I watched TWBB on cable a few days ago. I needn't have bothered.

The movie lasts more than two and a half hours but it feels like it's longer. It crawls at such a slow pace that one could stop watching and, say, play a round of golf, come back and continue watching without having missed anything.

As well, there are a number of gaps or sudden jumps in the story, which made me wonder just what actually happened between scenes.

Daniel Day-Lewis is a talented actor but he seems to wear the same expression throughout the movie. Then again, there's little development of his character. I find it hard to believe that his performance was worthy of an Academy Award.

Sadly, none of the other characters are properly developed as well. For example, how and, for that matter, why did the preacher go into the ministry?

As social commentary, this movie didn't say anything new and it didn't say it very well.

The musical score, such as it is, is dull and uninspiring.

Avoid this movie if one doesn't want to be bored. I would put it in the same league as "No Country For Old Men"--dull, lifeless, and over-promoted. Sadly TWBB and NCFOM are symptomatic of the fact that Hollywood no longer knows how to tell stories, let alone make movies.

If you want to see a good movie about the oil industry and its development over the years, I can recommend "Giant" with James Dean's character of Jet Rink being the counterpart to Daniel Day-Lewis's.