There Will Be Blood [M]

Daniel Plainview takes nature’s resources and turns them into his own bounty. Beginning as a silver and gold miner, at the turn of the century his greedy eye turns to the drilling of oil and he makes a great success of it. That is until he is told about the great ocean of oil that resides under the sleepy, god-fearing community of Little Boston. Once there, Plainview is continuously dogged and challenged by a preacher, Eli Sunday, whose ambition for the rejuvenation and progress of his church matches Daniel’s own. Soon Daniel and Eli’s clashes with each other turn into an epic game of cat-and-mouse, which holds dark consequences for the loser. 

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant! There Will be Blood is a beautifully shot period piece that deals with many themes that were hurting America around the time of its release. Rather than depict these dramas and themes in an ‘Iraq War picture’ where they would undoubtedly be right at home, young writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson revitalises the rugged, desert-set, 20^th century period genre, filling it with more substance and dragging it kicking and screaming into the here and now. 

Daniel Plainview takes nature’s resources and turns them into his own bounty. Beginning as a silver and gold miner, at the turn of the century his greedy eye turns to the drilling of oil and he makes a great success of it. That is until he is told about the great ocean of oil that resides under the sleepy, god-fearing community of Little Boston. Once there, Plainview is continuously dogged and challenged by a preacher, Eli Sunday, whose ambition for the rejuvenation and progress of his church matches Daniel’s own. Soon Daniel and Eli’s clashes with each other turn into an epic game of cat-and-mouse, which holds dark consequences for the loser. 

Using Upton Sinclair’s novel Oil as a starting-off point, Anderson brought 2007 audiences this seemingly period, yet surprisingly modern masterpiece that was nominated for 6 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and came away with 2 wins: Daniel Day-Lewis for Best Actor and Robert Elswit for Best Achievement in Cinematography. 

On a visual level, this movie rocks like a hurricane. We are treated to gritty but beautiful and scenic desert views, incredible towering infernos, and two of the most spellbinding performances that I’ve seen to date. 

On a deeper level, this is a wonderful film that leaves the door open to all sorts of interpretations, particularly the darkly comic game of cat-and-mouse between the two leads. We cannot view this picture as being about a greedy oilman who takes advantage of a small and simple desert community, because it’s not like this at all. Our ‘evil’ oil baron is a hugely socially flawed character; one could even say he is the epitome of hypocrisy and irony as he parades around saying that his business and his men are his family, he works with his young son, but then at his heart he has a deep hatred of people. It’s here where the clashes between he, the antihero, and the preacher hold so much swing and punch. The ‘evil’ oil baron and the ‘good’ preacher, at first, seem to be the best opposites battle since superhero and super villain. But our ‘good’ preacher proves to be almost a mirror image of the ‘evil’ oil baron and, until the climax right at the end, the two proved to be the best unstoppable-force-meets-immovable-object clash in cinema, only to be edged out the following year by Batman and the Joker in The Dark Knight. 

Daniel Day-Lewis is Daniel Plainview and, by this time, it has come to the point where you’re at a loss as to what to say about him. IT’S DANIEL DAY-LEWIS!!! He’s epic and brilliant and memorable in absolutely everything he does and its no wonder that he got the Oscar for his performance here. He was clean, tender, and charming on the surface, but all the while there is this sort of mist that surrounds him and you’re dying to see what’s going on underneath the surface. He managed to create this most incredible sense of intrigue and mystery about him that I don’t think I’ve seen any other actor do. 

Paul Dano as Eli Sunday runs Day-Lewis a hard second. He’s simply amazing and delivers a performance that is humble and timid on the surface, but then spellbindingly passionate and desperate beneath. The climactic clash scenes between he and Daniel are easily the most exciting in the movie. 

I also, at this point, wish to commend Johnny Greenwood for his beautiful soundtrack that so perfectly accompanied and mirrored the themes and emotions to be found in this flick. BRILLIANT! 

Starring Dillon Freasier, Ciaran Hinds, Sydney McCallister, David Willis, Kevin J. O’Connor, David Warshofsky, Tom Doyle, and Kevin Breznahan, There Will Be Blood is a marvellous piece of cinematic history filled with family, greed, religion, corruption, drama, violence, madness, and dark comedy. At one point it had me sitting there with my mouth open, completely stunned. That right there is how good this movie is.