings.
Joined: May 30, 2005 Posts: 22 Location: Grosse Pointe
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 10:53 pm Post subject: Re: There Will be Blood, based on Sinclair's "Oil"
An excellent film, all around
I quite liked the detailed depiction of the early days of oil extraction, from the first, wordless scenes right up to the gusher that Plainview's crew blows up with dynamite. I imagine that most of the folks who visit this site would find this stuff very interesting.
As far as other themes, there's plenty of cool stuff going on that touches on family, identity, the ties that bind, etc.: the Paul/Eli conundrum; Plainview and his "son"; Plainview and his "brother". I definitely want to see this movie again.
Revi and Cheshire: I guess I don't agree with your idea of what makes for a good story. Assholes can be pretty interesting, e.g. Macbeth, Citizen Kane, Achilles, Tony Soprano, to name a few.
Also, as an atheist, I loved how Preacher Paul was exposed as a money-grubbing fraud.
Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:34 am Post subject: Re: There Will be Blood, based on Sinclair's "Oil"
I guess I was too influenced by the book. The movie should be seen as a completely different story. I guess I was too hung up on good guy/bad guy stories.
This one showed guy with a few good qualities completely ruined by oil.
Entertaining but very dark. _________________ Deep in the mud and slime of things, even there, something sings.
Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:51 am Post subject: Re: There Will be Blood, based on Sinclair's "Oil"
JB2 wrote:
An excellent film, all around
I quite liked the detailed depiction of the early days of oil extraction, from the first, wordless scenes right up to the gusher that Plainview's crew blows up with dynamite. I imagine that most of the folks who visit this site would find this stuff very interesting.
As far as other themes, there's plenty of cool stuff going on that touches on family, identity, the ties that bind, etc.: the Paul/Eli conundrum; Plainview and his "son"; Plainview and his "brother". I definitely want to see this movie again.
Revi and Cheshire: I guess I don't agree with your idea of what makes for a good story. Assholes can be pretty interesting, e.g. Macbeth, Citizen Kane, Achilles, Tony Soprano, to name a few.
Also, as an atheist, I loved how Preacher Paul was exposed as a money-grubbing fraud.
Yes the celebration in story telling of hubrisy shitbags , whose mothers were sorry . Sorry they missed with the coathanger or sharpened twig Goes back to the dawn of time no doubt. You can see pretentious assholes anytime you like on Cspan or CNN .
You can even get yourself a hobby of collecting autographs of them if you like.
Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 3:33 pm Post subject: Re: There Will be Blood, based on Sinclair's "Oil"
Revi wrote:
Is hubrisy a word? I like it.
DDL is an amazingly scary person in this movie. Anyone who gets near him is dead or wrecked eventually, including himself.
The good old days weren't all that good, I guess.
Anything can become a word if you use it long enough . We can just make up words relevant to our train of thought so to speak.
Who the Fark is merriam webster or anyother shitstain on the underwear of linguistics, to tell us what words we can use and are correct ?
Besides English follows more advanced languages down dark alleys. Knocks them over the head and goes through their pockets for loose grammar
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ree rah rip ram. sunofabitch godamn. hidey didey christ almighty. rah rah crap 
