tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post7729345003435051337..comments2024-03-27T18:24:19.683-07:00Comments on Steve Sailer: iSteve: "There Will Be Blood"Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-22630059281367785822009-12-30T20:52:07.474-08:002009-12-30T20:52:07.474-08:00Again a fair post. Thanks your friendAgain a fair post. Thanks your friendAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-11532115385706073282008-04-15T10:05:00.000-07:002008-04-15T10:05:00.000-07:00--SPOILER ALERT--How is it that you're so down to ...--SPOILER ALERT--<BR/><BR/>How is it that you're so down to earth on scientific and political commentary yet so pedagogical and abstract in your movie reviews? It's like you judged EVERYTHING but the movie itself in its own context.<BR/><BR/>Was that your bargain with the devil? Was it that you would have a gift for making the indecipherable decipherable at the price of a curse for making the accessible inaccessible?<BR/><BR/>It was a captivating and amusing movie, one which Daniel Day Lewis brought to life in a character that I found myself at turns admiring and despising...with a finale in which he beat the annoying evangelist to death with a bowling pin! That had to be one of the most cathartic conclusions I've ever experienced.Matt Parrotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00794652979966181081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-35868953069394442008-02-24T17:33:00.000-08:002008-02-24T17:33:00.000-08:00I thought the beginning was great. A complete non...I thought the beginning was great. A complete non-verbal performance. I liked that a lot.<BR/><BR/>But then it went into the usual Hollywood thing. Anti-American, Anti-Christian, Anti-Big Business.<BR/><BR/>It's funny Hollywood takes so many pot shots at Organized Religion when it functions exactly like one itself.<BR/><BR/>Just as painters in Italy hundreds of years ago could ONLY paint Madonna's, so too can Movie-makers ONLY do PC material, ie; Anti-American, Anti-Business, Anti-White, Anti-Gentile, Anti-South. <BR/>It's interesting that one exception to this, Training Day, was with a Black director.<BR/>Proof it can be done. By why is it so rare?<BR/>That's a rhetorical question, of course. <BR/><BR/>For me the last line in the movie clearly refered to the USA. At least the movie-makers take on the USA.<BR/><BR/>PT Anderson afterall was a huge fan of Robert Altman.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-33342908480011594912008-02-24T16:33:00.000-08:002008-02-24T16:33:00.000-08:00Of all the wunderkindern, I never understood PT An...Of all the wunderkindern, I never understood PT Anderson's spell over the critics. It's not his politics, it's his hackery.<BR/><BR/>Basically I think he is good with a camera and uses very good actors, but he cannot write to save his life.<BR/><BR/>See Boogie Nights, which is replete with only stereotypes who are not tweaked or played with at all, they just fulfill their 1 dimensional arc to the bitter end. Tack on a feel good mega soundtrack of non-originals that can be counted on to add oomph to the flatness of your writing, plus layers of intertextuality for the college boys, and you've got a masterpiece. <BR/><BR/>The rise and fall of Diggler really puzzled me for its praise. Where was the insight in this movie ... on anything? <BR/><BR/>Magnolia had a great soundtrack, but it's melodrama that manipulative and sentimental. Everyone has cancer or has been molested or is knows someone who has/done of the two. Hackery!<BR/><BR/>I haven't seen Punch Drunk. Hard 8 wasn't bad. But I thought Butcher Bill was hambone city, and Gangs of New York was all about the sets with an unbelievably flimsy revenge story cum romance at its tired, tired heart. <BR/><BR/>I was afraid Day Lewis was returning to his hambone roots in this one, and I fear his legend has grown at this point to be his generation's DeNiro, he shits gold.<BR/><BR/>I just don't get PTA's allure. He reminds me of Night Shyamalan, to be honest. Soo pretentious, and believes the hype about himself. But the lack of vision can't be hidden by their solid technical directorial skills.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-19102099697822949062008-02-17T09:59:00.000-08:002008-02-17T09:59:00.000-08:00I saw the movie last night. Upton Sinclair was a g...I saw the movie last night. Upton Sinclair was a good old turn-of-the-century socialist, back when they really believed they could change the world.<BR/>I'm not sure the movie did as good a job as it could have, but it clearly shows Sinclair's assumption that while capitalism may not start out as evil and insane, it invariably ends up that way.<BR/>You actually LIKE the Day-Lewis character in the early parts of the film: his love of hard work and real dirt and grime, his rugged individualism, his stoicism - all things we Americans like to THINK are the stuff we're made of, very Frederick Jackson Turnerish.<BR/>By the end of the movie, Sinclair, despite Anderson's editing, have made their point: capitalism is inevitably corrupt.<BR/>Whether you agree or not with that assumption, that is the point of the movie.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-10080036735356425652008-02-17T03:47:00.000-08:002008-02-17T03:47:00.000-08:00And the point was not lost, nor my enthusiasm damp...And the point was not lost, nor my enthusiasm dampened, learning the milkshake was in the script, though I now have to reevaluate the director's intentions.<BR/><BR/>I remember a story from the intro to some PJ O'Rourke book about him showing a draft of a college novel to a friend/serious writer/suicide. The friend was largely encouraging though he had a nagging problem: the possibility that O'Rourke's intent might be serious.<BR/><BR/>As serious drama, I'd give the film a C-. With spectacle and entertainment as the criteria, only a false prophet could watch the last scene and not give the flick an A.