fokse vektaire xeven
Arab Nazi
The Dark Knight and There Will Be Blood.
Soulless, emotionless, nihilistic.
1.
Personas, rather than characters, who represent ideas/preoccupations (rabid Christianity, corrupt capitalism, chaotic terrorism).
All Superhero fictions function in terms of personas. That IS what they do. I'm not sure what you were expecting. There Will Be Blood- this was supposed to be Faulknerian Blood and Thunder, Biblical- Filmmaking in the tradition of Houston. Not Vittorio De Sica.
2.
Direction that is painfully striving for greatness (TWBB's wordless opening passage where countless situations arise where words would certainly be spoken)
I saw this film knowing nothing about it and the opening didn't seem unnatural- it didn't seem remarkable to me that it was dialogue free and until i read about it afterward. so maybe this has something to do with the experience of being critically primed to watch these big "event" films.
3.
Cinematography direct from the National Geographic - cliched panoramas and colour palettes (sepia, steel blue), dead images that have somehow become shorthand for beauty and technical proficiency
I thought one of the strong points of There Will Be Blood was the the depiction of the desert- it was overexposed, leached of colour, i would say very different from the saturated Technicolour deserts familiar from most westerns. it looks bone dry, drained. Also there is some creative lensing ie in the train...
4.
Nihilistic stories: characters that grind to an impasse. They are unchanging and have no real aims or motivation. The ending of There Will Be Blood is disgusting as it comes out of no emotional truth or discernible narrative arc. It is purely for a cheap thrill.
that isn't true at all, there's a definite sense of the souring of the protagonists amibition, it is revealed over the films' course to be essentially concerned with personal victories rather than gains- subjugated violence. The scene in the cafe ("I did what i said i would") i saw as a turning point.
I saw TWBB on general release and enjoyed it. Yes, it is far from subtle, but then it doesn't pretend to be. it's vigourous, well crafted and somewhat ambitious. I wish there were more films in the US mainstream i could say that of.
it probably doesn't work so well on video. I haven't seen it that way.