Sunday, February 17, 2008

There Will Be Blood

I finally had a chance to go see There Will Be Blood last night and was thoroughly entertained. Starting off, the music set the tone for the movie from the first scene which really captured the intensity of the oil expansion period. At the end of the movie, I realized I had clinched my fists throughout the entire film.

The movie called attention to the fact that companies like Standard Oil also support a far larger, oft forgotten network of smaller energy third-party contractors and providers, like Daniel Day-Lewis's Plainview Oil Co. in the movie. These energy entrepreneurs are only currently incentivized to push their boundaries far and wide to find new ways to expand the market for oil. These small oil actors today have neither the ability nor the motives to go "green" unless more big energy dollars flow to more alternative energy research. In addition, government promotion of so called 'green-collar' jobs, for the expansion of the installation and distribution of green electricity, for example, must expand nationally. Cities like San Francisco, and more recently Austin have begun to embrace the green economy by encouraging local job growth in key alternative energy areas. More local and state governments getting behind the economic power of new energy will lead to the creation of more modern day H.W. Plainviews driving for change in the new green economy.

1 comment:

Bonnie Beavers said...

My thoughts on "There Will be Blood." I found this movie really interesting and enjoyed it thoroughly.

The movie had a very realistic portrayal of the oil industry at this time. The technology that was used was accurate of the time. It was hard to see the lives that were lost during drilling and the sacrifices that had to be made to obtain oil at this time. I found most interesting the way that this movie showed the corruption of the industry. Daniel Day Lewis's character lost so much to advance in the oil industry. The fact that he took H.W. along with him to pursue further drilling and portrayed the "family man" in the oil industry shows his selfishness from the start. He began to love H.W. but when the boy lost his hearing, Plainview lost all connection with his "claimed" son. The death and corruption began to make Plainview mad. In the end, with all the money he had made and the place he held in the oil industry, he was a lonely, corrupt man. This showed the cut-throat nature of the oil industry at this time.

I am really glad Dr. Webber suggested this movie. I probably wouldn't have seen it otherwise and I am really glad that I did.