There Will Be Blood

Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson
158 mins
2008













In 1898 we see Daniel Plainview mining for silver and finding it along with crude oil. While drilling for oil Plainview adopts the orphan of a dead worker after an accident at the drilling site. Plainview works his way up in the oil world gradually acquiring more and more land on which to drill for oil. Plainview's success is mirrored by the growing popularity of fire and brimstone preacher Eli with whom Plainview has made a deal for land. The success Daniel Plainview makes for himself seems to offer him no happiness and he seems driven by something dark within him.

From the opening shots of P.T Andersons new film we have the impression of watching something very special and dark. A large hill is seen from the distance on a barren scene, the score reaches a crescendo that seems to impart madness. We then see Plainview chipping away in the dark at rocks for a short age. the first line of dialogue is not spoken for over 11 minutes. It is perhaps one of the most striking openings I have seen, deliberate, slow, challenging, disturbing and claustrophobic. It is testament to the film that it manages to match this standard of excellence throughout its 2 hours plus running time. Much has been made of the Daniel Day Lewis portrayal of Plainview, and rightly so, the film is in essence a character study - as much as Citizen Kane was a study of Charles Foster Kane. Day Lewis here gives a masterclass, his explosions (which many people have erroneously labeled hammy) as Plainview are a joy to watch but it is in the quiet moments when we can see Plainview tormented and haunted that Day Lewis really astounds. "I see the worst in people. I don't need to look past seeing them to get all I need. I've built my hatreds up over the years, little by little" so Plainview tells Henry Brands. It is By this point Daniel Day Lewis has effectively achieved the highest aspiration of the craft, that of disappearing and fully becoming the character.

Much should also be made of P.T Andersons direction and writing. Anderson excels in crafting the film, it is often a thing of beauty to watch and to hear. The composition of the shots are so compelling It often seems filmed with the eye of a painter. There Will Be Blood is a departure from Andersons earlier works such as Boogie Nights and Magnolia, these were more of the Altmanesque multiple narrative approach, featuring a great number of supporting actors. There Will Be Blood is sparser by comparison but also taunter. The most interesting relationship in the film is that between Plainview and Eli. The scenes between these two are the most intense and dark. Anderson brilliantly contrasts Eli as preaching subservience or damnation for all against the will to power exercised by Plainview. In view of this There Will Be Blood is less a treatise on the corrupting influence of power, wealth and obsession and more a story of a man looking into the abyss and the abyss looking back into him. In that sense it is fitting that black oil is what Plainview spends his life hunting for in remote places. It is a film Made with so much care and attention, acted with consummate skill by all involved, written so well and imbued with meaning - it really is a must to see this at a cinema to experience it fully. Anderson said during the making of his film he would view Treasure of The Sierra Madre every night, There Will Be Blood stands as an equal alongside this film and Citizen Kane.
5 / 6