THERE WILL BE BLOOD: A

There Will Be Blood [is] a towering new American epic and instant modern classic from Paul Thomas Anderson. A fierce story meshing big exterior-oriented themes of American character with an interior-oriented portrait of an impenetrable man is only half Anderson's quest, and his exciting achievement. The other half lies in the innovation applied to the telling itself. For a huge picture, Blood is exquisitely intimate. For a long, slow movie, it speeds. For a story set in the fabled bad-old-days past, it's got the terrors of modernity in its DNA. For bleakness, the movie can't be beat — nor for brilliance. —Lisa Schwarzbaum

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