nine pin to the king pin's head and off you go

The Oscar nominations were announced Monday, and leading the list of nominees is There Will Be Blood. Being loosely based on Upton Sinclair's novel, Oil (1927), dare we say the movie is "torn from yesterday's headlines"? or is today's? as the director, Paul Thomas Anderson, gives us plenty of headroom (literally) for reflecting on other bloody battles that consume the current world.

There Will Be Blood, might politely be described as a parable of how humans are wont to take advantage of each other, especially if money, fame, or religion are involved. In less polite company, you might summarize the plot as, the proper way to smash a skull - to bits. The movie works on many levels but life affirming it is not, unless you wish to come out on top, and really, don't we all? Some of the violent images in this movie will have you turning away in disgust. They made me cringe and fall into my seat gasping for air. The last scene could only be said to make a caring person angry enough to want to bash out the brains of the studio mogul who financed the damn thing. You won't leave the theater feeling good. Rather, you'll be lucky if you don't commit murder if someone dares step in front of you on the way out the door.

Movie goers have seen so much screen violence that there must be Hollywood consultants whose express purpose it is to dream up more and more inventive ways to surprise and shock our calloused souls. No Country For Old Men, which also garnered a lot of nominations, featured as a subplot, a novel way to kill humans. Lest we give the plot away and feel good about ourselves, let's just say it's nothing we haven't already perfected on cows and pigs. Only the vegans die old in Hollywood.

But really, what every one seems to want to know, after "why did he do it?" is "will there be a red-carpet Oscar gala event this year?". Of course there will be - why do you think There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men received so many nominations?

However, an Oscar holdout is the WGA ace-in-the-hole so they won't be offering any waivers for Valentines unless there's a done deal in the works. Right now, preventing the A-list and the studios from an updo is the only hand the union has to play, so play it they will. The studios will look to settle this soon, and if they don't then they won't play again for many months.