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-3725220506757351782008-02-17T00:20:00.000-08:002008-02-17T00:20:00.000-08:00The point is that the actual Doheny story is so vi...The point is that the actual Doheny story is so vivid that this is one of the rare cases in which the movie version is much less dramatic than the real events.Steve Sailerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920109042402850214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-2918369447356166032008-02-17T00:18:00.000-08:002008-02-17T00:18:00.000-08:00The milkshake line comes from a transcript of test...The milkshake line comes from a transcript of testimony in the Teapot Dome scandal. Accused Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall was explaining to the Senators that he had given no-bid leases on Navy oil reserve lands to Doheny and Sinclair because, he contended, the idea of reserving government-owned oil in the ground for future military crises was unsound. Operators on adjoining private land would drill into the common pool of underlying oil and would suck it all up. Like two high school students sharing a single milkshake, the first one to start sucking it up would get the lion's share.Steve Sailerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920109042402850214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-91139335380147762732008-02-16T23:20:00.000-08:002008-02-16T23:20:00.000-08:00"'I drink from your milkshake' has to be the crazi..."'I drink from your milkshake' has to be the craziest, most self-indulgent, I-can't-cut-anything-that-comes-out-of -a-screen-legend's-mouth ad lib since the eggplant line in True Romance."<BR/><BR/>So true! I couldn't believe what I was seeing!Ron Guhnamehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06421460508647618774noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-88136578625315273542008-02-16T19:29:00.000-08:002008-02-16T19:29:00.000-08:00The last scene was was the most entertaining thing...The last scene was was the most entertaining thing I'd seen in a movie in a long time, maybe since Kung Fu Hustle. "I drink from your milkshake" has to the the craziest, most self-indulgent, I-can't-cut-anything-that-comes-out-of -a-screen-legend's-mouth ad lib since the eggplant line in True Romance.<BR/><BR/>I've never had a cinematic experience like this flick before. It was like getting dragged around an art museum for a couple hours then one of the docents tears off an old lady mask and the rest of her garments. The buzz lasted most of the night.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-40150894790630588342008-02-16T17:29:00.000-08:002008-02-16T17:29:00.000-08:00I met someone who worked with Daniel's sister - Ta...I met someone who worked with Daniel's sister - Tamasin (yes it <I>is</I> spelled that way) Day-Lewis. As far as I can tell no-one would mistake her for anything other than what she is: an uber upper class Brit . Ive never heard this Irish outsider cobblers in relation to her. Most people would not be aware that C.Day Lewis was not English anyway.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-43063021118095902362008-02-16T09:05:00.000-08:002008-02-16T09:05:00.000-08:00It's quite helpful to read something written from ...<I>It's quite helpful to read something written from such an old-fashioned leftist point of view (in contrast to contemporary leftism, which is all about status-seeking).</I><BR/><BR/>Do you really not dislike old-fashioned labor unionism, Steve? Is it the yuppie liberalism that pisses you off?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-18753442087654008112008-02-16T03:57:00.000-08:002008-02-16T03:57:00.000-08:00I was disappointed by the movie too. I didn't hat...I was disappointed by the movie too. I didn't hate it, but it wasn't nearly good enough to not be about anything. Politics definitely might have helped.<BR/><BR/>However I really enjoyed the soundtrack... and I don't listen to or know anything about Radiohead, so it's not bias.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-39088124713816592192008-02-16T02:59:00.000-08:002008-02-16T02:59:00.000-08:00You say that Day-Lewis felt an outsider because of...You say that Day-Lewis felt an outsider because of his half-Irish ancestry.<BR/>In fact, posh Brit thespian often use an affected celtic heritage to claim much desired "outsider" status.<BR/>This is usually a fairly transparent attention seeking tactic that many have indulged in over the years<BR/>Richard Harris, Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins never shut up about places they wouldn't return to if you paid them.<BR/>It backfired spectacularly for John Hurt who has always claimed a spiritual connection to his obscure Irish roots that made him feel an outsider in England. <BR/>Anyway he appeared on genealogy programme keen to discover more and expected to be trudging through some pictureaque Irish bog somewhere only to discover he came from stout working class London folk with not a sniff of Guinness anywhere.<BR/>He was visibly crestfallen. It was part of my identity, he said "Something that I'd always accepted." <BR/>You would need a heart of stone not to laugh.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-54994651734335275062008-02-15T23:32:00.000-08:002008-02-15T23:32:00.000-08:00Daniel Day Lewis is overrated. Like other method a...Daniel Day Lewis is overrated. Like other method actors, he tries too hard. Daniel Plainview was a caricature. Give me a natural, lazy actor like, say, Hopkins any day.Ron Guhnamehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06421460508647618774noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-32038933979997299342008-02-15T18:36:00.000-08:002008-02-15T18:36:00.000-08:00I've never seen an Anderson movie I've liked. They...I've never seen an Anderson movie I've liked. They're all PC up the wazoo. Boring and pretentious too. <BR/><BR/>It's those handcuffs of PC though that make most movies bad. About the only thing left is icky-shocking sex. Which was old in 1908 with DH Lawrence.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-42502877381016482932008-02-15T18:04:00.000-08:002008-02-15T18:04:00.000-08:00Steve,You should have put a spoiler alert on this ...Steve,<BR/><BR/>You should have put a spoiler alert on this one. <BR/><BR/>As for P.T. Anderson, this is another movie of his I have no interest in watching -- at least not in a theater, where I'll be stuck for 3 hours. Why can't it be enough for Anderson for everyone to acknowledge that he is a talented filmmaker who is perfectly capable of making these sorts of ponderous opuses that critics praise but everyone else finds tedious? That way, he wouldn't actually have to make films like this (or Magnolia), and he could go back to making more entertaining stuff like Punch-Drunk Love.<BR/><BR/>- FredAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com