There will be no more country for old men with all this blood

I have been trying to fill in gaps in my cinematic education, and two films that were much talked about upon their releases, "There Will Be Blood" and "No Country For Old Men," were two such gaps. I don't know why I always associate the two in my mind, but I do. Both came out when I was in college, when free time was touch-and-go. Apparently they both happened upon a no-go period. I watched both recently. "No Country For Old Men" I not only appreciated, I enjoyed. The ending is a bit unsatisfying, but, the journey was interesting, the performances compelling and the film well made. For "There Will Be Blood," however, I got no enjoyment from the film. I can appreciate Daniel Day Lewis's brilliance as an actor. I can appreciate the filmmaking. But that doesn't mean I enjoyed it. Not even a little. You can't ask me to sit through 2.5 hours of the least-redeemable douchebag ever caught on screen (Plainview) and enjoy it. My friend Brian Anderberg sums it up better than I could: "That guy made me hate milkshakes."