There Will Be Blood

If you ever explore threads asking people to list the movies they find the most boring, you'll see that There Will Be Blood is often mentioned. I can understand why. The opening 14-and-a-half minutes doesn't contain any dialogue unless you count the occasional grunt or cry of pain. The score is often unsettling and unlike anything you would expect to hear. The pacing is slow and the film has plenty of painful scenes.The opening scene is set in 1898 and gives us immediate insight into the character of Daniel Plainview (Day-Lewis). We see him working alone, prospecting for oil. It's a physically demanding occupation which is full of danger. One small lapse can cause a severe injury or even death. Plainview falls down a well shaft and breaks his leg, but discovers oil in the process. We then see him crawl backwards as he slowly makes his way into town to register the find. He's one of the most stubborn and driven characters you will ever see portrayed on film.In 1902, he's working with a group of men, and we are reminded again how dangerous the work is. A tiny mistake results in the death of a man and Plainview adopts his orphaned baby boy.The story jumps forward several years and we see Plainview and his adopted son, HW, attending a town meeting. Plainview has discovered that the region contains oil and we see him making an offer to extract the oil. His argument is calm, reasonable, and logical. He's quite a salesman. He talks of other offers the town may receive and why his own proposal is the best solution for everyone. We are given the impression that he knows what he's talking about and it's difficult to resist his offer.When Plainview is visited by Paul Sunday (Dano), the main part of the film begins. Paul offers to reveal the location of land rich in oil and he negotiates a price for the information. Plainview visits the town and finds that the information is accurate. He begins buying up all the available land.The film contains a power struggle between Plainview and Eli Sunday (also played by Dano). Eli becomes Plainview's enemy immediately by negotiating a higher price for his father's ranch than Plainview expected to pay. Eli is also the town's priest and he seeks power and recognition at every available opportunity. Plainview sees him as a fake and doesn't seem to have any religious beliefs of his own, but he's forced to bow to Eli's wishes on several occasions.I've barely touched on the plot, but I won't reveal any more. This is a sprawling story spanning several decades. It's one of the most intense character studies that I've ever seen. You'll see how Plainview relates to other people and his adopted son. He's a ruthless businessman and it's dangerous to cross him. In one scene, we hear his honest thoughts on society:"I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people."That last sentence is spoken with irony, but Plainview makes it clear that he understands his own true character. As the story progresses, we see what obsession and hatred can do to a man when it's maintained over a long period of time.My knowledge of film isn't as deep as you would expect for someone of my age. It's a relatively new obsession in my life. However, I believe that Daniel Day-Lewis delivers the best acting performance I have ever seen. I didn't doubt for a moment that he was a bitter, obsessed, driven man, capable of doing anything to bring him closer to his goals. Day-Lewis is in every scene and the film wouldn't have had the same impact without his astonishing performance.The technical aspects of the film are also superb. Jonny Greenwood's unusual score is particularly effective. One of my favorite moments happens during a drilling accident when the percussion increases in tempo as the scene unfolds. The cinematography is breathtaking at times. There's an early scene in which Plainview and HW approach the crest of a hill and the distant landscape is revealed. It's one of several moments of extreme beauty in the film.If the film has a fault, I would say that the final 20 minutes don't quite match the quality of the rest of the story. This closing sequence still works, and contains a few memorable moments, but the first two hours are close to perfect.If you enjoy character studies that aren't afraid to take the time to tell a story, There Will Be Blood might be your kind of film. If you need action and an upbeat conclusion, then it's probably not for you.

