Weblog 127
July 13, 2008~ 12:15am
Since it was mailed from Netflix two weeks ago, and after waiting patiently to watch it, it was one of the biggest disappointments in months. I have to say "THERE WILL BE BLOOD" is a completely depressing film without one redeeming feature. Not one likable character, no message, no power save brutality- and it is waaaaaay toooooo long.
Even the acting of Daniel Day-Lewis could not save this ugly thing. (As Wayne remarked this evening, it's a performance not unlike Jack Nicholson's in "The Shining": an exaggerated villain who is a scary madman in an over-the-top caricature, and while it's interesting to watch, it's also something a person hopes never to have to sit through again when it's finally over.)
What a shame. Given the potential for an almost biblical struggle of good versus evil, what is actually played out on the screen is the clashing of two abhorrent personalities squaring off against an endless backdrop of yellow, desolate land and global grime. Oil is the culprit- in the sense that it represents the pointless greed of humanity, which in turn motivates robbery of one another as well as flagrant rape of the land, all the while trying to justify it by either religion or progress- and the false promise of a better life.
In short, this movie leaves one limp, and is truly an ordeal to watch (did I say it was looooong?)- but with nothing to show for it at the end. Of course the 'oil' is the violence-- always just under the surface and ready to erupt.
I must say I saw the releasing of this film as timely, given what the pursuit of oil has gotten us into over the past six years...things never really change, do they? The powers that be will do anything to get what they want and will use any slogan, any trumped-up motivation to get it. I t's a shell game and there is- still is, every day, a lot of blood- shed for the same old reasons.
Just replace any map of the early 20th century American West, and put this one in its place....
and you have the same sleight of hand working to assure those rigs and those refineries are well-policed and the oil keeps flowing. Oil is a symbol alright- and a universal one. It stands for all the wealth and manipulation and corruption that mankind can come up with and push through a tube- a tank- a pipeline. "There Will Be Blood" as long as oil is the mainstay of the supremely weathly scions of many countries. There will be blood long enough to hold off other energy sources that could make the world go round as oil does now, and until those same parties have their fingers deeply enough into a new energy supply with the assurance of controlling it as well.
Then there'll be the fight to control and manipulate something else... and again.... there will be blood because evil and oppression are as old as mankind, and this movie unfortunately shows us just how ugly and pointless it can get in acquisition for acquisition's sake-- and power. Yes--- perhaps that most of all.
Daniel Day-Lewis is a man motivated by his hatred for his fellow men-- his desire to best them- kill them if need be, with no redemptive elements whatsoever, even love--- how heinous--- and what a tiring, miserable trek we make with him in what has to be one of the most depressing films of all time.
Hell- even Citizen Kane had his little Rosebud.
July 14, 2008~ 7:50pm
Here ya go. Have any of his stuff?
Headaches, Nervous Diseases, Sore Eyes and Blindness, Epilepsy or Falling Sickness, Female Complaints, Deafness, Piles, Flatulency and Wind, Summer Complaint, Costiveness, Apoplexy, Persons Talking In Their Sleep, Fever and Ague, Erysipelas or St. Anthony's Fire, Eruptions of the Skin, Rheumatism and Rheumatic Gout, Spine Disease, Gravel and Urinary Complaints, Mercurial Disease, MELANCHOLY AND SUICIDE....
"Melancholy has its hundred, nay, its thousand degrees of intensity--commencing with indigestion, COSTIVENESS, moping, desire of retirement, insensibility to the pleasures of life, and ending in aberrations, insanity, madness-- (as opposed to insanity?)-- and suicide. All these are the consequence of a neglected body. They proceed from a dry, burnt up state of the blood and bile, resulting from an accumulation of foul humors and neglect to purify the blood."
GET "DR.SWEETSER'S PANACEA"!!!
(except you'd be 151 years TOO LATE...) AH, GEES.....and I'm a fool for this kind of stuff, too! I can just see me queuing up with all the corseted ladies, clamoring for the new 'MIRACLE DRUG'. (What I want to know is, what the hell is "Costiveness"? I HAVE IT! I KNOW I DO!!!)
