When driven by greed, there will be blood.
After watching the Paul Thomas Anderson film There Will Be Blood the other night, I puzzled over the title. The title together with the ‘R’ rating makes one think that this movie is, as a NY Times reviewer said of Kill Bill, a ‘blood bath and beyond.’ It is not. I’m surprised, actually, by the ‘R’ rating. “So, why the title?” I wondered.
There are a number of ways that a story well told – and this is a story well told – can be redemptive. There can be in the course of a story a recognition by a character of his sin with some resultant growth or change. There is growth, there is renewal. That is redemption. But a story can have a redemptive impact as well by showing the inevitable consequences of the sinful choices we make. Greed is the idol driving the characters in this movie, and each bears the consequences of his idolatry.
Some Christians have found it hard to swallow that one of the main characters in this film is a Christian preacher, unflatteringly portrayed. Is this another Hollywood slam against Christianity? Possibly. But P.T Anderson has portrayed Christians positively as well. The power in the movie is in showing that whether we religious or not, the results of the worship of a false god are the same. The preacher and the oilman fall together. There will be blood.
Perhaps your take on this film is different. I’d like to hear. Here, though, is a work of art produced by a non-Christian which, under the oversight of the good providence of God, lays before us visually and powerfully deep truths. True, the film gives no answers. But therein is the opportunity for winsome Christian witness. P. T. Anderson has powerfully shown us the wages of sin. It is up to us to help people see the gift of life that is in Jesus.
ande
Thanks for this review. The nature of false worship leads to the same place. Both looking for their own treasure and both finding in the end what they were looking for. They got what they wanted but what they wanted was not good. Have you seen Magnolia? (one of the roughest and crudest movies ever so be careful) but with a redemptive point… TWBB to me is his sequal to that movie… if at all possible.I am not offended by his portrait of the preacher because it is helpful to me to see how selfish ambition and vain conceit (phil 2:3) affect all. This entire movie is a picture of the insanity of sin.
Randy Greenwald
Ande,Now that you are sober, your comments are much more intelligible… 😉 I had Magnolia in mind when I wrote this post. I’ve upset a few people in the past by recommending that movie because of its crude language. However, the John C. Reilly character in that film is for me one of the most honestly portrayed Christian characters I’ve ever seen in film. Everyone in this movie is falling apart except this one fallible but good Christian man. I loved the film. All three hours of it. Thanks for bringing it up here.Hey, if you ever come to visit Geoff, let me know. I’d love to meet you.