There Will Be Blood

Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood is an odd picture with its strange beauty and odd characterizations. Anderson, who wrote and directed the film, is likely best known to film fans as the filmmaker behind 1997’s Boogie Nights or 1999’s Magnolia. Anderson’s last film, Punch-Drunk Love, was in 2002. After creating that film, Anderson had been working on various projects, including some commercials and some television specials. He also had been working on an idea about two fighting families, but somehow the ideas weren’t coming together and he left the project. One fateful day, Anderson purchased the Upton Sinclair novel “Oil!” from 1927. He instantly became enamoured with Sinclair’s book and the ideas came back to him.

Anderson started to turn the first 150 pages of the book into a screenplay and was visiting museums for oilmen in Bakersfield, California. This helped piece together his idea even more and he changed the title of his screenplay from the Sinclair title of “Oil!” to There Will Be Blood because his ideas stretched beyond a simple adaptation of the novel. As Anderson wrote the screenplay, he had one individual in mind: Daniel-Day Lewis. With Lewis in mind, Anderson punched up the character of Daniel Plainview and approached Lewis with the completed script. Lewis, who had loved Punch-Drunk Love, instantly leapt at the idea and was cast as Plainview. After this, the project took two years to gather proper financing because most of the studios didn’t buy it as a major player in film.

There Will Be Blood follows Daniel Plainview, a silver prospector who becomes an oilman at the turn of the century. The film opens with Plainview as a silver prospector, working a silver claim. He eventually discovers oil on one of his claims and builds money to start a small drilling company. Plainview works all of the angles of business and deception until, in 1911, he is one of the most wealthy oil barons in America. He is eventually approached by a young man named Paul Sunday (Paul Dano) with an interested in selling Plainview his family’s property in California. Plainview travels to see the property and makes a deal on it, working with Paul’s twin brother Eli (Paul Dano) to cut a deal on the land. Eli and Plainview do not see eye to eye on a lot of things, to say the least, and tempers flare throughout the film as the two men struggle with issues of greed, religion, and family.

Paul Thomas Anderson has crafted something special here. There Will Be Blood is unique, strange, sprawling, sparse, barren, and intense. It is a strangely beautiful epic driven by the music of Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead. Greenwood provided a completely original score for the film, composing the music for it in about three weeks and recording it at Abbey Road Studios in London. The music, which is most unique and compelling, has a way of telling stories within the stories of Anderson’s film, making the marriage between the strangeness of Greenwood’s compositions and the beautiful oddity of Anderson’s film something to behold.

Daniel-Day Lewis is marvellous as Plainview, a determined individual with one focus in mind. He even procures an orphan boy to serve as his son in order to add the “family dynamic” when trying to sell himself to land owners. Lewis’ Plainview has, as his only goal in life, to become wealthy. He has no regrets in his life, doesn’t give things a second thought in most cases, and merely plods ahead with reckless abandon. In the opening sequence, Plainview falls down a mine shaft and breaks his life. Indicative to his character, he merely climbs back up and keeps going without a second thought. Lewis captures the elements of greed and focus within Plainview with beautiful tempering and acting. Many will find Plainview to be a hero; others will find him to be the ultimate villain. Perspective is everything.

Paul Dano as Eli Sunday is a marvel of energy, too. His evangelical minister with greed and backwards ideas as his Messiah is an excellent character and a wonderful challenge for this gifted actor. Dano is likely best know for his work in Little Miss Sunshine. Eli is a minister whose only goal in life, like Plainview, is to extract money from others. He wants money from Plainview to build his church and is willing to sell his soul, his God, and his congregation down the black river in order to do it. In the closing sequence of the film, Eli closes the ultimate deal with the devil and leaves his mark on the faith as only he could do. The first initial moment of compelling hatred between Plainview and Eli is so softly subtle and well done by Anderson that many may miss it.

There Will Be Blood is a wonderfully chaotic and maddening piece of film. Paul Thomas Anderson has crafted what many are calling a masterpiece with this one, but I’m not so sure. The characters appear to slip further into greed and envy, but at the same time they frequently seem unyielding and unwavering in their idealism. Lewis slips Plainview into virtual insanity towards the close of the picture as the greed reaches a boiling point, but this all seems to come out in such sudden bursts that I wished a bit more time had been taken by Anderson. The film’s 158 minutes could easily have used more, still. There are scenes of all types in this film and they resonate with a power and a depth rarely seen on screen, yet the entire film still left me, somehow, longing for more out of these intricate characters. I wanted to see more development and more time and care with Anderson’s piece.

There Will Be Blood ends on a note that reflects the whole process. It is sudden, jerking, jolting, and odd. It comes out of nowhere, like a lot in this film. Anderson’s does a nice job of weaving oddities and strange moments and characters that arrive and depart like a cruel game of Whack-A-Mole. Some of these characters seem unnecessary, while some which seem more necessary are given little time to be impactful. Overall, though, the tempo for the material is just about right. While Anderson’s film outreaches itself in certain moments and sells itself short in others, There Will Be Blood is one of the more peculiarly compelling films of 2007.

Trailer: