Bostonist heard the hype about There Will Be Blood, but we didn't really believe it until we saw it for ourselves. We expected it to be just another violent, manly epic about the American west and dreams of success. And then... we saw it. In a post-cinematic fit of confused depression, which didn't cease without the help of several beers, we realized: this is the best damn film we've seen in years. Not because of the blood, not because of the violence, but because of its basic truths about human nature, and the way it speaks strongly to current events. There Will Be Blood says a lot about America--both how it is, how it has been, and how we can affect how it could be--and is a definite must-see for 2008. More about this remarkable film after the jump.

There Will Be Blood is a distinctly American epic, a tale of a self-described oil man bent on attaining success through the exploitation of--but never dependence on--others. Daniel Plainview's rise and fall are chronicled in gritty detail; the movie begins with a literal fall (a ladder breaks as Plainview climbs out of a mining hole he's dug), and reveals Plainview's singleminded tenacity by showing him pull himself out of the hole and over miles of treacherous terrain to sell the gold he's discovered. Figures who puts profit above fixing what's broken should be familiar to all Americans, and Plainview's obsession with making money carries throughout the film.

In order to achieve success--which amounts to little more than living, with his "closest" associates (a closeness that hinges mostly on financial knowledge), in a gorgeous mansion complete with bowling alley--Plainview kills men, abandons his only love, betrays his principles (if he even had any to begin with), and--perhaps most cruelly--forces others to denounce their own values as well. It's this last step on the path toward hell that America has been teetering on for years, as we've been forced to set aside our values and freedom in exchange for false promises of protection. Perhaps we're not Plainview, exactly--not all of us brutally exploit others. But what does it mean to sit back and watch Plainviews, presidents, profiteers, and others chase profits at the expense of humanity?

The role of religion in the film is significant, but mostly unclear from the previews. And, despite the prevalence of church scenes and attempted blessings in the movie, it's not quite apparent what the meaning of so much religious presence might be. In part, it provides an easy way for characters to force each other to betray their (religious or otherwise) principles; it also makes for some dramatic preaching scenes. Religion is not necessarily belittled in the film, which recognizes it as a powerful community-building force and an effective way to make people believe in themselves. But given what even the most religious characters in the film can be persuaded to do, it's hard to not be a little frightened by the recent evangelical successes in some areas. It's clear people need something to believe in--but do we believe in the right things? Many characters in There Will Be Blood, certainly, do not.

Some negative reviews of There Will Be Blood focus on the movie as an adaptation of Upton Sinclair's novel Oil!, as if the success of a movie should hinge on its faithfulness to an existing story. But it's in reinventing the American success story, in parodizing the dream of making it big and making the big bucks, that There Will Be Blood soars past similar western fantasies. Salon criticizes the film because "An epic has to expand as it proceeds; this one narrows" without recognizing that the narrowing of the film reflects the own narrowing of our society's concerns and the narrowness of lives based on profit. The movie's ending has also been criticized as silly, even absurd, but it's the perfect denouement to a film about the absolute absurdity of empty success. To see this movie and not come away questioning one's own priorities and exploitations--both how you exploit others and how you're being exploited--is to grossly, sadly, miss the point.

This is not a movie to love. It might even be a movie to hate. But, above all, it's a movie that should leave you with a sick, sinking feeling about the state of the world--and the state of your own heart. There's no hope offered, no empty promises of change, just an epic indictment of the brutality on which so much success has been founded. And it's only by recognizing that brutality that we can ever hope to reject it. To (mis)read Plainview as a hero is a grave mistake. Saying that There Will Be Blood is a call to get out and vote is stretching it a little, but that's one way to read the movie's message: who are you to stand by and see such horror without doing something to intervene? Our society holds ruthless people up as heroes, rarely questioning the necessity of climbing to success on the backs of others. The title phrase of the film is never actually uttered in the movie, but the subtext is this: if the upper echelon of our society continues to fatten itself (literally and figuratively) while others starve, there will--and should--be blood.