Holiday for Misanthropy

Just in time for the holiday season, when many people are tossing around the old "Peace on earth, good will toward men" chestnut, comes not one but two cinematic misanthropes to put coal in your stocking and to lay waste to tidings of comfort and joy. Both Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd and Paul Thomas Anderson's (yes) masterpiece There Will Be Blood are built around protagonists who harbor an unquestionable disdain for their fellow man. These are no lightweight run-of-the-mill haters, but rather echt misanthropes that would make Vonnegut, Kafka, or Jean-Paul Sartre proud. For Sweeney Todd and Daniel Plainview, hell truly is other people. Originally seeking vengeance only on those who wronged him, Sondheim's demon barber of Fleet Street who speaks of "a hole in the world like a great black pit / and it's filled with people who are filled with shit," soon becomes convinced that all relationships are carnivorous in nature, and that death to everybody is the only solution. There will be blood, indeed. In There Will Be Blood, oil tycoon Daniel Plainview doesn't necessarily wish to kill his fellow man, he just wants nothing to do with him. "I hate most people. There are times when I look at people and I see nothing worth liking. I've built up my hatreds over the years little by little. I see the worst in people." What drives him forward is a dream of becoming wealthy enough to get away from everyone – to essentially buy his isolation. (I'll have much more to say about the film later in the week.) Though we've seen other dark films released around Christmas in recent years (eg. Caché, Children of Men), I can't recall a single film (let alone two) that has at its core an irascible spleen-venter with a genuine hatred of mankind as Todd or Plainview. That both films are outstanding (There Will be Blood is the film of the year) puts a huge smile on this part-time misanthrope's face. I drink your milkshake!