# 129 There Will Be Blood (2007)

There Will Be Blood is a story about a silver miner who discovers oil in the shaft and starts his own oil company. This is one of those movies shows a different historical period or a different region so well that it makes you want to learn more about that period or region. I really liked the way Paul Thomas Anderson portrayed the lives of people who lived in the western United States at the beginning of 20th century. At the same time the film tells us a story about a man whose mind is possessed by greed and desire of power, universal features of human nature.

Many people, as well as myself, find lengthy films hard to watch. This movie is 2 hours 38 minutes long, and I can't say that the plot seemed very interesting to me. However, it was compensated by some solid acting and horror-like score (by the way, written by Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead). The music reminded me of TV Series Lost. The cinematography was also beautiful. 

It's a dramatic film, but there are elements of comedy in it. The funniest part was the scene of the main character's baptism. Pastor Eli made me laugh a couple more times during the film. I find this character very hard to like though.

Overall, the movie is good, and I think it deserves being on the list. If you like The Treasure of The Sierra Madre, which was the director's inspiration for this movie, you'll probably enjoy watching this one too.

Favorite quote: "Here, if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, that's a straw, you see? You watching?. And my straw reaches acroooooooss the room, and starts to drink your milkshake... I... drink... your... milkshake!"

Interesting fact: The fictional character of Daniel Plainview bears some resemblance to a real, early 20th-century California oil tycoon named Edward L. Doheny. Both were from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin; both were employed by Geological Survey and worked in Kansas; both tried a hand at mining before going into the oil business; and both worked with a fellow prospector named "H. B. Ailman."

# 128 Notorious (1946)

Alfred Hitchcock's fans are going to hate me for this one...

I don't want to go into details about the plot, but basically Notorious is a combination of love story and espionage story. In reality, all we see in this movie is a pseudo love triangle between an incompetent spy, a fallen woman, and a Nazi. Come on, do really really beleive that a secret agent could fall in love after a drunk date? Aside from all missteps in the plot, the film is simply too slow-paced. Three Hollywood stars (Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, and Claude Rains) fail to deliver their best performance this time.

There is one thing I liked about the movie though, it's the final scene (the one involving the staircase). This is the only scene in this film that is likable, Hitchcock finally manages to build the tension that I expected to see throughout the whole film. Technically the movie is pretty good, but emotionally it didn't engage me at all.

This is the worst movie by Alfred Hitchcock I've seen so far.

Favorite quote: "We are protected by the enormity of your stupidity, for a time".

Interesting fact: Mission Impossible II is a remake of this film

# 127 The Sixth Sense (1999)

When The Sixth Sense came out back in 1999, I was thirteen years old. Being a fan of Bruce Willis, I decided to save up some lunch money and buy the movie on VHS. You can imagine my disappointment when I found out that it was counterfeit, and when I say it, I mean it was of a very bad quality, taped in a movie theater. Russia was, and still is a hotbed of piracy. Besides, I wasn't used to watching scary movies, and I was probably too young to understand what the movie was about.

This time, more than ten years later, I watched the movie again, and I watched it from a totally different perspective. The movie tells us a story about a frightened little boy, Cole Sear, and a child psychologist, Dr. Malcolm Crowe, who is helping the boy overcome his problems while trying to recover from a violent encounter with a former patient.

I probably won't be wrong if I say that the most memorable thing about the film was the twist at the end. The ending is surprising, yet very logical. Unfortunately, it took me only about half an hour to figure it out, but I blame it on having seen the movie before, even though I don't remember seeing the end of it. The best thing about the plot is that it draws all of your attention to the boy and his fears, and it makes you see Dr. Crowe only as a supporting character, so you don't notice all the weird things that happen to him. There are no fallacies in the plot, however it is achieved by setting some artificial rules, like "ghosts don't see each other", "ghosts only see what they want to see", and it seems a little made-up to me, but this might be the only flaw in the whole movie.

What makes this film so scary? For the most part it is very calm. Then all of a sudden you see a little boy, he turns around, and there is a huge hole in the back of his head. The scary moments in this movie come when you least expect them, and that is what makes them so creepy. The music also plays a big role in building the atmosphere. However, the movie is not only trying to scare the audience, it touches upon very important issues, such as love between parent and child, death and letting go of your loved ones.

It is important to note the performance of Haley Joel Osment who did a remarkable job portraying Cole Sear. For this role he was nominated for the Academy Award, which made him the second-youngest actor ever to receive an Academy nomination for a supporting role (after Justin Henry who was nominated at the age of eight for Kramer vs. Kramer). I believe that Bruce Willis delivered his best performance too. In this film he took a break from all these action movies, and showed that he can also be a good dramatic actor.

Favorite quote: "I see dead people" =)
Interesting fact: While circling a passage in the notes, Bruce Willis does so with his right hand. Willis is actually left-handed; he learned how to write right-handed so that viewers wouldn't notice that his wedding band was no longer on his hand.

# 126 High Noon (1952)

This is my first review on one of the Top 250 Movies, and I already know that this is not going to be an easy one. Western is not particularly my favorite genre, so this film was a little hard for me to appreciate.

In High Noon Gary Cooper plays a marshal who goes by the name of Will Kane. The movie begins with him getting married and getting ready to leave the town, when he finds out that an outlaw whom he thought was to be hanged, has been freed, and will arrive at the town's train station at high noon. Kane makes a decision to stand up and fight against the gang, even if he has to do it all by himself.

The movie delivers a message about a man doing what he is supposed to do, it's about courage and doing what is right. May be this idea would seem more appealing to me if I was a man, but from a woman's point of view, I would like my man to stand by my side instead of chasing bandits. I won't go into the political background of this film, I'll just say that it's full of allegory, so for those who can read between the lines and know the US history of the 20th century, it's probably a very interesting movie.

To me the best thing about the movie is that the action takes place in real time. The runtime is 85 minutes, and the film portrays the events that take place between 10:35 am and noon. No surprise it won an Academy Award in "Best Film Editing" category. There is not much action in the movie, which I think is good because the 1950s action looks pretty archaic to me. The music score was written by Dimitri Tiomkin, a Russian (or Ukrainian to be more exact) composer who won two Oscars for this movie (Best Original Song and Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture).

I won't argue with those who say that there are no flaws in this movie, but it's hard for me to understand what's so special about it. It's a good film, but I think it's a little bit overrated.

Favorite quote: "If you don't know, I can't explain it to you".
Interesting fact: High Noon is reportedly Bill Clinton's all-time favorite movie.