There will be Blood is an all American epic historical film that gained critical praise and received numerous awards. What was it that made this film what it is today? Could it be the exceptional performance of Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview, the work of the writer and director Paul Thomas Anderson. Or did it all come from the novel it was inspired by, Upton Sinclair’s Oil? What actually made this film so remarkable was the carefully chosen symbolism that ties that whole story together. Paul Andersons precise use of characterization and the detailed development of the setting creates a sparse and sprawling epic about the underhanded "heroes" of capitalism. The seemingly meticulous setting that Anderson paints reveals an old fashioned world brought back to life. Total absence of female characters amplifies the not too long ago male dominated society. The omission of female presence, thoughts and ideals conjure up the exact ambiance for the film. What are men supposedly in charge of, or are at least considered better at than women? Men are presumed to be superior in the supervision and management of business deals. The harsh way Plainviews conducts business certainly labels him as a “man’s man”. The most appropriate example of this type of business transaction is when he says, “If I travel all the way there and find …show more content…
For example, when H.W goes deaf he has to eventually learn sign language and adjust to new ways of communication. One would assume parents of a deaf child would learn sign language as well but Plainview did not. Daniel’s continuous hand gestures are a sign that ‘sign language’ is ok on his terms, yet he is not willing to learn it for H.W. Daniel firmly exclaims, “Then say it! You got something to say to me then say it. I'd like to hear you speak instead of your little dog, woof woof woof woof woof woof woof!” This behavior displays Plainviews care only for
There Will be Blood (2007) is an entertaining movie that delineates in various forms that will be discussed from other western genres. It is a story that is formed from a novel by Upton Sinclair’s book, Oil! (1927) (Belton, 2009, p.401). Many westerns were based on dime novels that were written in the mid and late 1800s (Belton, 2009, p.246). American society was going through a transitional period from an agrarian society to an industrial society in the 1800s and early 1900s (Wright 2001; Desk Encyclopedia, 1989, pp. 27-28, 630-631). The change in revolutions could explain the difference in most western genres and the movie There Will be Blood. In fact, one important different aspect is the contrasts between There Will be Blood and other westerns is that most westerns are based on novels that were written earlier than Upton Sinclair’s OIL!. The United States had become more industrial and had started to change their morals, interactions, rationality, autonomy, and self-interests. These differences will compared by showing how There Will be Blood uses an anti-hero, industrialism, deceit, greed, and what is to be considered a more eastern way of life.
Discriminating gender roles throughout the movie leaves one to believe if they are supposed to act a certain way. This film gives women and men roles that don’t exist anymore, during the 60s women were known to care for the family and take care of the house, basically working at home. However, a male was supposed to fight for his family, doing all the hard work so his wife didn’t have too. In today’s world, everyone does what makes them happy. You can’t tell a woman to stay at home, that makes them feel useless. Furthermore, males still play the roles of hard workers, they are powerful compared to a woman. However, in today’s world a male knows it isn’t right to boss a woman around, where in the 60s, it happened, today women have rights to do what they want not what they are
From the beginning of society, men and women have always been looked at as having different positions in life. Even in the modern advanced world we live in today, there are still many people who believe men and women should be looked at differently. In the work field, on average women are paid amounts lower than men who may be doing the exact same thing. Throughout the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston brings about controversy on a mans roles. Janie Crawford relationships with Logan, Joe and Tea Cake each bring out the mens feelings on masculine roles in marital life.
The opening paragraph of “Greasy Lake” written by T. Coraghessan Boyle, displays the fact that the following passage is nothing but a mere recollection for the narrator. In this recollection, the unnamed narrator speaks about how life was like during the days of his youth. The narrator describes his youth in a very descriptive way displaying what actions surrounded his life and what he acted like. For example, in the opening sentence he said, “There was a time when courtesy and winning ways went out of style, when it was good to be bad, when you cultivated decadence like a taste. We were all dangerous characters then” (Boyle 569). This statement describes the societal norms of his generation and the type of behavior he was striving to model
Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr. was born in a boardinghouse in Baltimore, Maryland on September 20, 1878, to Upton Beall and Priscilla Harden Sinclair. Sinclair's childhood was complicated and the future of his family was always economically uncertain. His family was still recovering from the devastation dealt to the Southern aristocracy by Federal Reconstruction, and his father, an unsuccessful liquor salesman, was an alcoholic who often squandered the family's income. When he was ten, Sinclair's family moved to New York City, where they lived in numerous boardinghouses. Sinclair explains, "...one night I would be sleeping on a vermin-ridden sofa in a lodging house, and the next night under silken coverlets in a fashionable home. It all depended on whether my father had the money for that week's board" (qtd. in Liukkonen).
