I saw it last night. Daniel Day-Lewis was just incredible. The movie felt like a book, even if Anderson claims to have departed from Sinclair’s original.
The key conflict is between the oil company and the church. Sinclair was a commie, so money and religion competing to ruin the world isn’t terribly surprising. The oil derricks were steeple-esque, and Plainview called the oil “the blood of the lamb.”
That’s about all I’ve got so far. It was intense, beautiful, grotesque, and moving, but I’m not sure it was anything new. Am I wrong? Maybe I’m just jaded towards early 20th century melancholy. I spent my undergraduate career reading this stuff.
I loved the movie, but I’m not sure it did everything it needed to. Did it develop the characters appropriately? Was the conclusion a conclusion?
Did anyone else see it? Any quality observations out there?
