Community Thread VI

Post #501 » by **milesfides** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 6:18 am

You mean the thing with the preacher? I think that was pretty weak too. Maybe it was bad casting, isn't he the emo kid from Little Miss Raja Bell?

I still thought the themes were strong enough to come through. The people I watched it with generally thought the movie was an allegory representing the oil industry and evangelical Christianity in America. All political. I guess, but knowing that it was a PTA movie, I viewed it on a much more personal level.

Even from the beginning, there was this battle between man and earth. It's a struggle. The movie starts with him hammering away at earth, and by the end, he's hammering away at somebody's head. When man finds something of worth, the stakes are raised, and I saw a broader theme, the battle for power and control, of not only the earth, but of other men.

But the pivotal moment, his son getting hurt when the oil drill hits the motherload, DDL is confronted with the fact that he doesn't have ultimate control in life, and moreover, his own greed drove a wedge between him and his son, which ultimately destroys him. DDL responds in a very natural way, by emptily continuing his pursuit for more oil, and by suppressing guilt. Natural, but it erodes his humanity, and drives away his son further away from him.

*Sidenote - isn't that indicative of the irony in life? Workaholic dads, who say they're working for their children, yet neglect and/or abuse them. I think PTA is revealing a much darker truth, that in reality, dads or parents might not love their children as much as they value their job, work, wealth, accomplishments.

Where does the preacher come in? A struggle for power. DDL sees him as just a money-grubbing charlatan that has to be tolerated only out of necessity - DDL views him as an annoying gnat. But after his son is injured, suddenly the preacher is empowered by what he believes was an act of God, which is a threat to DDL's invulnerable facade, that powers exist beyond DDL's control, powers that are punishing him for his sins. I think this infuriates DDL, but his greed is powerful enough for him to be humiliated by the preacher, and at the same time, I think there's underlying guilt that allows himself to be punished and abused - all in that funny/scary baptism scene.

And I think at the end, DDL, all but destroyed by this guilt, puts the question to the preacher: is God real? Exposing the preacher's phoniness re-awakens DDL's fury, and as he kills the preacher, presumably for several reasons, getting revenge for his past humiliation at the hands of a fraud, and by killing the phony preacher, killing the notion that God exists, killing his guilt.

man v. nature, man v. man, man v. God, man v. self

all in one movie, all simultaneously.

To me, the emotions were real, something that PTA does really well, but I thought his moral to the story was pretty powerfully illustrated:

We obsess about power and wealth, but in the process, our desires might result in doing bad things, particularly to other people and ourselves. And while we might succeed and gain power in this life, the sins or immoral acts that we committed along that process will ultimately destroy our souls, whether through guilt and/or anger. Can religion save us? In PTA's estimation, through fake preachers, no.

Was it an attack on Christianity and religion? Some Christians think so, but I don't. Christians or Christian preachers are just as human as everybody else, and deal with their own sins, and there are many parallels between the preacher and DDL. Ultimately, the preacher was just as materialistic as DDL, and ironically, DDL becomes something like the wrath of God as the preacher denies his religion. The preacher is his own character in the movie, not a plot device. He meets his bloody end due to his own particular sins.

I think PTA is making a very strong statement about human nature, the obsession with wealth and power, the corruption that ensues, and the destruction that is inevitably met. From an oil tycoon to a phony preacher, there will be a reckoning.

It's interesting that DDL ends the movie, bloody, with "I'm finished." That mirrors Jesus' last words, "It is finished." I think that was deliberate - obvious to me, but nobody in my group saw it.

I thought the parallels were obvious: Jesus, whose work was to die in order to raise mankind. On the other hand, murder is in the heart of man, that's his lot in life, rising by destroying. Man is by nature an enemy of God.

Still, I thought the actor's screen presence was not strong enough to match up with DDL. He wasn't much of an adversary, although he's set up as one.

Definitely worthy of being best picture, imo. What did you guys think of it?

Post #502 » by **milesfides** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 9:20 am

haha, Sedition. That is wrong, man. Pretty funny though.

Post #503 » by **milesfides** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 9:22 am

So I'm using a browser I never heard before, called Opera. It seems pretty damn amazing so far. IE has to be the slowest. Firefox has some weird bugs when it displays certain content. I hate how Safari handles video files.

SashAlex · Post #504 » by **SashAlex** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 11:40 am

milesfides wrote:So I'm using a browser I never heard before, called Opera. It seems pretty damn amazing so far. IE has to be the slowest. Firefox has some weird bugs when it displays certain content. I hate how Safari handles video files.

Yeah ! I've been using Opera for a while and it seems to be the fastest browser I've ever used. Explorer is slow. But, you know miles, the speed of your internet depends also a bit on your RAM memory...that's true.

Post #505 » by **Danny Darko** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 5:36 pm

Re: There Will Be Blood

I can appreciate the character development... though that seems to be the whole vehicle for the movie. I really liked DDL's acting as usual. I liked the slightly understated camera work. I know my director buddy thinks the whole thing is the best movie he's ever seen.

