There Will Be Blood (2007)

Based on the book Oil! by Upton Sinclair Written and Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson Oh yes, there will. When Daniel Day-Lewis straps on his boots, folks, you may want to step aside. When he steps in front of the camera as Daniel Plainview in the wordless opening 20 minutes of the film, he takes command and pulls you in to his every action, word, look, or other subtle nuance. The silence is a deliberate, engrossing tool to support the image of a man going deep into the Earth, risking life and limb, digging with his hands for his fortune. The absence of human communication and application of Johnny Greenwood's score to this image creates an impending doom that will loom over the rest of the movie, I believe it is the doom that Daniel Plainview lives with every day of his life. On that day, deep in the Earth, Daniel has an accident. He strikes oil, forever changing his outlook of prospecting to becoming the nation's first huge oil man. It's turn of the century in the American southwest and Plainview is a fortune hunter, plain and simple. When his fortune comes by way of oil instead of silver, he is equally as pleased, and he now has a clear focus where eventually an obsession will develop. Early in his oil career, a boy named Paul Sunday (Paul Dano) comes to see him at his small office, offering a tip on a piece of land that has been checked out by Standard Oil. Plainview, and his young son H.W. (Dillon Freasier) go to the land where Paul has told them there is a vast fortune to be made in pumping oil. He agrees with Paul, and underhandedly buys the land from the family, in the process meeting Paul's brother (maybe?) Eli Sunday, a preacher with plans to build his Church of the Third Revelation. To say this movie is supposed to depict reality would be inaccurate. The characters reside in a very realistic world, but at the same time so much of their world is incomplete that you have to accept it as it is. Quickly the viewer jumps to the conclusion that Paul and Eli are the same person, and clearly Paul Dano playing both characters is supposed to feed the ambiguity. I've heard that there was another actor that was going to play Eli, the lopsidedly larger role, but he was replaced once Anderson saw him perform as Paul, and was convinced to change the characters to identical twins. What happens between them, or what becomes of them, is pretty ambiguous from there, and I think Anderson liked that idea and just rolled with it. Plainview buys the rights to drill from Sunday on the condition that he help the small town of Bakersfield by helping to build them roads, help Eli build his church, and pump money into the economy through his oil derricks. Plainview builds his first derrick and purposely snubs Eli on his chance to bless the derrick, opting to do the blessing himself, dedicating it to the Sunday's youngest daughter, instead of to Eli, his church, and his family. Through this act of disrespect a lifelong bond of mutual hatred is born between the two men, and a battle of souls will ensue. What makes this all so interesting is the fact that Plainview freely admits he hates all men, and what he isn't saying is that he in turn hates himself. He lives an empty, worthless existence, everyone does according to his dogma, but what's different about Plainview is he realizes and exploits this aspect of his personality, putting forth effort into the destruction of other men. His own gain has nothing to do with it, while his desire for money is prevalent, it is not his sole obsession. His obsession becomes destruction, greed of the soul. The money is not enough for Plainview, his greed requires him to clearly defeat his opponent, to kick him when he's down, to beat his soul into submission, so that person will be as imminently miserable and tortured as he is every day of his life. Instead of giving up, he has a fighting spirit, instead of being depressed, Plainview gets angry, using and abusing anything or anyone that will help him achieve his goal of obtaining wealth and destroying men. After a fortune is made, Plainview is still not satisfied. He has to destroy the relationship with his son, whom he had already chewed up and spit out, he must also completely destroy anything Eli Sunday has gathered from their deal. Throughout their relationship the two men trade barbs, punches, and mental manipulation. Plainview wants to defeat Eli Sunday; not because he feels threatened, but because Eli is the only person he has yet to destroy. I find myself loving this film for all the reasons I've heard some other people complain. I've spoken at length about this with many people. What has come up is the fact that No Country For Old Men, as violent and brutal as it is, can be so much more accessible to mainstream audiences, the theme is clearly defined and explored throughout the whole movie. When it comes to There Will Be Blood, however, it is not a big mainstream hit, because it is such a complex film with so many different themes, conflicts, and ideas, it