There Will Be Blood
Imagine being an impressionable 18-year-old budding cinephile seeing your first Paul Thomas Anderson film. Imagine seeing that on the big screen. Imagine hearing the draining chords of Johnny Greenwood’s brilliant score as the film opens on the harsh Texas landscape. I was immediately sucked in for the next two-plus hours as we embarked on the journey of Daniel Plainview fighting to get his oil derrick built and amass his fortune. It was like being hit over the head with cinematic brilliance. It wasn’t like many other films I saw beforehand. There Will Be Blood is a nasty, grandiose epic that opened my eyes to the world.
Based on Upton Sinclair’s Oil!, There Will Be Blood follows Daniel Plainview as he builds an Oil Well in a small California town in 1912. We first meet Plainview as he digs for silver. An early shot shows him wrapped in a blanket, trying to stay warm by a campfire on the cold desert night. He belongs to the desert-like the cactus and sand.
For me, Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the greatest actors to ever appear in a movie. Just looking at his filmography, he has worked with so many great directors, from James Ivory to Martin Scorsese to Steven Spielberg. It’s his collaborations with Paul Thomas Anderson that has led to his most exciting roles. On paper, Daniel Plainview is a monster who sucks the land dry of oil, laying waste to these small towns. Instead, Day-Lewis imbues Plainview with humanity. For every devious decision he makes, Day-Lewis gives a sound reason behind it. Any decision he makes, it’s with careful thought. I could never imagine lying to my son and sending him away, but I understand why and see the hurt in Plainview.
In an interview with The New York Observer, Day-Lewis was drawn to the project due to “the understanding that [Anderson] had already entered into it, [he] wasn’t observing it — [he’d] entered into it — and indeed [he’d] populated it with characters who [he] felt had lives of their own.” I remember hearing about how much research Anderson did to capture the time and technique. It’s almost like Kubrick researching his unmade Napoleon movie, going so far as collecting dirt from the battlefield. The town of Little Boston feels so alive in the details. It’s almost like you could walk into the screen and enter the world itself. Anderson takes something so mundane as building an Oil Derick and makes it a fascinating experience.
I think the perfect scene that captures the movie’s brilliance is when the Oil Derick catches on fire. The music starts pounding as the camera runs with Plainview as he tries to get his son. After he gets him to safety, the Oil Derick erupts in flames. While most men would be left broken by this setback, Plainview sees an opportunity. He sees “an ocean oil underneath our feet. I’m the only one who can get at it.” Credit goes out to Robert Elswit for capturing that moment with the towering flame as the only source of light. The towering fire creates a flickering effect at the bottom of the frame that’s so chilling but amazing at the same time.
I can’t go on gushing about this film without bringing up Eli Sunday, played by a screeching Paul Dano. The film frames their conflict as a fight between Religion and Greed, but it just isn’t possible. Plainview is a force of nature where he drags Sunday through the mud.
That’s not to say that Sunday gets in a swing or two in the baptism scene. But again, it’s a win for Plainview since he receives the final piece of land to build his pipe. A small moment of misery to fulfill his desire. Ultimately though, Plainview doesn’t get what he wants. For him, it was never about reaping the benefits of the hunt but the hunt itself. That’s why you’ll see him sleeping on the floor from time to time. The comforts of rewards aren’t good enough for Plainview.
I was enthralled after seeing this film for the first time. It was unlike anything I had seen or experienced at the time. For the longest time, I would go on to praise the film as being groundbreaking. For the most part, There Will be Blood still holds up as one of the greatest masterclass in acting. It’s story is a timeless one and is told in a timeless way by one of the greatest living American Directors.
