There Will Be Blood

UK Release Date. 15 February 2008
Certification. 12A
Running Time. 2 hours 38 mins
Director. Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast. Paul Dano, Daniel Day-Lewis, Dillon Freasier, Ciarán Hinds, Kevin J. O'Connor.
Rating. 82%

Review.

There Will Be Blood opens with 15 minutes of screen time without dialogue. The story that is shared in these first fifteen minutes of a struggling prospector in search of gold is remarkable. There isn’t a word spoken in those 15 minutes but already the audience knows everything they need to know about Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis). He’s determined. He’s driven. He’s tenacious. He’s hardened. Above all, he will do absolutely anything to be the best. When we finally hear the commanding voice of the man himself, Daniel is pitching his oil drilling business to a prospective, but rightly apprehensive town.

Those first 15 minutes are electrifying and set the tone for a masterful film. One that effortlessly combines breathtaking visuals with a tight-knit character study, set against the backdrop of turn-of-the-century California.

Undertrained and grandiose, There Will Be Blood certainly has an epic feel; the film is long, with a run time exceeding two and a half hours, but it is never boring. The technical elements are top-notch in every aspect. Breathtaking cinematography by Robert Elswit flawlessly captures oil field magnitudes, with grand widescreen panoramas, alongside intimate details. The sound design, particularly when one character experiences deafness, is brilliant. The editing is frequently surprising and inventive. There Will Be Blood is a rare example of cinema being used to its full potential. Indeed, the film is a tour-de-force for Paul Thomas Anderson, who directs with the sure-hand of Kubrick; and like it or not, his vision is undeniable. 

There Will Be Blood follows the rise to power of the ruthless Daniel Plainview, a man who will stop at nothing in his quest for success in the oil industry. A genuinely memorable performance, Daniel Day-Lewis is nothing short of brilliant in delivering an intense, gloriously unrestrained performance that ignites the screen. Daniel Day-Lewis was awarded the 2008 Academy Award for the Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role. Plainview’s ‘I’m an oil man’ monologue to the townsfolk of Little Boston is spine-chilling.

"Ladies and gentlemen? Ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so much for visiting with us this evening. Now, I've traveled across half our state to be here and to see about this land. Now, I daresay some of you might have heard some of the more extravagant rumors about what my plans are; I just thought you'd like to hear it from me. This is the face. There's no great mystery. I'm an oilman, ladies and gentlemen. I have numerous concerns spread across this state. I have many wells flowing at many thousand barrels per day. I like to think of myself as an oilman. As an oilman, I hope that you'll forgive just good old-fashioned plain speaking…” 

If Plainview is industry, then Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), the evangelical young town preacher, is religion. And, both are corrupt and devious in their own indomitable way. At first glance it appears as if Anderson is juxtaposing the twin strands of industry and religion in the early part of the Twentieth Century. An examination of the push-pull relationship between capitalism and religion. On reflection, it’s a more personal affair, perhaps even a character study. A film focussing on how greed, corruption, and arrogance can destroy a man's soul. There’s something horrific about the manner in which Plainview pursues his goals, especially when he starts to strip away anything that gets between him and the pursuit of wealth and prestige. Greed, it seems, is his only true friend.

There Will Be Blood remains a divisive film. A near-masterpiece of contemporary cinema mitigated by a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion. The film meanders a bit towards the end, but concludes with an insane final scene - a jarring departure from the rest of the film - which is both unexpected and yet entirely fitting.