Buy the DVD:

Sponsored Links:

There Will Be Blood

There Will Be Blood is loosely based on Upton Sinclair’s novel, Oil!, and one almost wishes director and screenwriter Paul Thomas Anderson had kept the title for his movie, as it centers on an ambitious, greedy oilman named Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis). The lengths to which Plainview’s ambition and greed drive him is well-illustrated by a sequence early in the film, which shows Plainview alone in a mine shaft, digging up what seems to be silver. When he finds a good-sized chunk of the valuable mineral, he gets out of the mine shaft, but injures his leg in the process. Unable to stand, he lies flat on his back and uses his good leg to push himself back to town to collect the money his silver is worth.

Plainview’s desire for material wealth is contrasted with the fervently religious character of Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), a young preacher who often has an antagonistic relationship with Plainview. Yet, near the end of the film, we see that perhaps Eli is not so different from Plainview after all. As oil is how Plainview makes his money, the movie shows the physical rigors and hazards of getting oil from the ground in the early 20th century, the time most of the film takes place.

A few scenes in the movie also seem humorous, although this may not have been intentional, mostly because of Day-Lewis’s eccentric and menacing performance as Plainview. In one scene that takes place in a nearly empty bar and restaurant, for example, he puts a linen napkin over his face and talks through it, wanting his remarks to be overheard by some men at a nearby table. In that same location, he threatens to kill a man, seemingly out of nowhere, but then we learn that the threat comes from Plainview’s dislike of the man telling him how to raise his young son and partner, H. W. (Dillon Freasier), who has become deaf as the result of an accident. There Will Be Blood is over two hours long, but it retains the viewer’s interest due to Anderson’s vision of the film, beautiful cinematography by Robert Elswit, and of course, Day-Lewis’s Oscar-winning performance.

Written by: Jessica Chung

Reviewers Rating: 8.5
Reader's Rating: 10.00
Reader's Votes: 1

Rate It