Movie Info
Movie Name: There Will Be Blood
Studio: Paramount Vantage
Genre(s): Drama
Release Date(s): September 27, 2007 (Fantastic Fest)/December 26, 2007 (US)
MPAA Rating: R
A hunk-o burning oil!!!
Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) is an oil man that will stop at nothing to land the big claim. When he learns of an oil rich farm from a boy named Paul Sunday (Paul Dano), Daniel and his adopted son H.W. (Dillon Freasier) set about to get the land and the surrounding farms of Little Boston. Unfortunately, Daniel finds himself at odds with a religious zealot in Paul’s brother Eli (Paul Dano) and the challenge of getting the oil to the coast without dealing with Standard Oil. The oil will flow and there will be blood.
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood is a historical drama. The film is loosely based on Upton Sinclair’s Oil which was published in 1926-1927 and followed Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love in 2002. The film was released to critical acclaim and is often listed as one of the best film of 2000s. The movie won Academy Awards for Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Best Cinematography with nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound Editing.
Paul Thomas Anderson has proven to be one of the great new directors. With both Boogie Nights and Magnolia, he showed great skill (and even Hard Eight was good), but I was rather disappointed with Punch-Drunk Love. There Will Be Blood proved Paul Thomas Anderson’s ability and variety.
You will be saved!
The story for There Will Be Blood is very slow and methodical. The first fifteen minutes of the film there isn’t any dialogue and it holds important aspects of the story (like the adoption of H.W.) which is more implied and requires attention from viewers. Despite being two-and-a-half hours, There Will Be Blood is a movie that needs to be seen multiple times to get all the nuances of the script and that is part of the challenge of the film.
Like always Daniel Day-Lewis is perfect. He gives himself his all to his characters and in this one, he is broken, cold, and calculating. He changes his whole walk and style to become Plainview. Paul Dano also is good in a duel role. He was only supposed to play Paul but was hired to play Eli when the actor fell through. Though the role is rather small, Dillon Freasier also good as Plainview’s child who loses his hearing (and is treated poorly).
I WILL DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE!!!
The movie also looks fantastic. This film is all about the use of the use of scenic views combined with tight dialogues in confined places. Anderson blends the two great. With such long speeches and scenes, he manages to keep it fresh (but Daniel Day-Lewis and his character’s robust delivery also aids the great shooting). A trip from the desert of Little Boston to the coast also shows the huge variety of landscape in the California.
There Will Be Blood has a very Kubrick type feel to it. The story, the acting, and the look all have that weird Kubrick edge to it. The movie is a modern classic and will be looked back on by film students in the future. I have to admit that I do enjoy Magnolia more, but There Will Be Blood also is a memorable follow up…and deny this and I will drink your milkshake! Anderson followed There Will Be Blood with The Master in 2012.
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