Over-rated Blood

Film relies heavily on the 3E cliché: evil entrepreneurs and evangelists | Marvin Olasky

There Will Be Blood (rated R for violence) qualified for likely Oscar nominations by opening in a few theaters late last month. It has its nationwide rollout next week. If you're a moviegoer who trusts the many reviewers who have already declared it magnificent, you'll race to the box office. Here's one piece of advice: Don't go.

The plot is simple enough: A determined oil man in the early 1900s gets rich by lying to farmers and buying their land cheap. An evangelist becomes powerful in other malignant ways. They're both hypocrites, mirror images of corruption who increasingly show their hatred for all, including family members and each other.

The movie has moments that transcend its 3E clichéd assumption that Entrepreneurs and Evangelists are all Evil. Its visually stunning opening and several other scenes display director Paul Thomas Anderson's cinematic talent. Daniel Day-Lewis, playing the businessman who becomes more overtly evil, is the early Best Actor favorite.