There Will Be Blood
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Movie Reviews of There Will Be Blood
Movie Review: A monster strides across the American frontier, wearing the skin of the oilman
Summary: 5 Stars
Paul Thomas Anderson ("Boogie Nights") has created a grim, powerful masterpiece of a film with "There Will Be Blood." I'm not sure when I'll want to watch it again - it may be years - but eventually I will dive back in to this stark portrayal of one man's drive for the American Dream.
Daniel Day Lewis plays Daniel Plainview and gives one of his trademark pitch-perfect, scary performances. Plainview is essentially an ogre, desperate to sate his own appetites and more than willing to crush any mere human who crosses his path.
Indeed, we first see Plainview hacking out a living in a silver mine, living in solitary desolation almost like a fabled monster in a cave. Plainview's the kind of guy who considers a shattered leg worthy of a grunt or two, but not a real impediment to success - we see this in some brutal early scenes.
But eventually Plainview becomes an oilman, willing to risk it all to find Wealth in the ground. And why? So he can get enough money so he can avoid human contact of any kind, a la Howard Hughes.
This is a strange, powerful film. A harsh soundtrack, a bleak landscape, and a cast filled with strong men playing for keeps in an unforgiving world combine to make this a chilling, riveting masterpiece. "I drink your milkshake!" is destined to go down as one of the great catch-phrases of cinema, perhaps the ultimate bit of trash-talk.
Look for powerful performances throughout the film, although to be fair women don't get much chance to shine here. Lewis is stellar, as always, but Paul Dano ("Little Miss Sunshine") really surprises as the twin boys Paul and Eli Sunday - the latter gets one of the most bizarre and horrifying story arcs in recent memory. I'm not sure how many times these two actors shot the controversial final scene, but I hope for their sakes they filmed the rehearsal.
A great, powerful, jarring film.
Movie Review: character study
Summary: 5 Stars
I went into There Will Be Blood not knowing what to expect other than the presence of Daniel Day Lewis. What I found was a great tragedy painted in greys that edge toward darkness through the course of the story, no recourse anywhere to be found. I first took notice of Day Lewis in Gangs of New York and was deeply moved by his performance of Bill the Butcher; his portrayal of the oilman in Blood was a massive advance in both depth and subtlety. For me, the story is run by the characters - and by Day Lewis' character especially, who is nearly constantly onscreen -which is to say that the particulars of the story aren't important; this is a myth, painted in the dark tones of human interaction. Every ounce of 'false' human warmth is stripped away (and the riveting score assuredly helps with that)to give us a portrait of human greed so essential and to the bone that I, at least, was spellbound. I would almost say horrified, but I think "dread" is a better word. It's very understandable that many people don't come to movies for this sort of experience, and dislike Blood. Day Lewis shows us an unknowable man - from the start you feel that he may be a terrible man, and as the story unfolds you see that it is true; for me, the oilman's darkness was not far beneath the surface, and the portrayal of this may have intentionally paralleled the movie's ostensible topic - the search for underground oil. Day Lewis' portrayal makes the story that much more painful because we never know why he is the way he is; and we can never truly put a finger on who he is, though we undoubtedly know he is a 'bad man'. Most people like badness nailed down - call it 'evil,' make it obvious, have a clearly 'good' opposition, etc. You'll find none of that here; to me, it's the ambiguity in the face of such utter terribleness that makes this movie profound. Amazing.
Movie Review: Oil wells. Family. Religion. Power. Greed. Violence. A truly fine film.!
Summary: 5 Stars
Daniel Day Lewis won an Oscar in 2008 for his performance in this film. I can well understand why. Cast as an unscrupulous oil tycoon in the early part of the 20th century, he paints the portrait of true greed and ruthlessness. He has no relationships, no family and no regrets as he cheats people out of their land in order to build oil wells. There is no dialogue for the first 15 minutes of the film. We see him prospecting for gold in a makeshift and dangerous shaft. He's alone, and when he has a fall that breaks his leg, he pulls himself out of the shaft in grit and determination. His characterization is set then.