Ok....ok.....that was just a way to make you wanna visit this site An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides And Other Printed Emphemera - you'll have a feast of a time in there....costiveness notwithstanding.
July 16, 2008~ 5:15am
Up and kicking this morning. (No, Wayne, I didn't blow myself up relighting the hot water heater pilot.....lol) My aging hot water heater has a pilot light that goes out now and again, and I see the problem-- there is a dripping leak in the fiberglass tank somewhere, and I see little drips that spit and steam onto the burner. Every now and then I suppose a drip 'bounces' right on the pilot light itself. I'll need a new tank soon, but for right now, it's working.
And I was so sad yesterday to come home and find a dead bird on my walkway. Don't know whether the bullying bluejays got after the teeny thing in their feeding frenzy over the peanuts I put out every day, but there it was-- small wing bent at a strange angle.
I got out my spade and buried it. It seemed awful to just let it sit there while the birds were gathering on the lawn for their afternoon food fest. Poor wee thing...life is fragile, isn't it? One day in clouds-- the next in dirt. Tempus fugit. Resquiescat in pace....... little bird.
July 18, 2008~ 7:50pm
Now and then, I get a bit itchy to start something new......so I've created a 2nd Blog that allows comments, and will be the place to put my 'darker' observations...rants, ranting poetry, topical news items, opinion....that sort of thing. If you wanna take a peek, I've just done the first entry-
~thass right....BITCH ON WHEELS....because everybody needs a place where they're free to chew through the straps and do some damage. I'd love it if you'd stop by. (Love it more if you'd comment....but yah...I know. I visit a lot of blogs too, and often when I wanna say something I never get around to it, so if there's nuthin'- well, that's the way it shakes out.) I put a little permanent link in the right green column- for after this page disappears on Sunday. All of you out there- have a good weekend. Hotter than the hinges of HELL in Pittsburgh today. (Maybe that's why all the spit and vinegar. Or maybe something just got me unusually riled...all I know is, I'm luvin' the new place. I can wear turf-tearing cleats in there. LOL!)
***
(Return To Weekly Archives)
Since it was mailed from Netflix two weeks ago, and after waiting patiently to watch it, it was one of the biggest disappointments in months. I have to say "THERE WILL BE BLOOD" is a completely depressing film without one redeeming feature. Not one likable character, no message, no power save brutality- and it is waaaaaay toooooo long.
Even the acting of Daniel Day-Lewis could not save this ugly thing. (As Wayne remarked this evening, it's a performance not unlike Jack Nicholson's in "The Shining": an exaggerated villain who is a scary madman in an over-the-top caricature, and while it's interesting to watch, it's also something a person hopes never to have to sit through again when it's finally over.)
What a shame. Given the potential for an almost biblical struggle of good versus evil, what is actually played out on the screen is the clashing of two abhorrent personalities squaring off against an endless backdrop of yellow, desolate land and global grime. Oil is the culprit- in the sense that it represents the pointless greed of humanity, which in turn motivates robbery of one another as well as flagrant rape of the land, all the while trying to justify it by either religion or progress- and the false promise of a better life.
In short, this movie leaves one limp, and is truly an ordeal to watch (did I say it was looooong?)- but with nothing to show for it at the end. Of course the 'oil' is the violence-- always just under the surface and ready to erupt.
I must say I saw the releasing of this film as timely, given what the pursuit of oil has gotten us into over the past six years...things never really change, do they? The powers that be will do anything to get what they want and will use any slogan, any trumped-up motivation to get it. I t's a shell game and there is- still is, every day, a lot of blood- shed for the same old reasons.
Just replace any map of the early 20th century American West, and put this one in its place....
and you have the same sleight of hand working to assure those rigs and those refineries are well-policed and the oil keeps flowing. Oil is a symbol alright- and a universal one. It stands for all the wealth and manipulation and corruption that mankind can come up with and push through a tube- a tank- a pipeline. "There Will Be Blood" as long as oil is the mainstay of the supremely weathly scions of many countries. There will be blood long enough to hold off other energy sources that could make the world go round as oil does now, and until those same parties have their fingers deeply enough into a new energy supply with the assurance of controlling it as well.
