So, I finally watched it yesterday. Oh my god, what a movie. It was grand and terrible, so mad and yet completely captivating. Daniel Day-Lewis more than deserved the Oscar, he was terrifying. I think Paul Dano should have been nominated for Best Supporting actor though, he was really underrated as the weaselly Eli Sunday. Silly Academy voting block :nono:
The score was good (better with the visual counterpart, obviously). The cinemaography was grand, the images stark (the burning derrick!), and the plot twists were a shock to me. But honestly, this was really all about the acting. It really drives the movie and makes it as great and insane as it is.
There was nothing in the film that I didn't like, but I ****ing hated the audience. They were laughing at bits in the movie, specifically the baptism scene where Eli makes Daniel speak louder, and the last showdown with the "I drink your milkshake" and Daniel clobbering Eli to death. Someone actually clapped. What the hell? It's not funny! It's not meant to be funny, it's meant to be powerful and scary and the audience completely ruined the mood for me. Bastards. I wanted to yell at them to shut up at one point but I decided there wouldn't be any point. And people were outright talking at the end.
But despite the idiot audience, the movie was still staggeringly good. I can't get it out of my head, it's just a complete tour de force, a masterpiece. I've now watched both this and No Country for Old Men. And while I insert a caution that says I might not be totally unbiased because TWBB is still fresh in my mind and NCFOM isn't, I think that TWBB just might have been the better film. Don't get me wrong, I love NCFOM, but it's more conventional. TWBB was more weird, in a sense, and probably polairised the voting block more. Which is a real shame, because TWBB is more of a risk but is better for it. Now that I think about it, it really got jipped at the Oscars. But it's okay, it's really a masterpiece and I think both this and NCFOM, two movies I can call "great", will be remembered over the years to come
