There Will Be Blood, director Paul Thomas Anderson’s fifth feature
film, can justifiably be called cinema. And like the dark-hearted
figure at its center, oil tycoon Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis),
it makes no apologies for what it is - a lengthy, unsettling and
complex study of the best and (mainly the) worst of human behaviour.
The striking intro, devoid of dialogue, shows a bearded and dusty Plainview down a hole, digging for silver in California just before the start of the 20th century. At one point he falls down the shaft and breaks a leg, but manages to drag himself out of the mine and to town, selling his treasure even before seeking medical attention. It’s indicative of his single-mindedness to succeed, a drive that will only grow fiercer and more ruthless as he switches his focus from silver to oil.
When a young man named Paul Sunday (Little Miss Sunshine’s Paul Dano) approaches the modestly thriving Plainview with a tip on where there’s oil to be found – a poverty-stricken California town called Little Boston – the oil man agrees to go check it out with his son and “partner”, 10-year-old H.W. Plainview (Dillon Freasier). In Daniel’s selfish mind, the youngster is useful to his business as an innocent face that will help convince the townspeople wherever he travels to sell their oil-rich property to him.
There is oil in Little Boston, a sea of it gurgling away beneath the earth. But in getting at it Plainview must deal with a host of challenges, including competition from company Standard Oil, the inherent dangers of drilling (illustrated in a terrifying sequence that changes H.W.’s life forever), and Paul’s twin brother Eli Sunday (also played by Dano), a manipulative evangelist who wants money from Daniel to fund his Church of the Third Revelation.
Eli Sunday proves to be Plainview’s biggest adversary and the two face off in several tension-filled sequences, including the controversial coda, which I won’t give away here except to say that it’s bound to have its detractors. I thought it fit – a savage finale punctuated with one of the most memorable last lines since Casablanca.
Freasier and Day-Lewis in a scene from There Will Be Blood
None of Anderson’s previous works, excellent though they all are, will stick in your head the way There Will Be Blood does. Based on a portion of the Upton Sinclair novel Oil!, there’s a sense of building dread throughout the film, as Plainview reveals himself to be a man willing to do anything, even forsake his own son, to achieve the wealth and success he desires. In a rare scene the ambitious businessman offers a glimpse into his psyche, saying, “There are times when I look at people and I see nothing worth liking. I want to earn enough money that I can get away from everyone.”
It’s hard to imagine any actor who could’ve played Daniel Plainview like Daniel Day-Lewis – he’s simply mesmerizing in the role. In fact much of There Will Be Blood’s success rests on Day-Lewis’s shoulders, given that he’s in almost every scene of the nearly-three-hour epic. He portrays Plainview as a smooth-talking businessman whose broad grins and inspirational speeches mask an inner fury and hatred for humanity that could bubble to the surface at any time.
An unseen star of There Will Be Blood is Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, whose jarring, dissonant score is weirdly fitting even when it borders on intrusive. It’s almost its own character in the film, haunting, impossible to ignore and never boring – though not something you’d necessarily want to listen to out of context.
There Will Be Blood is one of the most intriguing and audacious films to come out in years – and I have a feeling movie fans and moviemakers alike will be talking about it for years to come. Love it or loathe it, you certainly won’t forget it.
Posted by Cate Jones
Agree? Disagree? Email Cate at criticizecate@gmail.com
There Will Be Blood ***** out of 5
Rated: R
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Ciaran Hinds, Dillon Freasier
Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Written by: Paul Thomas Anderson, based on Upton Sinclair novel
Related links: Official site, IMDB page, Apple trailer
finally got around to watching the infamous There Will Be Blood... Daniel-Day Lewis' performance was top-notch. He takes well to the overbearing, violent father-figure role -- he also did this in Gangs of New York.
Posted by: patrick | March 27, 2008 at 11:04 AM