Then there'll be the fight to control and manipulate something else... and again.... there will be blood because evil and oppression are as old as mankind, and this movie unfortunately shows us just how ugly and pointless it can get in acquisition for acquisition's sake-- and power. Yes--- perhaps that most of all.
Daniel Day-Lewis is a man motivated by his hatred for his fellow men-- his desire to best them- kill them if need be, with no redemptive elements whatsoever, even love--- how heinous--- and what a tiring, miserable trek we make with him in what has to be one of the most depressing films of all time.
July 14, 2008~ 7:50pm
Here ya go. Have any of his stuff?
Headaches, Nervous Diseases, Sore Eyes and Blindness, Epilepsy or Falling Sickness, Female Complaints, Deafness, Piles, Flatulency and Wind, Summer Complaint, Costiveness, Apoplexy, Persons Talking In Their Sleep, Fever and Ague, Erysipelas or St. Anthony's Fire, Eruptions of the Skin, Rheumatism and Rheumatic Gout, Spine Disease, Gravel and Urinary Complaints, Mercurial Disease, MELANCHOLY AND SUICIDE....
"Melancholy has its hundred, nay, its thousand degrees of intensity--commencing with indigestion, COSTIVENESS, moping, desire of retirement, insensibility to the pleasures of life, and ending in aberrations, insanity, madness-- (as opposed to insanity?)-- and suicide. All these are the consequence of a neglected body. They proceed from a dry, burnt up state of the blood and bile, resulting from an accumulation of foul humors and neglect to purify the blood."
(except you'd be 151 years TOO LATE...) AH, GEES.....and I'm a fool for this kind of stuff, too! I can just see me queuing up with all the corseted ladies, clamoring for the new 'MIRACLE DRUG'. (What I want to know is, what the hell is "Costiveness"? I HAVE IT! I KNOW I DO!!!)
Ok....ok.....that was just a way to make you wanna visit this site An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides And Other Printed Emphemera - you'll have a feast of a time in there....costiveness notwithstanding.
July 16, 2008~ 5:15am
Up and kicking this morning. (No, Wayne, I didn't blow myself up relighting the hot water heater pilot.....lol) My aging hot water heater has a pilot light that goes out now and again, and I see the problem-- there is a dripping leak in the fiberglass tank somewhere, and I see little drips that spit and steam onto the burner. Every now and then I suppose a drip 'bounces' right on the pilot light itself. I'll need a new tank soon, but for right now, it's working.
And I was so sad yesterday to come home and find a dead bird on my walkway. Don't know whether the bullying bluejays got after the teeny thing in their feeding frenzy over the peanuts I put out every day, but there it was-- small wing bent at a strange angle.
I got out my spade and buried it. It seemed awful to just let it sit there while the birds were gathering on the lawn for their afternoon food fest. Poor wee thing...life is fragile, isn't it? One day in clouds-- the next in dirt. Tempus fugit. Resquiescat in pace....... little bird.
July 18, 2008~ 7:50pm
Now and then, I get a bit itchy to start something new......so I've created a 2nd Blog that allows comments, and will be the place to put my 'darker' observations...rants, ranting poetry, topical news items, opinion....that sort of thing. If you wanna take a peek, I've just done the first entry-
~thass right....BITCH ON WHEELS....because everybody needs a place where they're free to chew through the straps and do some damage. I'd love it if you'd stop by. (Love it more if you'd comment....but yah...I know. I visit a lot of blogs too, and often when I wanna say something I never get around to it, so if there's nuthin'- well, that's the way it shakes out.) I put a little permanent link in the right green column- for after this page disappears on Sunday. All of you out there- have a good weekend. Hotter than the hinges of HELL in Pittsburgh today. (Maybe that's why all the spit and vinegar. Or maybe something just got me unusually riled...all I know is, I'm luvin' the new place. I can wear turf-tearing cleats in there. LOL!)
(Return To Weekly Archives)
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