There Will Be Blood

email this story
read comments (25)
post a comment

When you watch There Will be Blood, "expect a film with mesmerizing imagery. Director Paul Thomas Anderson seems intent on creating iconic images for the modern age. In my opinion, the best way to describe the essence of this film is that it will be Kubrickian. For those Anderson fans who've been waiting for five years, the trademarks remain intact -- the camera follows characters in long-sustained shots, there are scenes of intense emotion, and by God there will be blood. I would not call the material overtly violent, but nonetheless the deaths and murders that the script describes are both horrifying in their graphic rawness and their dark intention. This picture will be a harrowing experience, and not just in its visuals." -- From a script review by Oscar Igloo's Robert Cameron.

"Lambs" Afghanistan trailer<< previous | next >>Career Killer

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on August 3, 2007 at 6:16 PM

comment #1

Balthazar says ...

I didn't think I could be gleefully anticipating this film any more than I already was. Then I read that script review.

Posted by Balthazar at August 3, 2007 7:08 PM

comment #2

Arizona Joe says ...

I am glad Anderson is completing his magnum opus, "There Will be Blood."

Now I wish he would get around to doing the biopic about his father, Ernie Anderson, or as he was known in Cleveland, "Ghoulardi," a host of late night horror films and a harbinger of 60s counter culture.

Anderson could use his Altmanesque style to include Cleveland mob figures and Teamsters, Browns owner Arthur B. Modell, Jim Brown, journalist Dorothy Fuldheim, Tim Conway, character Lynn "Barnaby" Sheldon, and Drew Carey playing the accordion.

Anderson pere was an icon in Cleveland, an industrial power in post WWII America, with a gritty underside, that went through some changing times. Ghoulardi was hip, hilarious, and an insurrectionist, even if us kids did not know what that meant.

Posted by Arizona Joe at August 3, 2007 8:38 PM

comment #3

EOTW says ...

The teaser for this film, by itself, is a work of art and the best of its kind in many years. Can't wait.

Posted by EOTW at August 3, 2007 8:39 PM

comment #4

Balthazar says ...

Great idea, AJ. ... I'm there for that movie, too. .... It would almost have to be a bit irreverent. Maybe Boogie Nights by way of Raising Arizona. How's about just: "Cleveland: The Motion Picture"

Posted by Balthazar at August 3, 2007 8:44 PM

comment #5

source188 says ...

Agreed about the teaser. Another perfect teaser trailer of recent was the internet exclusive teaser for The Fountain that Aronofsky cut himself back in October of '05, still replay that one in my head to this day.

Posted by source188 at August 3, 2007 8:46 PM

comment #6

Balthazar says ...

PTA usually cuts his own trailers. ... I loved the Magnolia one in which each character introduced himself or herself and then there was a big whirlwind of confusing scenes concluding with Tom Cruise and his "Was that not clear?" line

Posted by Balthazar at August 3, 2007 8:51 PM

comment #7

source188 says ...

^^And with John C. Reily looking down pointing his flashlight at the camera, looking for his gun in the rain, that one right?

Posted by source188 at August 3, 2007 8:53 PM

comment #8

Balthazar says ...

Yeah, that was in it, too. ... Great trailer. Great music. Great flick.

Posted by Balthazar at August 3, 2007 8:54 PM

comment #9

Balthazar says ...

Obviously, Daniel-Day Lewis is going to be the powerful center of this new film.... But I'm really looking forward to this "Eli Sunday" character to be portrayed by Paul Dano. Sounds like an amazing teenage role that PTA has written here, and if Dano knocks it out of the park ... wow.

Posted by Balthazar at August 3, 2007 8:59 PM

comment #10

Balthazar says ...

What current actor(s) would be good to play Ernie Anderson in a biopic?

Posted by Balthazar at August 3, 2007 9:17 PM

comment #11

DarthCorleone says ...

Can anybody get me into a sneak of this? I'll be your best friend!

Posted by DarthCorleone at August 3, 2007 9:25 PM

comment #12

DarthCorleone says ...

I wish I were Kubrickian.

Posted by DarthCorleone at August 3, 2007 10:14 PM

comment #13

Arizona Joe says ...

Somebody to play Ernie Anderson? I don't think it has to be someone who resembles him physically. Prosthetic devices can provide the hair, the nose, and the chin. Ghoulardi had a lot of appurtenances.

But a sonorous voice will be mandatory, and someone who can be both manic and cool. John Malkovich maybe. It would be a good stretch for Tom Hanks, something different and darker, and a repositioning of himself in the public eye. Hanks acted in Cleveland briefly.

But Kevin Kline would be the guy. Kevin Kline as Ghoulardi who be better than "A Fish Called Wanda."

I could see Kevin Kline blowing up plastic model cars with M-80s, burning Dorothy Fuldheim in effigy, and saying, "Turn blue you knif."

Later that weekend, a car blows up in Little Italy, Jim Brown powers 80 yards for a touchdown as 80,000 roar, and an alcoholic Barnaby drinks a bottle of Vitalis.

Posted by Arizona Joe at August 3, 2007 10:26 PM

comment #14

RP says ...

[ What current actor(s) would be good to play Ernie Anderson in a biopic? ]

How about David Strathairn? Or maybe John Mahoney if they just focus on the older years?

Posted by RP at August 3, 2007 10:44 PM

comment #15

Malone says ...

PTA and Kubrick in the same sentence? PLEASE...

Posted by Malone at August 3, 2007 11:09 PM

comment #16

Dzayson says ...

Hey Malone, I see your point to a certain extent (but only that much). Yeah, Kubrick is unquestionably one of the five or ten best directors in the history of filmmaking. BUT if you had to look at current filmmakers who have a shot at creating a somewhat similar body of outstanding films, gotta figure PTA is somewhere on that rather short list. Stylistically, he doesn't remind me all that much of Kubrick, but to quote Steven Spielberg himself, "Paul Thomas Anderson is the best young director in town."

I think when we fast-forward thirty years, PTA will have several gold friends and quite a legacy to be remembered by.

Posted by Dzayson at August 3, 2007 11:47 PM

comment #17

Geoff says ...

Is there really anybody who doesn't love Boogie Nights? That movie-the direction, the cinematography, the acting, and the screenplay that is endlessly quotable-has it all.

Posted by Geoff at August 4, 2007 12:54 AM

comment #18

BurmaShave says ...

Why did Sascha have to change her name but not The Oscar Igloo? Is love for penguins really so systemic that the AMPAS lawyers wouldn't go after anything with an artic word in it? Wrong pole, douchebags.

Posted by BurmaShave at August 4, 2007 2:35 AM

comment #19

The Hoyk says ...

"Saturday night at 10, following a special two-hour edition of THE LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE BOTE! Parental Discretion Advised."

If finding a suitable actor to play Ernie is bad enough, imagine trying to scare up stand-ins for Olan Soule and Danny Dark.

But I'd be there opening night for STAY SICK! THE GHOULARDI STORY. Get Pat DiNizio and The Smithereens to cover "Papa-Ooo-Mow-Mow" for the theme song.

Posted by The Hoyk at August 4, 2007 2:57 AM

comment #20