There Will Be Blood

PASSING THOUGHTS
Time is precious. Time is a fixed commodity for all of us; once it’s gone there is no way to earn, borrow, barter, steal, or in any other earthly way obtain more of it. It is for this reason that I find myself remorsefully bitter when two hours and thirty-five minutes of my time is utterly wasted by a piece of nonsensical tripe so far removed from the human experience that it is not merely irrelevant, it is perverse.

This story—no. I cannot even call this a story. It is a nightmare. It is a nightmare because there is enough imagery to mimic reality, but nothing that happens makes any sense within the context of reality. There are human forms, but they do not act human. There is speech, but it makes no sense. The whole film is a vague shadow that uses familiar elements to create a completely foreign world that cannot be understood or reasoned with. Violence without explanation and unhinged dialogue are accentuated by music that seems to be composed for the sole purpose of adding to the cacophony.

The nightmare is comprised of pure lunacy. Not greed, not faith, not hate, but utter madness. A few of the peripheral characters are not infected with this madness, but the rest are relentlessly driven forward by it. The first indication of trouble starts with Paul Sunday’s question game with Daniel. Every question is answered in kind by another question, sometimes one that has no relationship to the train of thought. Paul seems very unnatural, very strange—traits that apparently run in the family. His twin brother, Eli, also likes to play the question game and shares his brother’s propensity for playing hardball. Eli comes across as abnormal from the moment he is introduced. He speaks and reacts with an eerie detachment that makes him seem psychotic. I was waiting for his head to spin around or for him to start levitating. His authority over his family is unsettling, as is the fact that he is supposed to be the pastor of a church. His behavior is erratic and frankly unbelievable once it becomes clear there is no catch. He’s not possessed, he’s not an alien and he’s not a manifest spirit. He acts like he could be any of those things, yet we are to believe he’s just a man of faith trying to get his church up and running. The scene where he jumps on the table and starts beating his father clinched it for me. I thought for sure he was an imposter pretending to be part of the family; some kind of psycho swindler who’s plan was foiled by Daniel. What son attacks his father like that? What mother allows it? What father just sits there and takes verbal abuse? Was the film simply trying to display the hypocrisy of religion? If so, it shouldn’t have used an overtly deranged boy as a representative of faith, particularly when faith never makes so much as a cameo. There’s a twisted version of salvation involved, but it is treated with even less integrity than the man who presents it.

Daniel seems somewhat normal at the outset, but it soon becomes clear that he is not in his right mind either. Apart from a brief monologue about his desire to compete and prevail, there is absolutely no indication that greed drives him. His actions are incomprehensible because there is no motivation for them. He publicly beats Eli in a random act of violence, and he fondles his future daughter-in-law. After stating that he just wants to make enough money so that he can get away from the people he hates so much, he turns down a huge sum of money saying he wouldn’t know what to do with his time. When a man suggests that Daniel could spend the free time with H.W., Daniel flies off into another tantrum that culminates with him threatening to cut the man’s throat while he sleeps. It’s clear by every man’s reaction at the table that they think Daniel has lost his mind, and at that point I completely agree with them.

When Daniel finds out that Henry lied to him about being his brother, he kills him. Henry was not a competitor, he wasn’t a threat. He was a liar, but nothing more. Then Eli, in desperate need of money, visits Daniel in his house where Daniel bludgeons him to death with a bowling pin. Eli posed no threat to Daniel in any shape or form. He also was not a competitor, but Daniel saw fit to take his life anyway. These are definitive moments for Daniel’s character, and somehow they are chalked up to greed.

Greed? How can any of these bizarre actions be in any way associated with greed? The only possible murder Daniel could have committed out of greed would have been to kill H.W. because his faux son could have possibly become a viable competitor. But Daniel doesn’t kill him. Instead, he opts to reveal the truth about their relationship with inexplicable venom and animosity. I expected to see him start foaming at the mouth during this speech, as he comes across as little more than a rabid dog.

After an hour and a half, I was done with this movie. It seemed to be nothing more than a series of on-the-job accidents and slap fights held together by two complete loons doing strange things that could not be explained by any normal human condition. I watched it until the end, hoping for a revelation or some kind of twist that would justify the perpetual disconnect these characters have with reality.

I hoped in vain.

I eventually caved and went online to see if I could glean something from a synopsis, and I was horrified to discover that this cinematic debacle was actually praised by critics. Apparently it even won two Oscars. I cannot fathom what state of delirium the advocates of this movie must have been in to see it as anything more than a tragic waste of silver, but then I cannot understand how a human mind could spawn such nonsense in the first place.

As for the nuts and bolts of the film, it had some great acting, great cinematography, a fantastic wardrobe and some believable sets. Very high production values. The score, however, sounded like a musical version of Tourette’s. It never fit the mood or tempo of the scenes, and oftentimes it proved to be a distraction. Sometimes it was downright repetitive and annoying. I would say that it didn’t relate to the film at all, but its complete lack of cohesion fit very well with the “plot”.

The so-called themes of this movie never show up. Greed may have a presence, but it doesn’t come through in the action. Family exists, but it has no form or effect. Faith is never seen as a viable virtue. The only theme this movie presents is one of oppressive insanity. No reason, no logic, no rationale…just a series of actions and reactions that comes to a merciful and abrupt end.

BASICS

Your Cup O’ Tea:
If you like the feeling that you’re watching a nightmare, you enjoy long bouts of insubstantial silence, or if you can appreciate stellar acting as the only redeeming virtue of a film.

Steer Clear:
If you want multi-dimensional characters, an involving plot, and a story that makes any kind of sense.

Nothing New Under the Sun:
Fortunately I can think of no other film that bears any semblance to this atrocity.

Buy or Rent:
RENT.

FEATURES

-Language Selection

-Scene Selection

Woulda Been Nice: If the filmmakers would have offered some kind of feature that could possibly explain how they justified making this movie.