I watched the movie There Will Be Blood for the first time last night, and it made me think hard about storytelling. I had recently seen No Country For Old Men as well. These films have a long list of similarities. Both are set decades ago against the color-sapped backdrop of the Southwest. Both have a certain majesty in their cinematography. Both are studies in greed and bloodshed. Both have murderers as main characters. And both were nominated for Best Picture, which, of course, No Country won.
I mention this here because film is the dominant storytelling medium of our time, and I would assume that many of you, like me, take cues for your own work from your favorite movies. I guess this is all I'm trying to say: I, for one, would prefer to see fewer stories like these, rather than more, in the future.
I won't give away the endings, but both films -- seen purely as stories, not as cinematic works of art -- disappointed me terribly. Both have riveting action and brilliant insight into the nature of humanity and the world. But ultimately both stories are static. They are about evil men being evil and staying evil.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not the guy who has to have flowers and bluebirds and hand-holding just before the credits roll. One of my favorite films of all time is The Pledge, and that list also includes Into The Wild and Gone Baby Gone. This is not a demand for a happy ending.
What I do need, though, at minimum, is a flash of human warmth and a moment of revelation. From these stories I got very little of the first and none of the second.
Go and do likewise?
No.
Go and do otherwise.
Leave a comment