Connecting the plot of starving dirt farmers who are holy rollers, ambitious oil men getting rich on the backs of the poor, and a father bonding with his son make this a powerful period piece. The cinemotography is good. At certain times in the film, the landscape is bright and enhances the California sunsets, and in other scenes at the oil rigs, the lighting is dusky gray and sooty, which intensifies the anxiety of the dialogue.
The fact that this movie is two and a half hours long really does not make a difference. I felt it needed the length to show the different characters' growth from the years of 1900 to the climatic time in history of the 1929 stock market crash, and to bring closure to all the elements of the plot. This is not your regular Saturday afternoon movie, but a dramatic retro-style film.
This edgy and complex film is a great work of art.
Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Running time: 158 minutes
Release date December 26, 2007 (limited) & January 2008 (wide)
Genre: Drama and Adaptation
Distributor: Paramount Vantage
MPAA Rating: R
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