# I watched "There Will Be Blood" \[Spoilers\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 15, 2011, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-there-will-be-blood-spoilers/592796 "2011-08-15T17:16:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-there-will-be-blood-spoilers/592796/61 "2011-08-17T09:11:13Z")
> [@EvilTOJ](#): > > You’ve got to be kidding me. The 4th grade music class they hired to play the violins made it annoying. The score was disjointed and amateurish at best. Oooooh we can make violins squeal out of tune _aren’t we edgy?_ The soundtrack was widely acclaimed, from the wiki article: > [@](#): > > Although widely admired and thought of as a contender for the Academy Award for Original Music Score at the 2008 Academy Awards, it was ruled ineligible due to its use of pre-existing material. The score features elements from his compositions ‘Popcorn Superhet Receiver’ and Bodysong (such as the track “Convergence”, played atop the title track during the derrick fire sequence) and works from Arvo Pärt and Johannes Brahms. > > In December 2008, Greenwood’s score was nominated for a Grammy in the category of “Best Score Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media” for the 51st Grammy Awards. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-there-will-be-blood-spoilers/592796/62 "2011-08-17T11:58:28Z")
> [@Alka\_Seltzer](#): > > The soundtrack was widely acclaimed, from the wiki article: Everybody liked the emperor’s clothes, too. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-there-will-be-blood-spoilers/592796/63 "2011-08-17T12:25:14Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > Everybody liked the emperor’s clothes, too. I’m sure no-one is pretending to like the film and soundtrack because they are scared Daniel Day-Lewis will come and chop their heads off (although, now I think about it…). ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-there-will-be-blood-spoilers/592796/64 "2011-08-17T12:33:42Z")
Btw, my point in saying the soundtrack was acclaimed was not that people _should_ like it, but that it shouldn’t be surprising that some people do. Say it three times and it might sink in: _People’s tastes differ. People’s tastes differ. People’s tastes differ._ ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-there-will-be-blood-spoilers/592796/65 "2011-08-17T12:52:42Z")
> [@Alka\_Seltzer](#): > > I’m sure no-one is pretending to like the film and soundtrack because they are scared Daniel Day-Lewis will come and chop their heads off (although, now I think about it…). Yes, yes, I’m sure there are people who really like the film, and not just because it’s an _Important_ _Film_ or because makes them feel superior to talk about how the proles just don’t _get it_ (and really they can’t be _expected_ to, being proles and all). (:smug smirk: ) Yes, I’m sure there are people who genuinely like it. All the more astonishing. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-there-will-be-blood-spoilers/592796/66 "2011-08-17T12:58:59Z")
(BTW, that playful snark is not directed at you **Alka Seltzer** , but at some earlier posts in the thread.) ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-there-will-be-blood-spoilers/592796/67 "2011-08-17T13:12:16Z")
It’s not smug or superior to say that some people “just don’t get” this thing or that. _All people_ don’t get some things. The human mind and human culture is too big and diverse for any of us to properly appreciate _everything_. The “superior” attitude is when people assume that because _they_ can’t see the “emperor’s clothes,” there _really_ can’t be any in anyone’s eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-there-will-be-blood-spoilers/592796/68 "2011-08-17T13:24:01Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > Yes, yes, I’m sure there are people who really like the film, and not just because it’s an _Important_ _Film_ or because makes them feel superior to talk about how the proles just don’t _get it_ (and really they can’t be _expected_ to, being proles and all). (:smug smirk: ) Really, you genuinely think the majority of people who say they like the film are just pretending? :dubious: > [@spark240](#): > > It’s not smug or superior to say that some people “just don’t get” this thing or that. _All people_ don’t get some things. The human mind and human culture is too big and diverse for any of us to properly appreciate _everything_. Very true, but people’s personal sense of aesthetics also play a major role. Some things I could develop a taste for, and some I’ll never be able to enjoy. ---
**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-there-will-be-blood-spoilers/592796/69 "2011-08-17T13:51:21Z")
> [@Alka\_Seltzer](#): > > …people’s personal sense of aesthetics also play a major role. Some things I could develop a taste for, and some I’ll never be able to enjoy. QFT. I’ll never develop a taste for hip hop as a musical genre, but I can appreciate and even enjoy the artistry of a well constructed rap, great mixing by a DJ or well executed beat boxing. But I’d never expect to be taken seriously if I asserted that other people were fans of the music just for the street cred, the dope fashions or the cultural cachet of gangsta swagger. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-there-will-be-blood-spoilers/592796/70 "2011-08-17T14:03:08Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > Everybody liked the emperor’s clothes, too. You understand that the Emperor’s New Clothes does not describe an actual historical event, right? ---
