My brother told me the other day that There Will Be Blood is the best film anybody has made in 10 years and he can't stop watching it. I said I liked it a helluva lot but I'd have to give that some thought. I did think 2007 was a pretty good year as far as films went and the one-two of No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood was pretty heavy. Plus Penn got Into the Wild on the table too and that added to things. If Into the Wild came out in 2008 I think it would have been this year's best picture according to those academy people. It's far better than that Slumdog deal. In 2007 though the competition was thick and Into the Wild got sort of buried.

Anyway, for Christmas I got a box set of films called The Budd Boetticher Collection and finally finished watching them all this weekend. Great stuff, westerns mind you, but man was it a master class on filmmaking and story telling. Personally, I think that anybody that ever wants to attempt anything involving making a film should watch these because these are about as clear a dictionary as you can get. It's sort of the total opposite of Cassavetes (I love his work by the way, so not a knock) who would sort of roll film and let his actors find that place, that something, and capture the moment...in these films Boetticher seemed to know exactly the what, the where, of every little moment and cut them like diamonds. I know there are probably plenty of folks here that don't give a flying fuck about westerns but these films are far more than just guys in hats shooting at each other. I don't know if I've ever seen films made with such beauty, clarity, and economy...this guy must have been Clint Eastwood's hero. Every frame, word, look, gesture, movement of a hand has meaning and there is not a speck of fat to be found anywhere...I mean these films define the word lean. The films run a tight 78 minutes each and every second packs a wallop. If anybody wants to discuss this more I'd be happy to but I'll leave it at that unless I'm asked.