This morning, Amy was reading an article about how the upcoming film Atlas Shrugged: Part I may be one fo the frist truly important films to emerge in recent cinema history, suggesting that it may be compared to monumental movies like Rebel Without a Cause and Wall Street as opposed to recent let-downs like Source Code and Wall Street 2. (Knowing Ayn Rand, I wonder if this film will simply turn into an anti-liberal political diatribe, but that's another discussion all together.) I challenged myself to consider what the last truly important film was. It came down to either The Social Network or There Will Be Blood.
Why does There Will Be Blood belong in this category? What does a film that takes place at the turn of the last century (1800 --> 1900) have to do with an audience after the turn of the next century (1900 --> 2000)? There Will Be Blood tells the romance of two individuals whose families have been at odds for generations, namely Industry and Religion, resulting int eh birth (in blood, always in blood) of the modern evangelical ultra-conservative (whoo plays to the kin of both parents, Religion without reason and Industry without conscience - if you consider yourself an evangelical ultra-con and this does not describe you, then you're not the individual that I am critiquing).
But why would Industry and Religion fall in love? They have a couple of things in common - egotism, the desire to conquer every market, a fierce competitiveness ("I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people."), and a desire for fame and/or fortune. In retrospect, I wonder if this is not a romance, but a battle. I'm sure, for many of you out there, you see very little difference between romance and battle. Whatever else it is, There Will Be Blood is a fantastic and important movie.
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