Although neither take a significant role in the novel, Jack and Leon Tallis are critical starting points to understanding the expectations of masculinity. Beginning with Jack Tallis, we are not told outright, but it seems masculinity includes being the provider for the family, even if that means long nights away from the home. Emily has come to expect the “phone call from the department to say that Mr. Tallis had to work late and had to stay up in town” (96). But, this also implies Jack Tallis is having an affair, suggesting being involved with multiple women and sexual superiority is a right of those claiming masculinity. From the example set forth by Leon, readers can also assume the “gift of avoiding responsibility” and the ability to “float free” is also bestowed upon men if they so desire it as an option (96). From this limited view of masculinity readers are shown both freedom and power as key
and their daily lives. This presentation of masculinity can alter how men respect women in the
Classic narrative cinema is what Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson (The classic Hollywood Cinema, Columbia University press 1985) 1, calls “an excessively obvious cinema”1 in which cinematic style serves to explain and not to obscure the narrative. In this way it is made up of motivated events that lead the spectator to its inevitable conclusion. It causes the spectator to have an emotional investment in this conclusion coming to pass which in turn makes the predictable the most desirable outcome. The films are structured to create an atmosphere of verisimilitude, which is to give a perception of reality. On closer inspection it they are often far from realistic in a social sense but possibly portray a realism desired by the patriarchal and family value orientated society of the time. I feel that it is often the black and white representation of good and evil that creates such an atmosphere of predic...
Throughout the whole film you can really see how the women stand their ground and act towards men in the film, such as the girls Polly, Carol, and Trixie when they are discussing how to start Barney Hopkins film, men didn’t really listen to women’s advice but in that particularly scene Barney did listen. Carol one of the main characters, shows independence and strength and when Brad's older brother J. Lawrence professes his love to her but then gets rejected in the result of him not allowing Polly and Brad to have his consent on their marriage, Carol simply says “No” because, how is it right for them to get married but not her friend and his brother due to the fact that Polly is a showgirl as well as Carol. J. Lawrence shows how men were biased in the Great Depression and throughout the years to come, it also relates back to the title of the film “Gold Diggers” which was how Lawrence perceived women who were involved in the show business or not married. Trixie another show girl exemplified how gold diggers were during this era and she portrays a gold digger by taking advantage of Peabody the family’s lawyer and having him pay for her expenses and whatever she may want, although she does like him you can't really
Over time, the image of men has changed. This is due mostly to the relaxation of rigid stereotypical roles of the two genders. In different pieces of literature, however, men have been presented as the traditional dominate figure, the provider and rule maker or non-traditional figure that is almost useless and unimportant unless needed for sexual intercourse. This dramatic difference can either perpetuate the already existing stereotype or challenge it. Regardless of the differences, both seem to put men into a negative connotation.
An undeniably common theme shared between There Will Be Blood and Citizen Kane is the pursuit of the American Dream. Both Daniel Plainview and Charles Kane share an immense strive for ambition, achieving their success, and failures, in much different ways, with ultimately the same outcome, isolation due to negligence. The drive both protagonists share leads to their wealth, as well as their many losses, personal, physical, emotional, and psychological. The American Dream consists of the achievement of wealth, status, success, and love, which both Plainview and Kane struggle to achieve throughout the two films. The films illustrate how pursing this American Dream eventually leads to downfall, corruption and complete isolation. Ironically, the
Men were the ones in the family who worked and provided for his family's wellbeing. Because of the family's economic dependence on the husband, he had control over all of his family members. This showed the amount of progress needing to come in the future to allow women to start receiving some of the many rights they deserved which men had and so frequently took for granted.
The films message to viewers about gender and power is that women are meant to take care of the home and play the supportive role, while men go out to their jobs and provide. Men are strong and burly and women are naïve and domesticated. Women need men and men always come to the rescue to save women and give them a happy ending. Power is portrayed in the film both visually and through the film’s script and dialogue. The common idea that women are inferior to men is placed subtly in this movie throughout the plot and how these charac...
Men are traditionally seen as being in the "supervisor" position in the home. They are the heads of the household, the breadwinners, and the women are behind the scenes, like the threads that hold everything together. The same can be said about the workplace. Men tend to hold administrative positions, while women usually have the positions that support the administrator. They are the secretaries and assistants that do the work for their male bosses and prepare things for them that later on only the administrator may receive credit for. " ‘Where,' asks the Englishman who is prominent in social welfare, 'are you're men? We see their names on the letter-heads of organizations, but when we go to international conferences, we meet almost entirely women.' 'Our men-oh, they are the chairmen of boards, they determine the financial policy of our agencies, but they leave the practice to women. They are too busy to go to conferences.'" (Mead 304).
“Entertainment has to come hand in hand with a little bit of medicine, some people go to the movies to be reminded that everything’s okay. I don’t make those kinds of movies. That, to me, is a lie. Everything’s not okay.” - David Fincher. David Fincher is the director that I am choosing to homage for a number of reasons. I personally find his movies to be some of the deepest, most well made, and beautiful films in recent memory. However it is Fincher’s take on story telling and filmmaking in general that causes me to admire his films so much. This quote exemplifies that, and is something that I whole-heartedly agree with. I am and have always been extremely opinionated and open about my views on the world and I believe that artists have a responsibility to do what they can with their art to help improve the culture that they are helping to create. In this paper I will try to outline exactly how Fincher creates the masterpieces that he does and what I can take from that and apply to my films.