Movie Review: “There Will Be Blood”

“There will be Blood” opens in a manner unbefitting its status as a modern day epic. Rather than greet its viewers with the usual rousing orchestral fare, “There will be Blood”, in a throwback to the era of the silent film, greets us with total silence. The film title, virtually unreadable in Gothic lettering, appears for a few seconds before fading away to reveal a man unsuccessfully prospecting for silver in the middle of nowhere. The year is 1898. One day, while climbing down a ladder at his small mine, a rung breaks, and he falls all the way down to the base of his shaft, breaking his leg in the process. After spending a few agonizing moments trying to collect his wits about him, he suddenly notices a small rock glistening in the darkness. He picks it up, brushes it clean with what passes for his shirt, and proceeds to give a small feral grin, all his pain forgotten in the wake of a future rich with the promise of unimaginable wealth and power. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Daniel Plainview - obsessed, charismatic, brilliant, angry, warm-hearted, vicious… and oilman. We then meet him in 1902, on the road to prosperity, now drilling for oil with his own group of workers. Tragedy inevitably befalls, as it usually does, and a man is killed at the drilling site leaving behind a baby boy. Plainview decides to adopt the orphan and names him H.W. (We never learn what the initials stand for). It is clear from the outset that Plainview loves his son passionately, and in one of the most touching moments on screen, Plainview gazes adoringly at the toddler, as H.W. stares back gurgling in return, the two of them riding on a train very much alone. It is a scene that will haunt us as events come to pass throughout the course of the film. Fast-forward a few years and it’s now 1911, by which point Plainview has succeeded in his ventures with his own company. There’s money in the bank and quite a lot of it, too – but when a stranger called Paul Sunday arrives with news that oil is seeping out of the ground at his family’s ranch in Little Boston, a small town lost in the deserts of California, the lure of an untapped ocean of oil galvanizes Plainview and his team into action. Pretty soon, oil starts gushing out of the desert and the townsfolk, hungry and thirsty for so long (they didn’t even have enough water to grow wheat there), look upon the oilmen as saviors, while yearning for more at the same time. Plainview soothes the crowd with promises of schools, roads and water; however, his authority is soon challenged by a new salesman, one Mr. Eli Sunday, a charismatic clergyman for the ‘Church of the Third Revelation’, who hopes to build a new church in town. The eventual outcome of their mutual antagonism and Plainview’s gradual transformation into a Captain Ahab-like character, consumed by the frenzy of his own anger and lust for power, makes up for much of the running time of the movie. The ending, both absurdly comical and violent at the same time, is quite likely as explosive and unforgettable as they come.

No review of “There will be Blood” will be complete without at least mentioning the powerhouse performance of Daniel Day-Lewis, which alone makes the movie worth watching. Day-Lewis’ role as Daniel Plainview seems to fit him like a glove. As he realizes the character of Plainview in all his ferocious and avaricious glory, his performance becomes so outsized that at times, you begin to fear for Daniel Day-Lewis, the man. As Plainview, oil seems to seep from his pores, and he comes across as a man literally baptized in oil. It would be no mere exaggeration to say that hardly has an actor ever captured all the facets of a character so completely. Paul Dano’s turn as Eli Sunday is also par excellence. With his small mouth and dead eyes, his portrayal of Eli Sunday’s disgusting and pathetic attempt at piety is at once both repulsive and yet, stirring. Nearly everyone involved in the movie turns in a solid performance, including Dillon Freasier, who plays a young H.W., standing by Plainview’s side as his conscience.

This movie is like Paul Thomas Anderson’s earlier efforts (Boogie Nights, Punch-Drunk Love, Magnolia) and yet, there is a difference in style and tone that sets it apart. There’s a tremendous sense of unease running throughout the film; a tension all the more accentuated by Jonny Greenwood’s (of Radiohead fame) dissonant, electronic wails which will literally make your hairs stand on end.

Ultimately, “There will be Blood” is a ferocious kind of film and one that will be praised and attacked with equal fervor. Some critics have hailed it as an instant ‘classic’, comparing it to “Citizen Kane”. Perhaps, one may ask, “Does it deserve to be called a classic? Is it really such a work of art?” It may or may not; the answer to that question is subject to the whims of time. However, the fact is: “There will be Blood” tells a riveting story and it does it well. That makes for some really good entertainment. What more can one ask for?

Highly recommended.

Official Thorn Rating: 5 elephants