This movie is as good as it gets in modern moviemaking. Daniel Day-Lewis, our greatest living actor, adds his greatest character portrayal yet to a seemingly unlimited range of characters past. He plays Daniel Plainview an oil wildcatter during the age of the post-Reconstruction "Robber Barons."Not all of the Robber Barons were financial wizards like Jay Gould or conniving accounting monopolists like John D. Rockefeller, unethically stealing the profits of the hard working entrepreneurs who made the great oil and mineral discoveries of the time. Daniel represents the driven, rugged individualist who resisted and defeated Rockefeller and the railroads' attempts to reap the fortune of his almost literally back-breaking efforts.But in his quest, struggle and ultimate financial success Plainview pays a heavy price. The brutal, ruthless life he leads to attain his ambition for wealth leaves him resembling more a denizen of nature than a resident of the human race. Whether he lost his soul in his childhood, in his quest, or never had one in the first place, is for the viewer to decide.The scene with his "brother", Henry, is truly chilling when Daniel first reveals his brutal, misanthropic nature. Only Daniel Day-Lewis could deliver such blood curdling dialogue in that scene; slowly, in a philosophical manner explaining to Henry his hateful feelings toward all others with a fatalistic smile on his face. He is a man comfortable in a skin in which many others would not be. Kevin J. O'Connor's portrayal of Henry is outstanding as a desperate soul who never betrays Daniel, and is as loyal as a brother, but dies at Daniel's hand.Daniel, as is shown throughout the movie, has a very perverse view of family and loyalty. The development of his relationship with his adoptive son, H.W., is the clearest view into Daniel's character and ultimately renders the final verdict on Daniel's lifelong quest for wealth. Daniel's hardened and embittered nature is never shown more pointedly, and brutally, than in his final scene with H.W. ("a [...]in a basket!"). It is the savagely destructive psychological counterpart to the physical destruction Daniel wreaks in the final scene with Eli Sunday, the "false prophet".Paul Dano as Eli Sunday, the greedy charismatic preacher, has received many accolades for his performance. It is good, though not as good as O'Connor's "Henry" or the young H.W. (Dillon Freasier).The main problem is not so much Dano's performance as his character's physical appearance. Day-Lewis ages slowly but markedly through the thirty-five year period of the movie. Dano, however, looks exactly the same age in the final confrontation in the bowling alley as he does when he first encounters Daniel at Eli's family dinner table.There is also a scene later in the movie, some time after the scene at the family dinner table, in which Daniel beats and humiliates Eli in front of others. It is almost a cinematic non-sequitur since the tension and rivalry between the two has not built to the point to justify the scene.Regardless, those two items of criticism are slight in the context of a truly great movie. The cinematography and the musical score lend greatly to its dark atmospherics. It is encouraging to see that it was written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson whose previous undistinguished work includes the voyeuristically juvenile "Boogie Nights" and the embarrassing attempt at romantic comedy, "Punch Drunk Love".It does shows that an artist can grow beyond the exploitative and immature sides of Hollywood cinema as he matures. It undoubtedly helped Thomas to have Daniel Day-Lewis as the star, rather than an Adam Sandler. This is Day-Lewis's movie and he is the best.I have used the word "brutal" on a number of occasions in this review. The era of the Robber Barons was just that. This movie effectively conveys the history you may read about the era and the unforgiving state of nature that produced men like Daniel Plainview.As has been mentioned by other reviewers, the Plainview character is "loosely" based on a character named Vern Roscoe in the novel "Oil," written by Upton Sinclair. Sinclair's fictional character, in turn, was "loosely" based on a real person, named Edward L. Doheny. He is profiled in Wikipedia if you would like more information about him.All such "loose" associations are irrelevant in a great movie. Anderson and Daniel Day-Lewis have produced a cinematic masterpiece. It will be considered a classic in due time because of the timelessness of its theme and the greatness of its performances.I'm finished.

This movie did not need tropes. It did not need the "boy meets girl" trope, it did not need "sex scenes" spattered throughout, it did not need a forced female lead to impose herself on screen in representation of the strength of women everywhere, it did not need an inclusive cast etc. The story is about a villain , a villain that uses his obsession to create a behemoth. He chases the rabbit down every hole for years and years and at the detriment of his own sanity and his relationship with the only person who actually cares about him. This movie is a testament to good writing and SUPERB acting. Daniel Day Lewis makes an outstandingly memorable character that though we see he is disturbed and a villain, we still find ourselves drawn to be on HIS side, pure brilliance.

rented this for movie night. I recommend watching .