Later we see him working on a mine with a small baby in a basket. He tells everyone this is his son and that his wife has died in childbirth, but throughout the film we never meet any woman in his life and there is no back story at all about the child. He calls the child his son and is grooming him to be an oilman and there are some very poignant scenes between these two. And then, an accident happens and his son becomes deaf. The father does what he thinks is right, but leaves the son hating him forever.
Into this mix comes a young evangelical preacher, played by Paul Dano, whose family sold oil to the oilman. This young man is a religious zealot and wants say a prayer to dedicate the first oil well that is dug on the land. But the oilman disrespects him and embarrasses him instead and this leads to a lifelong hatred and competition between them both, resulting in a rather confusing and violent conclusion to the film.
The acting was superb. The theme was fascinating, and it moved so fast that its length of 158 minutes didn't bother me at all. It is not for everybody though because it is very violent and the theme and plot are not tied up neatly. Frankly, though I loved it.
Movie Review: For Anderson and Lewis, There Will Be Cinematic Immortality
Summary: 5 Stars
There Will Be Blood, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, is a powerfully realized, beautifully acted, written, and directed film. Adapted from the novel Oil by Upton Sinclair, "Blood" tells the story of Daniel Plainview, who is a silver miner in California in the late 1800s when he first strikes oil. From there, he becomes an oilman, skilled at going into communities and appealing to their sense of family and community, bringing his young son in tow to add to his allure.
Plainview's character comes more and more into focus as he is alerted to a possible oil site in arid farmland. Taking his son with him, he investigates and decides to start buying property all around the area. But he comes in constant conflict with the twin brother of the young man who alerted him to the oil, a would-be faith-healer and preacher who has amassed a sizeable following in the town.
What follows is fascinating, hearbreaking, and compelling, as Plainview singlemindedly pursues wealth and success without much regard to anything or anyone, even himself. By the end of the film, he is a broken man who could not have ended up any other way.
To say that Day-Lewis' performance is a tour-de-force is an understatement. His Plainview is arrogant, contemptible, hateful, but at the same time tender and compassionate in his own way. He was more than deserving on an Oscar, and this film had the poor fortune to be released at the same time that the wonderful "No Country For Old Men" was released. Otherwise, Anderson would have won for Best Director and the film probably would have won Best Picture.
There Will Be Blood serves as many things, but above all, it is a masterful piece of filmmaking and acting.
Movie Review: Modern mythology
Summary: 5 Stars
"There Will Be Blood" is one of those dark, disturbing and insistent stories that compels you to watch, even when you'd rather turn away to a sunnier subject. It reminds me of "Chinatown" with its unsentimental view of the past and sinister subtexts. It's more than a story of greed and commerce in expanding late 19th century America; it traces a man's ambition to get whatever he wants at whatever cost.
Such a universal theme is usually to be found in Shakespeare, and requires an actor with enough emotional heft to pull it off. Daniel Day Lewis is as hard as stone in the role of Daniel Plainview, the driven oil prospector who sacrifices everything on his way up (or is it down?).
The film has a number of scenes that show how far Plainview will go to achieve his dream, but the one that clinched it for me was the oil derrick fire, drawn out in an almost agonizing pace by the director and stoked up by a mesmerizing score. Plainview and his crew, having unplugged an underground cache of oil, scramble to contain a flare-up that threatens to destroy both men and machinery. The scene starts at dusk, and as night falls, the combination of flames and inky black sky heighten the drama. With very little dialogue, the actors play out a modern myth: Prometheus bringing down the sacred fire. It's a chilling scene when Plainview, staring out of oil-streaked eyes at the derrick, mutters to his assistant that the rig is OK, but that his son (injured in the initial explosion), isn't. You can see the calculations that Plainview makes throughout his career that eventually catch up with him.
There's so much in the way of film surprises that it would be best to see it for oneself. I highly recommend this movie.