What I Watched -- There Will Be Blood

Perhaps the title There Will Be Blood should have tipped me off that this would be an extremely dark movie.  Not dark in a weird, creepy, David Lynch kind of way.  I mean dark in a there-is-no-redemption-and-everyone-is-terrible kind of way.  Let's hear it for Upton Sinclair, on whose book the movie is loosely based (and the book, in turn, was loosely based on a real-life guy).

I had to see some of the worst scenes twice because I fell asleep while I was watching it the first time.  Much of the movie has no soundtrack and little dialogue, and it was late, so I drifted off.  Those long quiet spells are punctuated by periods of furious shouting, so I got to see most of the nasty bits, and then had to see them again when I re-watched the last third of the movie.

Also, There Will Be Blood has a bizarre soundtrack, or lack thereof.  I pointed it out to T and he put his finger on it in a way that I couldn't: its soundtrack sounds like it comes directly out of a horror movie.  It's not orchestral, as you might expect for a film like this.  It's electronic, with lots of heavy beats.  Jaws-type stuff.

Daniel Day-Lewis, as usual, was powerful.  He can do furious intensity like few other people these days.  I'm still wondering what his character meant when he mumbled the final two words of the movie.  I will never know.

Bottom line: if you ever start to doubt the goodness of humanity, watch this movie to confirm your suspicions.