As Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood still awaits its full-on nationwide release, the buzz for the film has become practically deafening. It's appeared on a raft of critics' top 10 lists, and has raked in heaps of awards for Anderson, star Daniel Day-Lewis, and the score by Jonny Greenwood. But while critical accolades have a definite appeal to a certain portion of the moviegoing audience, it's going to take more than that for the film to break through to the general populace.
That's where the blogosphere comes in. Numerous web sites have seized upon the movie as a kind of cult object, in particular Daniel Day-Lewis' line "I drink your milkshake!", which he bellows near the end of the film. One enterprising webmaster is offering free idrinkyourmilkshake.com e-Mail accounts for a limited time through his web site. In addition, Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeff Wells has proclaimed the line to be "the golden ticket that will sell this thing to people who are too lazy to read reviews and don't care that much about awards." He goes on to suggest that Paramount spearhead the Milkshake campaign by printing up t-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers, and the like. 
Me, I'm of two minds about this. On one hand, part of me cringes at the idea of the public awareness for P.T. Anderson's first film in five years being reduced to a catch-phrase that really doesn't make much sense outside the context of the movie. But having seen the film, I realize that a film with such an dark and unsparing view of human nature- even a great one like There Will Be Blood- is going to be a tough sell with the public. Though whether the Milkshake campaign would have much effect on box office remains to be seen, I think every possible effort should be made to put butts in seats. Besides, it could give us a welcome reprieve from Anchorman-inspired t-shirts.
Oh, and Paramount: want another suggestion on how to make the movie appeal to a wider audience? Give it a wider release already. I gladly drove three hours to catch it, but most people (even many movie lovers) wouldn't, so why deny them the chance to see There Will Be Blood?