THERE WILL BE BLOOD (2007)

Country: U.S.A.

Genre(s): Drama / Epic

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis / Paul Dano / Dillon Freasier

Plot

Oil man Daniel Plainview and his adoptive son H.W. arrive in California rancher territory looking to exploit the area for its oil.  Daniel finds himself in a battle of wills with Eli Sunday, a self-promoting local preacher.

What I Liked

I suppose the greatest compliment I could pay “There Will Be Blood” is to start with saying that it serves as a very worthy (if entirely unofficial) companion piece to “Citizen Kane,” which is itself regarded as the greatest of all American films by a great many critics and filmgoers.  Thematically, the two movies are virtually inseparable; greed, success, failure, alienation, competition, ambition, capitalism, and corruption seep and ooze in and out of every scene of both films.  The obvious differences in time period and setting join differences in technical approach to separate the films creatively, but few if any movies have encompassed all of those aforementioned themes with such intelligence and depth of feeling since “Kane” as does Paul Thomas Anderson’s grim epic.

Like the earlier classic, “There Will Be Blood” features a titanic performance from a master actor, Daniel Day-Lewis giving Daniel Plainview all the imposing will and maniacal determination of Orson Welles’ Charles Foster Kane, and then some.  On a first viewing, Day-Lewis is what makes the picture, his performance simply so awe-inspiring it grabs the viewer’s consciousness and wrings from it every last drop of attention.  As was Kane, Plainview is one of the most compelling protagonists in the history of film.  However, multiple viewings allow the audience to take in a more well-rounded view of the movie as a whole and reveal there is much more to admire than one character and the man who plays him.

Though “There Will Be Blood” has an entirely different cinematic approach from “Kane,” it is nonetheless full of its own evocative visions.  The presence (or lack thereof) of God is another recurring theme of the movie, and Robert Elswit’s Academy Award winning cinematography captures the power of landscape in a way that implies that if God doesn’t stand always at the ready to wipe out everyone and everything, something unnamable and untouchable (nature?...fate?...Satan?) does.  The wide open shots of barren landscapes be speckled with tiny men and their fragile machines are as ominous as they are gorgeous.  Yet at the same time the camera somehow catches the minutiae of gestures and glances, nuts and bolts, capturing an authenticity and grittiness in the details.  Hardly a shot goes by that isn’t covered in either dust, blood, oil, or all three.  Their presence unnerves.

What I Didn’t Like

Much of the plot moves at a deliberate pace, almost as though Paul Thomas Anderson, who wrote the script as well as directed the film, wanted his film to be of an epic length to match its epic subject.  The performances, characters, and visuals of the movie are so mesmerizing that turning off the movie won’t even occur to most viewers, but those wanting action, flash, or melodrama will certainly find this movie tedious.

Most Memorable Scene

The movie ends with a scene of deviously absurd violence in a setting (a bowling alley inside of a mansion) that is as disorienting as the action on screen.  It all seems so far removed from the blackened foreboding of the oil fields, yet it is ironically here that we leave Daniel Plainview in the film’s bleakest moment.  Following the simple line, “I’m finished!,” the film cuts to credits, leaving the audience to wonder if Plainview has just secured his most personal victory or has just damned himself to unrecoverable defeat.

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5