And The Loser Is... #5- The new Kane and the Southern Fargo

Citizen Kane, to my mind, is the greatest American film ever made. Now, that may sound like the cliched opinion of a film student, but there is just so much about it to admire about this film, far beyond Orson Welles' revolutionary deep-focus cinematography (via director of photography Gregg Toland) and expressionist framing.
But, I'm not going to talk about Citizen Kane today. I only bring it up to make the point that this masterpiece of American cinema lost out to How Green Was My Valley in the Best Picture category at the 1942 Academy Awards. Fast-forward 66 years, and the film I am going to talk about today- a film that I consider in many ways to be the modern day Citizen Kane, and the best American film since Raging Bull, maybe earlier- is also losing out in the Best Picture category. The film in question is Paul Thomas Anderson's breathtaking There Will Be Blood.

Like Kane, There Will Be Blood is a portrait of a man whose obsession with power overrides everything else in his life, until that obsession is all he has. From the very first shot of Daniel Day-Lewis’s Daniel Plainview single-mindedly scrabbling for oil in the American south, it is clear that this is going to be the type of film that you don’t so much watch, as experience. Day-Lewis’s performance as the oil tycoon who won't be stopped until he has it all is billed as the main event here, and it is a powerhouse display (earning Day-Lewis the best actor Oscar), showing a man who becomes beguiled by his own greed, a man who is defined by his bravura, and his success, until there is really nothing else there. Plainview isn’t only an ‘oil man’, he is a showman, and there is great enjoyment to be had in working out where the show ends, and the man begins.

Dano and Day-Lewis: Part of the show.

But, just like Kane is elevated beyond mere character-study by its theme of innocence lost, There Will Be Blood isn’t just about one man. It is also a damning indictment of what could be considered the twin evils of modern America- corporation and religion. The religious aspect is represented by Paul Dano’s conniving preacher, Eli Sunday, on whose land Plainview has acquired the rights to drill for oil. The battle of wills that plays out between these two men, consumed by greed, provides thrilling drama, and many of the film's most memorable scenes. Key amongst these is the scene where Eli forces Daniel to appear at his church and 'give himself' to the Lord in front of a full congregation. This scene tells us a lot about the personalities of both men- Eli is just as greedy to be on top as Daniel, delighting in showing his superiority over his nemesis. Plainview, meanwhile, is a man who is willing to degrade himself publicly in order to keep the trust of the townspeople whose faith he relies on. To him, this is part of the show, it's part of the con, and, while you know he realises that this is something that he has to do, you also realise that he won't ever forget Eli's part in his degradation.

Anderson’s shot-making is incredible, including that tour-de-force opening sequence, and the later scene in which a fire breaks out in the field, another important scene because of the way it impacts the relationship between Daniel and his 'son', H.W. In the early stages of the film, it appears that Daniel's feelings for the boy are genuine, indeed that that is the only thing genuine about Daniel. As the film progresses though, it becomes more and more likely that H.W is just a means to an ends, a point of view that seems to be backed up when the child is deafened in the fire-causing explosion, and Daniel packs him off to a boarding school. In many ways,  H.W is There Will Be Blood's Rosebud- that one link to innocence which stands true amongst all of the double-crosses and dirty deeds.

Long-shots of the oilmen at work help to visualise the key ideas of the film, with even Jonny Greenwood's score offering a dissonant reminder that this is a film in which industry plays a key role. Everything about this film, each shot, each nuance of performance, each component of soundtrack, is calculated to create a film of startling depth. It's a masterpiece, and well deserving of a 5 star rating.

So, it must have been a really good film to take it down, right? Well, not necessarily- we are, afterall, dealing with an institution which named Crash the best picture of the year at one point. As it turns out though, the film that beat it is pretty damn good in its own right; the Coen brothers' No Country For Old Men.

In certain respects, these two films are two peas in a pod. Both are dark, epic parables about the state of America, featuring superlative directing and acting, and both are sure to stand the test of time. The mood of the Coens' film is slightly different though. There Will Be Blood is noted for its bravura, and its showiness, whereas No Country takes a more languid approach, which is typical of the brothers' work. And, while the former film can be read as an attack on the place of religion and corporation in America, the latter is more a meditation (albeit a very violent one!) on the shift in moral values at play. This is personified by Tommy Lee Jones' sheriff, who is tracking a merciless killer (himself tracking a man who has gone on the run after recovering some money from a drug deal). The character brings to mind the Frances McDormand character, Marge, in the Coens' Fargo. She was also a small-town sheriff who trudged on in the face of inexplicable violence. In fact, the film as a whole plays at times like a darker, Southern version of Fargo; the half mocking, half endearing characterisation, the off-beat asides and inscrutability, and the bursts of shocking violence.

Anton Chigurh: Pure, relentless evil.

Javier Bardem gives a scintillating performance as one of the more truly frightening villains in recent cinema history. As the hunter of Josh Brolin, his deep expressive gaze, cold, composed manner, and, of course, his hair-style, make his Anton Chigurh a character of pure relentless evil. Bardem won the Oscar for best supporting actor, and truly deserved it. What makes the character especially scary is his unpredictability, as we see in an already famous scene where Chigurh asks a shopkeeper to call heads or tails with his life on the line.

The dark cinematography and abundance of night scenes compliment the tone perfectly, and the chase elements deliver the requisite tension, but No Country works best as a portrait of a changing landscape, and the men caught up in that change, bringing to mind some of the seminal work of the American New Wave.

The Coens also won the best director award for this film, and as a long-time fan, I'm happy for them. This is certainly a well-judged piece of filmmaking, and they did a far better job of adapting a Cormac McCarthy novel than John Hillcoat did a couple of years later with The Road. Still, the award should have gone to Anderson.

2007 was a very strong year for American film (which I'll talk more about in a later ATLI...), so it's no insult when I say that I think it's only the seventh best U.S film of the year. And, while I clearly think There Will Be Blood is a superior film, No Country is still one of the strongest Best Picture winners of the past decade. I give it 4 stars.

In ATLI... #6, I'll be going all the way back to the first awards ceremony, to talk about the earliest nominee I've seen. Until then, here's looking at you.