A sprawling epic of family, faith, power and oil, THERE WILL BE BLOOD is set on the incendiary frontier of California's turn-of-the-century petroleum boom. The story chronicles the life and times of one Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), who transforms himself from a down-and-out silver miner raising a son on his own into a self-made oil tycoon. When Plainview gets a mysterious tip-off that there's a little town out West where an ocean of oil is oozing out of the ground, he heads with his son, H.W. (Dillon Freasier), to take their chances in dust-worn Little Boston. In this hardscrabble town, where the main excitement centers around the holy roller church of charismatic preacher Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), Plainview and H.W. make their lucky strike. But even as the well raises all of their fortunes, nothing will remain the same as conflicts escalate and every human value - love, hope, community, belief, ambition and even the bond between father and son - is imperiled by corruption, deception and the flow of oil.
Unmistakably a shot at greatness, Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood succeeds in wild, explosive ways. The film digs into nothing less than the sources of peculiarly American kinds of ambition, corruption, and industry--and makes exhilarating cinema from it all. Although inspired by Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel Oil!, Anderson has crafted his own take on the material, focusing on a black-eyed, self-made oilman named Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), whose voracious appetite for oil turns him into a California tycoon in the early years of the 20th century. The early reels are a mesmerizing look at the getting of oil from the ground, an intensely physical process that later broadens into Plainview's equally indomitable urge to control land and power. Curious, diverting episodes accumulate during Plainview's rise: a mighty derrick fire (a bravura opportunity that Anderson, with the aid of cinematographer Robert Elswit, does not fail to meet), a visit from a long-lost brother (Kevin J. O'Connor), the ongoing involvement of Plainview's poker-faced adoptive son (Dillon Freasier). As the film progresses, it gravitates toward Plainview's rivalry with the local representative of God, a preacher named Eli Sunday (brimstone-spitting Paul Dano); religion and capitalism are thus presented not so much as opposing forces but as two sides of the same coin. And the worm in the apple here is less man's greed than his vanity. Anderson's offbeat take on all this--exemplified by the astonishing musical score by Jonny Greenwood--occasionally threatens to break the film apart, but even when it founders, it excites. As for Daniel Day-Lewis, his performance is Olivier-like in its grand scope and its attention to details of behavior; Plainview speaks in the rum-rich voice of John Huston, and squints with the wariness of Walter Huston. It's a fearsome performance, and the engine behind the film's relentless power. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
Study of Greed and Paranoia:
More than an epic tale of an early 20th Century oilman, this is a fascinating study of the greed for power and what it does to a man.
We meet Daniel Plainview down the bottom of a mine, exerting himself in mind-numbingly monotonous and backbreaking work, looking for gold or silver. He is a man willing to endure pain and humiliation to grasp more money, or more power. As he quickly moves from gold to black gold, he becomes more powerful, and his ruthlessness and underhandedness become more and more... more info
Best movie of the decade!!!.:
This movie was so good I keep forgetting to type the review!, I was suppose to do this review a few months ago. Anyway There Will Be Blood was a terrific film by director P.T. Anderson which marks a whole new chapter in his career and it was definitely a masterful piece of work that was also wonderfully directed, superbly acted and perfectly written. There Will Be Blood brings us to the early 20th century (from 1898 to 1911), where it chronicles the exploits of Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), who... more info
Daniel Plainview: self made man:
I read the first few reviews and was disappointed that most referred to 'greed' and 'lust for power' and other such tropes better left to the Daily Kos. The protagonist, Daniel Plainview, is a self-starting entrepreneur who just wants to enjoy the fruit of his labors free of railroad price-gougers or vainglorious religious opportunists. He is single-minded, focused, and supremely confident. For you liberal anti-capitalist types out there, know this: this country was built by people like Daniel... more info
Long, Boring, ultimately Pointless:
This movie sucked, yeah I said it. For all those people out there who think I'm stupid, so what, doesn't change the fact that this movie was awful. Rent it or download it if you just have to see it but for god's sake don't buy it! You will be stuck with a movie that you spent all that money on and you may only watch once, twice if you wanna remind yourself how big a mistake it was buying. The only reason this movie should be considered epic is because it takes an eternity to watch. This is a propaganda... more info
