I recently watched the movie "There Will Be Blood" the other day and honestly, I wasn't sure how to take it. It wasn't what I expected at all (which is often a good thing). As I watched I was struck by the theme of family vs. oil: family (those who share the same blood, but also those who become like blood relatives) versus oil (the blood of the land, that we suck out like a milkshake, haha). I could go on and on about this specific movie, but that's not the reason why I write this blog (is it just me or did he step in that guy's blood at the end in the same way as his son stepped in the oil at the beginning?! was that on purpose???).
The reason I bring up this movie is because I came home on Friday night and thought to myself, "I miss watching There Will Be Blood". Wait a minute? What do you mean by "miss watching"? Don't you mean you want to watch it again?
No, I don't have an urge to watch the movie again. I thought it was kinda long and random. But I miss WATCHING it. I miss the time I had watching the movie. Huh?!? Am I making any sense to you?
All I could think of was how much I missed sitting in the same room as Daniel Plainview. The way he talked, the things he said, his whole life. I missed being with him...does that seem strange?!?
And as I was pondering these things on Friday night I realized a new type of movie was being made these days. Movies that don't follow the conventional plot formula. Of course these movies aren't new to me, but previously I couldn't think of a way to understand or describe them. And this epiphany came to me:
These are movies you swim in. They're not journeys where you're heading from point A to point B. They are pools and lakes and oceans that you simply swim in. Whenever I go to the beach I never know what to do with myself. There's no purpose or direction, you just go in and swim. Sometimes you float, sometimes you backstroke, sometimes you go all out, sometimes you dive underwater and swim for as long as you can before losing your breath. But overall it seems pointless to me...yet still sometimes I get the urge to go swimming.
There Will Be Blood is a movie you swim in. And I miss it...
Once I had this epiphany I began to think of other movies that I swam in without realizing it.
Instantly the first one that came to mind was Mulholland Drive.
If you want your mind completely messed with, this is your movie. Who starts multiple storylines and never returns to them!!?!? Also, just when you think the movie is going somewhere it comes to a screeching halt and completely collapses in upon itself!!! Thanks to David Lynch for that one. I have yet to see Twin Peaks or Lost Highway. I'm not sure I want to.
I've always loved Stanley Kubrick movies and I now know why. Almost all of his movies are like this. They are not movies, but rather experiences. Some examples:
2001: A Space Odyssey - If you are not in the right frame of mind this is the most boring movie ever. There is hardly any dialogue and when there is it is dull and emotionless. BUT, when you're in the mood to swim, there's no ocean like it.
Barry Lyndon
Full Metal Jacket
Have you seen the movie Broken Flowers?
I was so upset with this movie cause it just ends, with zero resolution (maybe negative in fact). But now that I think of it, it's a movie you swim in.
Would you agree No Country For Old Men fits?
Any Kurt Vonnegut Jr. book would have to be filmed in this way.
And now that I think of it, the Bible was written completely for swimming.
What do you think? Experienced any movies not listed above?
