There Will Be Blood...and Maybe Some Oscars

The film "There Will Be Blood" was recently nominated for 8 academy awards. After seeing the film earlier this week, I am not surprised.

What was surprising was how blatantly the film pandered for the Oscar nods. The movie was so consistently melodramatic that it was hard to follow the storyline; which itself was dry and inconsistent.

I really wanted the film to offer some insight into the early days of the U.S. oil industry, but was disappointed to find that all it did was attempt to portray every "oilman" as a crazed lunatic who would stop at nothing in his pursuit of oil.

It was also clearly evident that the film attempted to draw contemporary parallels; insinuating that oil is somehow inherently evil and that it destroys everything it touches. It reminded me of the Lord of the Rings, in which the ring (oil) has some mystical power over those who come into contact with it (sorry for dorking out, but you get my point).

All in all, I think the film was so blatantly melodramatic that it was hard to watch. Slow-moving? Overly dramatic? Sounds like Oscar gold to me.