I guess I was just looking for sides to develop and the Preacher was an uninteresting nemesis. Like you said, Miles, not really a nemesis so much as a character in a story. I guess it was Daniel vs Daniel for the most part.

That movie can only be followed up by Alien vs Predator II

Post #506 » by **alfurd** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 5:41 pm

I was thinking of switching to Opera a while back because if you use FF2 on a laptop you could literally tell when the browser was on... the comp starts working harder and consequently it'd start generating more heat. Decided not to switch because I was too used to my extensions.

Opera's comparable to Firefox 2, but I just tried out the Firefox 3 beta this week and it's great. Better functionality that's natural to adjust to, and on the technical side it uses fewer resources than Opera and IE and I think it's faster as well. Only problem is that the interface is pretty ugly right now and it isn't my default because most extensions don't work.

SashAlex · Post #507 » by **SashAlex** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 6:06 pm

j-far wrote:Sash, the avy is awesome.

If they beat Derby tonight, they'll be 4 pts. ahead of Arsenal ! :clap:

...oops ! Bolton.

Sedition · Post #508 » by **Sedition** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 6:16 pm

Did anyone else find that the music in Blood was misleading in a way? The tempo would quicken and you'd think there were something important going to happen, and then nothing does. I found myself constantly getting worked up, on the edge of my seat because of the quickening music, and then I'd be confused by how anticlimactic it was when nothing really happened. I dunno, maybe it was just me, but it did aggravate me a tiny bit while I was watching it.

I got some tix to a skybox for the Clips-GS game tonight (my little brother won them from the Boy Scouts). It's sad, he can't find a single friend that actually wants to go to a Clips game, so looks like I'll be taking him instead.

Man, the Clippers truly are pathetic. :nonono:

Post #509 » by **kno** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 6:35 pm

Sedition wrote:I got some tix to a skybox for the Clips-GS game tonight (my little brother won them from the Boy Scouts). It's sad, he can't find a single friend that actually wants to go to a Clips game, so looks like I'll be taking him instead.

Man, the Clippers truly are pathetic.

I had a similar experience this year. I think it was in November.

Im in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program (you mightve heard of it), and they were giving out free tickets to a Clipper game.

Out of the 20 tickets they had, they only gave away 7 because no one wanted to go.

I just went to watch Chris Paul demolish them.

:lol:

hermes · Post #510 » by **hermes** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 7:07 pm

Los Angeles Clippers: where you can't even give tickets away happens

Erik Eleven · Post #511 » by **Erik Eleven** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 7:18 pm

Hustling...

I'll see you guys soon.

Sedition, nice observation. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I hate when the score is manipulating in a misleading way. Film music should never excite you for the wrong reasons

Sedition · Post #512 » by **Sedition** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 7:33 pm

Well others may disagree with my assessment of the music. I'll admit I wasn't paying sharp attention during the movie, so maybe there was a point to the random pickups in tempo. I just didn't see what it was.

Post #513 » by **kno** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 7:44 pm

hermes wrote:Los Angeles Clippers: where you can even give tickets away and only fill out 50% of Staples Center happens

You had a little typo I had to fix.

:lol:

hermes · Post #514 » by **hermes** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 8:10 pm

Kno wrote:-= original quote snipped =-

You had a little typo I had to fix.

i meant to say "can't even give the tickets away"
but yours works too

SashAlex · Post #515 » by **SashAlex** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 10:46 am

Kno wrote:-= original quote snipped =-

You had a little typo I had to fix.

I just don't understand one thing ! When I look at the boxscore when Clippers play at Staples, I see there 20.000 or more attendance ?! I just don't get it ! Could someone explain me ?! :roll:

iamworthy · Post #516 » by **iamworthy** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 2:55 pm

Tony, I read that exchange you had on the general message board yesterday with...im not going to say any names you should know. What the hell was that about. That was crazy. If you have no idea what I am talking about I will be more specific.

Post #517 » by **Slava** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 4:45 pm

SashAlex wrote:-= original quote snipped =-

If they beat Derby tonight, they'll be 4 pts. ahead of Arsenal !

...oops ! Bolton.

Top of the table. Supremacy restored.

8'sReverse · Post #518 » by **8'sReverse** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 5:34 pm

I type in "everbodys a critic" into Google's image search and this is what popped up...

hermes · Post #519 » by **hermes** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 5:51 pm

dang what is that a pig?

TonyMontana · Post #520 » by **TonyMontana** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 8:26 pm

iamworthy wrote:Tony, I read that exchange you had on the general message board yesterday with...im not going to say any names you should know. What the hell was that about. That was crazy. If you have no idea what I am talking about I will be more specific.

Well MANG since we're not suppose to talk B.Ball in the community thread ( RULE N# 69 of the fight club ) :rofl:

Its all good Mang , you know it reminded me of the movie Friday .. you know D-Bo was always trying to punk out Craig and Smokie since he was bigger ..... But I be quiet .....LOLLLL ...

Its cool Mang , I guess according to him ... Duncan is a much better player than Kobe can ever be .