How lazy and Un-American am I?

So, the big tea-party day came ...and went. without me in the crowds chanting "Down with big mama government!", "Poor people suck!", and "Don't ask me for a penny you lazy bums!", or "You should have gone to college suckers!". Laughing to myself at how bad this sounds....
No, I'm not that mean hearted.
However, it was a lovely cool sunny day, so Nick and I went down to our favorite new spot in Florida, the Dunedin causeway, and watched the sun, the water,the few tourists out that early, and walked around for about two hours. I listened to the local talk radio station and agreed with the host of the morning show here - the tea party idea is great, and it's great that we can rally for causes and have our voices heard. Yet I do agree that sometimes these events get hijacked by certain other special interest groups that I don't need to listen to, because they already get enough air-time on tv, radio and the net. Also, there was a list of politicians to appear, (no different than at the presidential candidate's rallies) and I thought I didn't feel like listening to them basically use that time to prepare their platforms for the 2012 elections. There's plenty of time for that, isn't there?
So, we got some sun,and had family over to visit and let our kids play later on. A very good day.
And then came "There Will Be Blood," based on an Upton Sinclair short and done by Paul Thomas Anderson ("Magnolia", "Boogie Nights").
OK. Have any of you seen this? I don't know how to describe it. An allegory of the American story- industrialization vs. religious power and the battle between them, mixed in with their contribution to the disentigration of the human soul.
Now, for a gung-ho capitalist like myself, i get tired of preachy movies that hate on people that just so happen to be white, rich men who make it big- in this case a late 1800's oil magnate "Plainview", who isn't born into his money, but makes it with his bare hands in the vast wasteland/ goldmines of Texas. But this movie doesn't just pick apart his success driven, isolated and cold hearted mentality. The thorn in the side to his success is a younger preacher man who just seems to keep enough control of the locals and uses his bi-polar false prophet personality to throw up certain roadblocks for Plainview (played great by Daniel Day Lewis). It's a complicated relationship...in the end they both have to admit they are liars and cheats to each other in order to gain some power back. There hate for each other grows into a nasty bond because they need the other for personal success- the preacher needs funds for his growing church (on land that Plainview owns) and the oil man needs the preacher at certain crises. This would be redeeming if you felt like the men were sincere in their relenting to the other...but their need for power is so great that they lie to each other- one even goes to far as to say God is a superstition- that you just feel any hope for their life fade away.
It's a great movie, the soudntrack done by Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead (hope i got his name right), with eerie keyboard and string sounds ala "2001" (one of my favorite soundtracks). It's got that biblical allegorical vibe similar to "No Country for Old Men" and was even filmed in similar Texas locations. But since it takes place in an earlier century you are tricked into thinking it's going to be a rags-to-riches to destruction story similar to "Giant".
It' s just not that simple. It's long, it's dramatic, and it's tragic. If you're in that kind of mood, it's wonderfully made. Don't say you weren't warned- the ending is like a big anvil that falls from the sky and smacks your head.
Be ready. And afterwards do a happy dance or think happy thoughts real fast.