There Will Be Blood: A++

There Will Be Blood chronicles the life and times of one Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), who transforms himself from a down-and-out silver miner raising a son on his own into a self-made oil tycoon. Every human value – love, hope, belief, ambition, anger, fear, greed, corruption, deception permeate with the flow of oil beneath his feet.


I had to watch this movie three times before my final grade. Initially this movie is gut wrenching slow, with almost no sound except for the distant sounds of eery harmonics accompanying shots of some of the most spectacular cinematography. Diving deep into the core of mans true values becomes the soul goal of this movie, every scene in this 3hr movie is carried by Daniel day Lewis, his portrayal of an ambitious oil man aspiring to the heights of tycoon stature is scary and overwhelming.

Through Daniel Plainview (Daniel day Lewis) we witness the establishment of cooperate America, in all it's deception, corruption, anger, and fear. The irony of this film is that while watching the movie you are filled with excitement, wonder, and desire (much the same feelings that corporate America pushes on us today through various avenues of false advertising)?

There will be blood becomes extremely conflicting with the introduction of a small town preacher (Paul Dano, Little Miss Sunshine) who, feeling that he is loosing hold of the tight grasp of fear he has on his small congregation sees a need submit the dominate oil tycoon who entices his followers through money instead of fear.

A gripping tale, pitting evil against evil while asking, is man inherently evil? or only some men?

See Also: The Boxer, In the name of the Father, Thank you for smoking.

Enchanted : B

The beautiful princess Giselle (Amy Adams) is banished by an evil queen (Susan Sarandon) from her magical, musical animated land – and finds herself in the gritty reality of the streets of modern-day Manhattan. Shocked by this strange new environment that doesn’t operate on a happily ever after basis, Giselle is adrift in a chaotic world badly in need of enchantment. But when Giselle begins to fall in love with a charmingly flawed divorce lawyer (Patrick Dempsey) who has come to her aid – even though she is already promised to a perfect fairy tale prince (James Marsden) back home. Can a storybook view of romance survive in the real world?

This is a children's story, a virtuous girls dream, and a young boys instructional fantasy on how to find true love. For the last twenty-five years the corporate geniuses and creative marketing minds at Disney have brought us the perfect fairy tales. Packaging happy feelings of love, dreams, and laughter in to two hour films for $7.00 per person annually! Enchanted is no exception to this tradition.


Enchanted has successfully brought our childhood to life, creating a magical world of dragons, handsome prince's, mischievous sidekicks, evil queens, and beautiful princess in real time. Disney brought our old dreams to us and showed how they could thrive in our realities of practicality, cynicism, and pessimism. kudos! I certainly have a hard time living in this world, but I at least have the comfort of knowing that somewhere, somebody in this great world has just broken out in random song to sing about holding hands and hugging trees.

That makes everything little better, and why shouldn't it?

See also: Princess Bride, Snow White, and Sound of Music.