There Will Be Blood Blu-ray

There Will Be Blood

 (2007)

Crime | Drama



A sprawling epic of family, faith, power and oil, There Will Be Blood is set on the incendiary frontier of California's turn-of-the-century petroleum boom. The story chronicles the life and times of one Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), who transforms himself from a down- and-out silver miner raising a son on his own into a self-made oil tycoon. When Plainview gets a mysterious tip-off that there’s a little town out West where an ocean of oil is oozing out of the ground, he heads with his son, H.W. (Dillon Freasier), to take their chances in dust-worn Little Boston. In this hardscrabble town, where the main excitement centers around the holy roller church of charismatic preacher Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), Plainview and H.W. make their lucky strike. But even as the well raises all of their fortunes, nothing will remain the same as conflicts escalate and every human value – love, hope, community, belief, ambition and even the bond between father and son – is imperiled by corruption, deception and the flow of oil.

For more details about There Will Be Blood on Blu-ray, see the There Will Be Blood Blu-ray Review

Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Kevin J. O'Connor, Ciarán Hinds, Dillon Freasier
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

There Will Be Blood Blu-ray, Video Quality

 


There Will Be Blood can finally be discovered on Blu-ray, and the disc sports a pleasant 1080p high definition, 2.35:1 framed transfer. Grain is an important part of this film, and it is present in many scenes, notably during the film's climax. Grain is also present in darker scenes in abundance. The film opens inside a dimly lit mineshaft and the transfer at this juncture of the movie sports black levels that appear somewhat washed out, but the composition of the scene makes the look understandable and permissible. Most of the time, blacks are as solid as we would expect form a first-rate Blu-ray release. Flesh tones are impeccably accurate. Some background objects appear a bit fuzzy and out-of-focus, but the foreground objects appear nicely reproduced. There are also some minor fluctuations in contrast. Brightly lit scenes are amazing, and there is a terrific sense of depth to much of the transfer as it places us squarely into the oil fields depicted throughout the film. The level of detail to be seen throughout the movie is also impressive. From close-ups of the cast, which show in plain detail their journey throughout the movie, to the impressive visuals of the oil derricks (notably the wood they are constructed from), to the primary environment where the film takes place (where nearly every weed, rock, and grain of dirt is noticeable), There Will Be Blood makes for an impressive visual experience on Blu-ray, and combined with the film's excellent cinematography, it's difficult not to get pulled into the movie visually and feel like you're there in turn-of-the-century California.

There Will Be Blood Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 


There Will Be Blood comes to Blu-ray with a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack that is befitting the film but is certainly not a sonic extravaganza. In fact, there are but one or two utterances of words in the first fourteen minutes of the film until Daniel Plainview discusses the status of his oil wells. The bass heard near the beginning of the film didn't impress me all that much, sounding a bit tiny and uninspired, but rest assured, the moments that call for deep bass later in the movie do not disappoint, the first instance coming at the 19:30 mark of the film. The strings that play over those first fourteen minutes of the movie sound mesmerizingly good, almost signaling the beginning of a horror movie which, in a way, this is. They are never too loud or too low, and brought about inside of me a sense of anticipatory dread. Dialogue is well rendered, although through much of the movie there isn't a lot more than light music and dialogue. Surrounds remain inactive much of the time, but the film's music can be heard in the rears on occasion, sometimes at a higher volume than others. Eli's repeated statement at the end of the film doesn't reverberate the way I thought it would; the surrounds remain mostly silent during his loud proclamation. When the derrick strikes oil, the moment is an amazing sound experience as the power of the gushing crude is not only seen on-screen but felt off of it by the audience. Paramount has done a good job on this disc. While the track isn't overly active, it allows the film to tell its own tale, and indeed, the movie is good enough to stand on its own and allow the music to compliment it rather than dominate it.

There Will Be Blood Blu-ray, News and Updates

• There Will Be Blood Blu-ray Gets Detailed - April 30, 2008


• Paramount Further Details Their Blu-ray Plans - April 30, 2008


• Paramount Reveals Initial Blu-ray Titles - April 29, 2008


• There Will Be Blood Coming to Blu-ray - February 26, 2008

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