Ryan McNeil
At what point does a person lose the plot? How long do you have to fight, before you begin to forget just what you’re fighting for? How high does your mountain of wealth have to grow, before you realize that you couldn’t possibly spend it all in your lifetime? Something has gone horribly wrong somewhere midway through THERE WILL BE BLOOD when a man is offered one million dollars for his oil empire, giving him the chance to retire a very rich man.
He responds to the offer by saying “What would I do then?”
THERE WILL BE BLOOD is the story of Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis). At the turn of the twentieth century, Daniel started making his living as a silver miner in the American Southwest. That ‘living’ quickly turned into a small fortune when he turned his attention to oil. During his early drilling, one of his men get killed in a tragic accident. In one of his few moments of caring, Plainview adopts the man’s infant son, naming him H.W. and caring for him as his own son. Before long, Plainview is one of the most cutthroat, and most successful oil men in the country, with H.W at his side as his partner.
At this point a young man seeks him out and tips him off to a wealth of untapped oil around The Sunday family farm in California. Plainview takes the bait and goes to call on The Sundays. Sure enough, the oil is there for the taking so Plainview strikes a deal to buy the farm for the rock bottom price of $10,000 – all of which will go to building a new church for The Sunday’s eldest son Eli (Paul Dano). To say it’s all downhill from there would be an understatement.
Plainview gets the entire town on board, and as his wells begin to pump unimagined riches in oil, spirits seem to be high. The first blow comes when the derek explodes, costing one worker his life. Though the fire roars high into the indigo sky, Plainview is upbeat – he’s rich beyond belief. However, the next punch thrown at Plainview lands and lands hard…during a second well accident, H.W. is deafened. Plainview, too impatient, and unconcerned to fathom his son’s handicap continues to indulge in his drilling, concerning himself with little else. His family? His common sense? The deals he’s made? The monster he’s becoming? None of it matters.
In the face of this viciousness, Plainview must constantly deal with Eli Sunday. His Christian beliefs run almost as deep as Plainview’s work ethic, and his message of faith and redemption is the only thing standing in Plainview’s way of having the entire town to do with as he wishes. To the town, Sunday seems to be the genuine article – a true faith healer who can keep and protect them. However Sunday’s faith gets put to the test, when Plainview’s deep defiance and ridicule continues to strip him of his strength and stature.
THERE WILL BE BLOOD is unsettling. Every morally compromised moment, every unfortunate death, every note of the intense score does an amazingly efficient job of chilling the audience to the core. The story strikes me as the complete antithesis to The American Dream. The idea isn’t to work hard and you can achieve anything, here we watch as a man works hard until he can’t decide what to do with himself next. His material wealth is beyond belief, but his life is left as poor and as empty as could possibly be imagined.
There’s not much I’ll be able to say about Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance that hasn’t already been said, repeated, and garnished with gold statues. Day-Lewis’ performance is dark, disturbing, and about far more than milkshakes. Equally impressive is the way Paul Dano stands up to Day-Lewis in the scenes they share together. Dano was last seen as the older brother in LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, a performance that gave audiences only a glimmer of what he is capable of. Dano gives Eli Sunday a delicate balance. A young man that seems quietly confident, but the sort who can unravel quickly when a person knows just where to push.
The movie is a remarkable achievement for director Paul Thomas Anderson (MAGNOLIA). Anderson has a unique talent for painting portraits of people with big dreams, people who unfortunately spend so much time dreaming that their entire reality can fall apart in short order. This is his first film in five years, and I sincerely hope he doesn’t take five years to follow it up.
I won’t lie to you – THERE WILL BE BLOOD is a difficult film. It’s long, it’s bleak, and the final act is equally violent and ambiguous. Despite these reasons…or perhaps because of them, I couldn’t recommend it any higher. Like any good fable, the lesson it teaches is a good one. The lesson is to take a step back every once in a while and take stock. That in trying to build a life that will want for nothing, a life where a family could be well looked after, one can easily end up losing those ideals altogether. Worse yet, one won’t realize it until it’s far too late.
finally got around to watching the infamous There Will Be Blood… Daniel-Day Lewis’ performance was top-notch. He takes well to the overbearing, violent father-figure role — he also did this in Gangs of New York.