**Author:** ![Stowed\_Bob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stowed_bob/32/3312_2.png) [@Stowed\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stowed_Bob)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-there-will-be-blood-spoilers/592796/71 "2011-08-17T14:22:21Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > including taking on has his own the son of I believe his brother who died in a tragic accident. I assumed the baby was a partner or underling’s son. It isn’t explained, and certainly it is odd how the mother is neither seen nor a factor in Plainview adopting the boy. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-there-will-be-blood-spoilers/592796/72 "2011-08-17T14:46:37Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > You understand that the Emperor’s New Clothes does not describe an actual historical event, right? You are familiar with the word “metaphor,” right? (Surely you must be! Congratulating yourself on spotting the painfully obvious metaphors in TWWB must have been a great source of pleasure!) ---
**Author:** ![markdash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@markdash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markdash)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-there-will-be-blood-spoilers/592796/73 "2011-08-17T14:55:09Z")
I get the idea that people’s tastes are different. I did not care for TWBB; I found it a 2.5 hour waste of time, essentially. PTA took the movie in a totally different direction than I would have, in terms of scoring, dialogue, and pacing. Despite that, I can see why a person of a different ilk would have a deep appreciation for the film. ---
**Author:** ![Chum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ab097/32.png) [@Chum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chum)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-there-will-be-blood-spoilers/592796/74 "2011-08-17T15:41:55Z")
Nzinga, Seated’s synopsis is excellent. I absolutely loved _There Will Be Blood_. I agree that a person’s ability to like the movie probably relates to his/her ability to find something likable in Daniel Plainview. I loved him. I love the music, the pacing, the look and style of the whole thing. Daniel’s baptism scene might be my favorite scene in any movie, ever. I don’t think _not_ liking this movie reflects badly on anyone, at all. It’s slow. It’s long. The main character is an asshole. I might just as easily have not liked the movie, if I were in a different mood when I first saw it. The whole pretentious if you “get it,” philistine if you don’t thing is kind of pointless. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-there-will-be-blood-spoilers/592796/75 "2011-08-17T16:01:54Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > You are familiar with the word “metaphor,” right? (Surely you must be! Congratulating yourself on spotting the painfully obvious metaphors in TWWB must have been a great source of pleasure!) You’re not citing it like a metaphor, you’re citing it as though it actually happened, like people should learn from history. If you’re citing it as a metaphor, you need to provide some argument that the metaphor _applies_–that it provides real insight into the present situation–else you’re making no argument at all, and you’re basically just calling names. You’ve made no point by citing ENC because ENC _didn’t actually happen_. It’s been a long time since I saw TWWB. I liked it fine, thought there was a lot that was admirable about it (including, yes, the soundtrack), and I also didn’t think I’d ever want to see it again. I don’t recall thinking it very interesting to read it chiefly as a work of metaphor, though. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-there-will-be-blood-spoilers/592796/76 "2011-08-17T16:01:55Z")
I’m kind of seeing the opposite in this thread. The suggestion I’m seeing is that people who say they like it are being pretentious and that it doesn’t really have any substance to it. Kind of a reverse snobbery. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-there-will-be-blood-spoilers/592796/77 "2011-08-17T16:06:27Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I’m kind of seeing the opposite in this thread. The suggestion I’m seeing is that people who say they like it are being pretentious and that it doesn’t really have any substance to it. Kind of a reverse snobbery. That’s what **Chum** was saying. “The whole pretentious if you get it… thing” refers to the phenomenon wherein people call those who appreciate the film “pretentious”–just as you’re seeing in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-there-will-be-blood-spoilers/592796/78 "2011-08-17T16:32:46Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > You understand that the Emperor’s New Clothes does not describe an actual historical event, right? This cracked me up. Seriously, though, to respond to Spoke’s point: It’s not always finest linens only-to-be-revealed-to-the-upper-crust-of-society vs. nekkid ass. Sometimes it’s just a matter of some like it and some don’t. Just because you don’t like it, that doesn’t mean you don’t _get_ it. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-there-will-be-blood-spoilers/592796/79 "2011-08-17T16:52:19Z")
It’s also just barely possible that maybe somebody really _didn’t_ get it. I’ve had the experience of not really getting something on the first try. Moods and expectations can play into it. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-there-will-be-blood-spoilers/592796/80 "2011-08-17T17:23:03Z")
I loved this film when I saw it in the theater and it’s on its way from Netflix so I can see it again. Not everybody’s cup of tea, no big deal. I myself cannot _stand_ the **Pirates of the Caribbean** films, so what do I know? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-there-will-be-blood-spoilers/592796.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-there-will-be-blood-spoilers/592796.md?page=5)