There Will Be Blood (11 January 2008)
directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Ciarán Hinds, Dillon Freasier, Russell Harvard, Barry Del Sherman, Kevin J. O'Connor, Colleen Foy, Paul F. Tompkins, Kevin Breznahan, Randall Carver, Sydney McCallister, David Willis, Tom Doyle, Hans Howes, Colton Woodward
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MPAA rating: Studio: Ghoulardi Film Company, Paramount Vantage, Miramax Films Script: Paul Thomas Anderson Based on the book by: Upton Sinclair Music: Johnny Greenwood Running time: 158 minutes Awards: 2008 Academy Award for Best Achievement in Cinematography, 2008 Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Tags: 1910s; baptism; deafness; Drama; father-son relationships; greed; mines; murder; novel apaptation; oil derricks; pipelines; power; religion; twins Tactical strength: [7/10]
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for some violence
If I had known up front that There Will Be Blood originated from Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel Oil!, I would have had a better idea of what to expect. I went to There Will Be Blood based on Daniel Day-Lewis winning the Best Actor Academy Award for his performance. I have liked Lewis pretty much since Last of the Mohicans, but I thought that Gangs of New York took violence to an extreme, and I had sort of lost interest in Lewis after that. There Will Be Blood has it's share of violence, but you mostly understand the motivation behind the action. And with an Upton Sinclair story, you have only two motivating factors: greed and power.
Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) has a drive to get rich in the oil business. He starts the hard way -- a claim that he works alone -- and builds up his fortune and prestige until he's well known and sought after as an oil developer. Early on, one of Daniel's workers dies, leaving behind an infant. Daniel unofficially adopts the boy, and he keeps the boy he calls H.W. (Dillon Freasier) next to him during all his wheeling and dealing. From what we see, Daniel truly loves the boy, but love seems to take a back seat to Daniel's greed and desire to continually expand his mining operations. While watching the progress of the drilling operation on the Sunday ranch, H.W. has his eardrums burst by a sudden blast of gas erupting from the borehole. Daniel clearly feels bad about his son's malady, but he finds H.W. a burden and ships him off to a school for the deaf.
One dark night, a teenage boy, Paul Sunday (Paul Dano) comes to Daniel with a tip about his father's ranch where the oil just seeps out of the ground. Daniel takes the tip and begins buying up oil rights from the entire region around the Sunday ranch. As part of the deal, for using the Sunday land, Daniel promises $5,000 to Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), Paul's twin brother, for building a new church where Eli can preach.
In spite of the success of the oil drilling and the wealth generated for the community, a tension remains between Eli and Daniel. Although concealed in the robes of religion, Eli has similar lusts for power and wealth as Daniel. Eli tries to manipulate the community to join his church by trying to tie the blessing of the oil to the blessings of god. Daniel recognizes Eli's motivations, and the two constantly battle for supremacy over the hearts and minds of the people -- including humiliating each other in public whenever possible. For the last half of the film, we watch Daniel's greed isolate him from almost all human contact.
Both Lewis and Dano do excellent work portraying men driven by their own need for wealth, notoriety, and power. We watch Lewis take his character from simply determined and strong willed, to a man capable of swindling, murder, and disowning his own son all because of his desire to control more wealth and power.
The soundtrack gets a bit repetitive, but it does provide clear audio cues every time Daniel leaves behind another piece of his humanity. Visually, the barren desert scenes of Texas and California reflect the emptiness of the characters. DanielPlainview refers to oil as "the blood of the land." In the same way that Daniel sucks the blood of the land out of the ground, he allows his humanity to drain away as well. Eli claims he wants to purify people in "the blood of the Lamb," but he too does so out of selfish motivation instead of a true desire to serve his flock. Each character uses their form of blood to humiliate the other. When Eli asks Daniel for the $5,000 promised for the church, Daniel beats Eli and drags Eli around in a pool filled with oil. When Daniel needs an easement through a particular piece of property, the owner requires that Daniel join Eli's church and receive baptism. During the baptism, Eli uses every means he can to humiliate Daniel in front of the congregation.
I think Upton Sinclair would approve of this adaptation of his novel. We watch the self-destruction of the main characters as they focus on their greed and lust for power, and we see these empty lives -- like black holes -- draw the goodness and life unwillingly out of the people who happen to cross their path.
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