Catholic Diocese of Spokane, Washington

From the

Official News Magazine of the Diocese of Spokane

(From the Feb. 28, 2008 edition of the Inland Register)

After a fall season of violent films such as No Country for Old Men, I was very slow to finally see Thomas Anderson’s epic film There Will Be Blood.

There Will Be Blood is in the tradition of Citizen Kane and Chinatown, with some Howard Hughes thrown in. It is the story of one of the early California oil barons at the turn of the twentieth century. It is loosely based on Upton Sinclair’s muckraking 1927 novel Oil!

The film begins with a memorable 15-minute section that outlines with tremendous visual scenes and no dialogue the beginning of Daniel Plainview’s (Daniel Day-Lewis) search for gold and silver in 1898 that eventually leads him to search for oil.

By 1911 Plainview seeks to become a big player by a certain amount of dishonest subterfuge. He obtains, at a very low price, the drilling rights to the land of a poor farmer, Abel Sunday (David Willis). Oil men move unto the land and begin drilling. As a gusher breaks forth Daniel’s son H. W. Plainview (Dillon Freasier) loses his hearing. Early on you believe that Daniel loves his son, but it becomes clear as time passes that Daniel lives for the power and the money that oil will give him. He sends his son away to boarding school.

The story heats up as a young son of Abel, named Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), begins to parallel on a religious plain his control of the local growing congregation of a charismatic Protestant church. In some ways until the dramatic end of the film Eli becomes a mirror image of Daniel. Daniel and Eli clash numerous times. But to get the rights to build an oil pipeline over the parcel of land he doesn’t control Daniel submits to baptism, which he does not believe in.

As the story progresses Daniel seeks to win at all costs against the Standard Oil Trust and anyone who he believes will stand in his way, even his son.

Yes, there are around four episodes of violence. Two of them have to do with accidents at the oil rig. The other two are dramatically overwhelming.

Some critics are suggesting There Will Be Blood is a classic. It is haunting in many ways. The direction is powerfully creative. The visuals are stunning. The music by Raidioheads’s Jonny Greenwood is unique. The acting by Daniel Day-Lewis is monumental. Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine) as the rising-in-power pastor is superb. Dillon Freasier as young H. W., with few or no words, shows layers of emotion.

The life of Daniel Plainview is an elaborate study in the midst of a rough and tumble West of a man’s success in gaining the world and losing his soul. It is a movie that has all the potential of becoming a classic.

There Will Be Blood is rated R-Restricted, because of violence, by the Motion Picture Association of America. The Office for Film and Broadcasting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops rates the film L-Limited – Limited adult audience whose problematic content many adults would find troubling.

I audited a course on “Film as Literature” at Washington State University one semester when I was at Sacred Heart Parish in the late 1980s or early ’90’s. Many a day I walked up the hill to campus. As students were between classes I would pass a young man who looked very serious in a long overcoat. Years later when the well-known author Sherman Alexie came to campus for a book signing I suddenly realized he was the student I passed by many a time that one semester.

Alexie’s new novel for young adults recently won the National Book Award. It is titled The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. His dedication at the beginning of the book is “For Wellpinit and Reardan, my hometowns.”

Arnold Spirit, also known as Junior, tells the story of his life on the Spokane Indian Reservation. With humor he tells what his life is like as a freshman in high school. It is a coming-of-age novel with the reality of death and community always hanging in the background. One of his Wellpinit teachers urges him to go off the reservation for his high school years. So with sacrifice on the part of his parents and himself, and the loss of friendship with his closest friend, he heads off to Reardan High School.

Arnold in short chapters with wonderful cartoon-like drawings by Ellen Forney tells the stories of the life of an Indian in an all-white school. There is the facing up to the bullies, infatuation and friendship with Penelope, and the big basketball game when he is on the white team against his Indian friends from Wellpinit.

The chapter on the wisdom of his grandmother is terrific. His love for his sister comes through as she leaves for Montana.

I thoroughly enjoyed Alexie’s stories. He is wise and has a gift to reach the young adult reader. Just like any coming-of-age novel, some parents might want to read it first, before passing it on to their teen.

Maybe the towns of Wellpinit and Reardan already have a small plaque at their schools reminding students this is where Sherman Alexie went to school. He learned a lot from his two hometowns and he sure has made them and their people come alive for us readers. These two small Eastern Washington towns must be mighty proud.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is published in hardcover by Little Brown and Company at $16.98.

• The interesting military history of Colville and the northern section of the diocese of Spokane is told in local author Patrick J. Graham’s compilation titled Colville Collection – Book Two – Military Fort Colville 1859 to 1882.

I particularly enjoyed parts of the report of the 1883 journey of the famous (or infamous) Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman from Coeur d’Alene to Ft. Colville and then to the Okanogan. It speaks of Father Caruna and Sister Bernardina, heads of the boys’ and girls’ schools at St. Joseph Regis and some of the students receiving the General and his party. From the mission the group traveled to Old Fort Colville, about three miles above Kettle Falls. The fort had been built by the British in 1858. The Columbia River at that point was a swift clear stream that was 480 yards wide. After the completion of the trip Sherman sailed from British Columbia to San Francisco and then traveled by train to Kansas City, where he was scheduled to retire in February of 1884.

Graham is the former publisher of Colville’s Statesman-Examiner newspaper and long interested in local history. His book in large softcover format is available from the Northeast Washington Genealogical Society, whose web site is http://www.newgs.org/publications.htm. The book retails for $22.95.

• The publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux of New York has a new 2007 quality paperback edition of Flannery O’Connor’s novel Wise Blood. The book retails for $14.

Wise Blood is on the dark and quirky side. The main character is Hazel Motes, a 22-year-old Southerner who seems to be constantly running away from his faith. But even though he preaches in front of movie theaters from his used Essex sedan about what he calls The Church of God Without Christ, the novel is a version of the Hound of Heaven that keeps chasing after us.

In her author’s note from 1962, Flannery O’Connor writes: “Does one’s integrity ever lie in what he is not able to do? I think that usually it does, for free will does not mean one will, but many wills conflicting in one man. Freedom cannot be conceived simply. It is a mystery and one which a novel, even a comic novel, can only be asked to deepen.”

Wise Blood would be a fine choice for a parish book club. But it probably should be read in the spring or summer when there is lots of light and warmth.

(Father Caswell is Ecumenical Relations Officer and archivist for the Diocese of Spokane.)