can not be easily classified, and often that ambiguity leaves a sour taste in the mouth of the viewer. However, I find myself loving it for that exact reason, Plainview lives a scattered, disassociative life, where he states that his main goal is to see the defeat and suffering of the men around him. However, as much as he wants to loathe his son and use him as a puppet to bring profit to his company, there are scenes where I'm not convinced. There are flashes of a soul, paternal instincts fighting to get out. Consider the same notion when a man named Henry Brands (Kevin J O'Connor) approaches Plainview and tells him he is Daniel's half-brother, and that their father is dead. Now, being movie fans, obviously the audience is weary of Brands' actions. Of course, being the intellectual being that Plainview is, obviously he has to see this is some sort of swindle. The problem is, every time evidence is presented that may prove suspicions right, Plainview almost wants to ignore it. We knew that in his heart, Daniel knows this man is not his brother. However, for a moment, we see into his soul where he decides to try to fulfill the void he has ignored and only fed more emptiness over time by taking a chance, forcing a relationship in the hopes that Daniel will find a worthy being. As from the beginning, it is destined to fail. Many people have also commented on the fact that this film has no central female characters, another aspect I really like. I've talked about it before, how Reservoir Dogs is the only film without a real female character, and it's one of the reasons I love it. Every facet of the argument about men and women is immediately dropped, and the men, and their usual reluctance toward relationships, becomes the focus of the film as their relationships take up the remainder of the film. In this case, the lack of female characters only serves the notion that Plainview's obsession is his only reason for living. He is not here to pro-create. He is not here to have a nice life and enjoy himself. He exists solely to amass wealth, and even then he only amasses that wealth as a trophy, the proof that he has defeated yet another man that stood before him in some capacity. This is not about love, this is not about human emotion. This film is about obsession, simply put, and what drives a man to such lengths. The brilliance in Day-Lewis' performance is to create a sympathetic, sardonically funny, and ultimately like-able obsessed destroyer of men. He does it perfectly, at the end of the film we understand this man's journey, if not his motivations. Paul Dano also turned in a powerhouse performance as Eli Sunday, despite his young age, he managed to form credible opposition to Day-Lewis' Plainview, which is no easy task. The craft of this film is another thing that is truly to be marveled. The images, sounds, performances, and direction all dance in a perfect rhythm, where you forget the 2 hour 38 minute runtime and are lost in the land of an obsessed madman. From the construction of the oil derricks to the vast landscapes of prospective oil field, the visual design couldn't be better. The images reflect the emptiness, the framing tells a story all its own, and the silence, guided by building strings from Johnny Greenwood, puts the viewer into the mind of Plainview, where vast landscapes bow before you, and the mania in your head is so loud it often gets defeaning. On technical merit, this is one of the finest films ever created. Everything is perfect, right down to the detail obsessed Anderson's direction of actors, composition of shots, and visualization of scenes, not words, but entire scenes and I feel this really is one of the few and far between "Greatest Films Ever Made". Of course, to be accepted as such it will have to stand the trial of time, but like I said, I can see the lack of mainstream support, it's a very complex story that only people familiar with obsession will really find any sympathy or relation to. Of course, this makes the film more secular, the lack of explanations might drive some mad, but to others, it's the key to the rabbit hole. What I found most interesting, above everything else, is the metaphor being drawn in the examination of the start of the American oil industry, and how it has shaped our nation. It's funny, audiences stay away from films that are advertised as overt war movies, but at the same time, a film that is so much more about the mental aspects of war, and the sociological impact of the oil industry on our ability to do war is universally loved. My guess is because people hate being preached to, but if you can sneak a meaning in their that people don't realize they've absorbed, then that is a talent worth commending. The saddest part of all of this is the fact that There Will Be Blood will not be remembered as the Academy's best film of the year. Alas, not everything requires a reward, and I think this will be one of those films that slips into history quietly, and one day it will be easily remembered as one of the better films ever made. 10/10