There may be no scarcer commodity in modern Hollywood than a distinctive and original film score. Most soundtracks lean so heavily on a few preprocessed musical devices—those synthetic swells of strings and cymbals, urging us to swoon in tandem with the cheerleader in love—that when a composer adopts a more personal language the effect is revelatory: an entire dimension of the film experience is liberated from cliché. So it is with Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie “There Will Be Blood,” which has an unearthly, beautiful score by the young English composer Jonny Greenwood. The early scenes show, in painstaking detail, a maverick oilman assembling a network of wells at the turn of the last century. Filmgoers who find themselves falling into a claustrophobic trance during these sequences may be inclined to credit the director, who, indeed, has forged some indelible images. But, as Orson Welles once said of Bernard Herrmann’s contribution to “Citizen Kane,” the music does fifty per cent of the work.

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Talk amongst yourselves...

KANSAS CITY, MO. -- The 42nd annual vote of the Kansas City Film Critics Circle honored work ranging from the rise of a ruthless oil tycoon, the life of French singer Edith Piaf to a fanciful tale of a rat who longs to be a great chef.

Press Release: Kansas City Film Critics Circle Poll

Especially noticeable in the opening, where the score emphasizes the harshness and brutally of the landscape, almost giving it a voice, but I also noticed it signaling the beginning of Anderson's almost trademark style of starting a flow of hugely consequential and climactic action (like he did with Boogie Nights).  It was almost like, ok we've had the prep, now the real fun begins.

I thought the most remarkable thing about Punch Drunk was the role of the soundtrack almost as a character interacting with the characters.  I have never seen a movie that used it quite like PT did there.

Kudos to Greenwood for doing a great job.

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1579715/20080115/killers_the.jhtml

A couple of bits:

"For those not in the know, Plainview is the main character in Paul Thomas Anderson's intense, totally excellent "There Will Be Blood," and he is a complete badass. He is ruthless and cruel and vindictive and fueled by an unspoken, insatiable desire to best his competition. He speaks in great, sweeping generalities (there is only black and white in his world, no gray — which sort of makes him like George W. Bush) and shouts and spits and has a truly excellent mustache. He is unstoppable and unapologetic and a force of nature, and he makes Chuck Norris look like a total wuss. Basically, he is the complete opposite of me ... and yet, he is also everything I'd like to be."

"And I don't know what it was about the scene — how unapologetic Plainview is about his shortcomings, how simple and straightforward he makes everything seem — but right there, I decided that the old me was dead and that I would spend every day from here on out living exactly like Daniel Plainview: petty, jealous, booming, unjust, deadly, but being completely, totally OK with all those things. Because, truly, being Daniel Plainview means never having to say you're sorry."

"Earlier this week, I Plainviewed an editor who had double-crossed me. I Plainviewed the dude who works at the deli down the street from me, because the ATM was out of order. I will Plainview Matt Gold, the kid who held me against a tree and threatened to beat me up in seventh grade. I want to Plainview the kids who talk sh-- about me on AbsolutePunk.net. And — perhaps most importantly — I pledge to someday Plainview every single band that has ever wronged me in the past. (First on the list, probably the guys who used to be in the Promise Ring, for making Wood/Water. Watch out, Davey.)"

Another Biblical name--Ruth, the gleaner from the Bible--only this Ruth lives on a ranch that can't grow crops.

I thought Eli moved like a dancer with almost Kabuki-like grace.

The first time I saw the movie when Daniel and Henry are on the beach and Henry shows ignorance about the Peachtree Dance, I assumed Daniel concluded Henry was a Standard Oil spy.

The first shot of the bowling alley--right after the establishing shot of the mansion--was pure Kubrick, even to the lighting.

I spent much of this viewing watching Daniel and Eli's eyes, to see what they registered and gave or did not give away.

Amazing how the film can jump from comedy to searing emotion in seconds.

I've mentioned before my grandfather worked in the oil fields in the first half of the last century. When he died one thing I noticed at the viewing at the funeral home that the undertaker had been unable to get the petroleum out from under his fingernails. So I thought it was a great touch that the older and wealthier Daniel still had oil under his nails.

1.Eli says "Gods voice came down into my belly and sloshed around..in a whisper..."

Daniel goes in to the belly of the earth and whispers, then sloshes around. It can be interpreted too as the muse inside of PT. 

2. Eli says "you will be cast up (Im getting teh chills-again) and thrashed back to perdition!"  Ultimately sucking the artridis from teh woman and smashing the ghost back to hell. 

Plainview sucks the oil from the ground, and thrashes Eli into the mud(Eli used mud in his sermon as well)

Daniel does to Eli in the final scene.  Extracting the ghost/falsehhod from Eli and ultimately smashing him back to perdition.

-At the end of ELis Sermon he says, (about the devil) "And then he left."

When Daniel finishes Eli, needless to say, he says, "I'm finished."

It is my feeble belief, even if teh above is happenstance and conjecture that PT is extracting the falsity for us all and eliminating the ghost of god with the ghost of the devil.  I could be very wrong but I believe PT is agnostic if not indeed an atheist (does anyone know?) and Plainview, teh man, not the devil is killing god off.  Becuase if Plainview does indeed call out the ghost of God, then there is no such thing as the devil, being that God is wholly responsible for Satan himself.  No God=No Devil. 

These are not arguments, just ideas.

And yes, I cannot resist.......Im finished.

I keep seeing this poster around town, and I've been searching for it all over the internet, but with no luck.  I must be doing something worng, since I can't imagine an official poster for the movie not being somewhere online.

Anyway, the poster consists of Daniel with his back to the viewer, sitting in a chair to the left of the poster.  On the right side of the poster is the burning oil derrick.  It looks incredible and I'm dying to buy a copy, or even just have a file saved for a background on my desktop.  If anyone has seen this around the internets, please let me know.

Thanks!

Ladies and Gentleman, we have a new member!

I particularly love PTA for bookending his bloody chronicle with the Brahms concerto (as you may surmise by my SN). It's such an upbeat and lively piece -almost flippant, considering the context. In a way that's fitting since in that aspect it's consistent with DP's irreverence and unapologetic, cavalier attitude towards most everything... I'll never be able to listen to it the same way again because now in my mind, it's almost like it's been christened as DP's unofficial Hymn to Oil or something like that.

Now I can appreciate a lot of different kinds of music but when it comes to critiquing and analyzing it knowledgeably that's an entirely different matter altogether. So my question is, can Brahms's Violin Concerto in D major be analyzed and discussed within the context of the film? Is it possible? Any conservatory students or someone who knows anything about composition in our forum...?

http://www.fyrebug.com/2008/07/21/there-will-be-blood-the-game/?submittype=createnewgame

Please check it out and let me know what you think. Also, any help with getting better pictures or sounds would be great.