Circumstances prevented me from seeing "There Will Be Blood" in time for the taping of our year-end show. Therefore I didn't include it on my list of best of 2007. So if anyone sees my review of it, where I was raving (and disagreeing strongly with Jeffrey), they might wonder why it wasn't in my top 10. It should have been.

From the opening 15 minutes, which were dialogue free to the hyper-verbal end scene, I loved every second. Daniel Day-Lewis was astounding as Daniel Plainview, an oilman whose drive and greed outweighs his humanity. He is onscreen for every second -- and is absolutely riveting. I was engrossed by the mining and oil-drilling scenes and swept up in the biblical battles between Plainview and the town preacher played unctuously by Paul Dano.

What set the film apart and raised it artistically for me was the score, which was composed Jonny Greenwood, the guitarist from Radiohead, it was ominous, dangerous, suspenseful and tragic. When Plainview's deaf son is being spoken to, we don't hear the words, just cellos and violins. It was strikingly different than most scores, especially ones which usually accompany epic period pieces.

Paul Thomas Anderson has switched genres now several times as a filmmaker from "Hard Eight" to "Boogie Nights" to "Punch Drunk Love." Here he proves he can handle big themes about the American West, human avarice and revenge.