There Will Be Blood
- Bryan Kahlen
- Feb 1, 2008
- Series: Film
Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Ciaran Hinds, Kevin J. O'Connor, Dillon Freasier
Writer, Director, and Producer Paul Thomas Anderson
Ratied R
Running Time 2.5 Hours
If you had never heard of the film There Will Be Blood you might guess by the title alone that it was a horror film. Even the eerie music that accompanies the first frames of the film instills a kind of dread in the viewer. What director Paul Thomas Anderson does over the course of the next two and a half hours is provide a look at an individual who is consumed by a mixture of greed and hatred.
On the surface the film follows the exploits of oilman Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) as he moves across the American landscape in search of his next business venture. Eventually he is led to a small town in central California that is sitting atop a massive natural reserve of oil. Here we are introduced to Eli Sunday, a charismatic preacher who seems no older than 18 or 19 years of age. Plainview strikes a deal with Sunday that allows the oilman to commence drilling on their land. The remainder of the film follows Plainview and how his ambition eventually becomes a disease that threatens to completely consume him.
There is no doubt this film is very well-made from an artistic viewpoint. The music is sparse, ominous, and chaotic all at the same time. The cinematography perfectly captures a bleak and harsh desert landscape at odds with those who inhabit it. The oil is photographed in such a way that it actually looks like blood and the small amount of real blood in the film is as dark as the oil. Seeing Plainview's face streaked with oil as it is illuminated by a burning oil geyser during a pitch-black night has an almost sinister feel to it.
But any great film needs to have solid acting, and Day-Lewis's performance is one of the best I've seen in several years. He invests himself into his character to the point where you forget that he is a Hollywood actor. When we are first introduced to him he seems to be a man simply trying to make a living off the earth. The bond he has with his young son feels loving and authentic. But as the story progresses Plainview gives small glimpses into his soul and the hatred he has built up toward humanity. His eyes express an intensity that dialogue cannot convey. When that rage and bitterness expresses itself in action the result is often deadly. There is much to be said about his character, but revealing any more would spoil the movie.
If Plainview plays the role of worldly vice then Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) is his spiritual adversary and the embodiment of religious bankruptcy as the young preacher of the local church. Sunday's own ambition is to expand his church building and promote his name. Hellfire and brimstone is preached without a true Gospel message. Becoming saved is a choice the sinner makes in fear of Hell rather than God breaking in and granting grace to a broken individual. His charismatic way of preaching includes dramatic exorcisms in which evil spirits are drawn out by excessive screaming and hand motions. His style has a great effect on the congregation, perhaps partly as a result of the barren and dispiriting wasteland in which they live, thereby causing them to yearn for the theatrical. But what is displayed is a Christian faith that lacks a foundation in Christ and by the end of the film it becomes no secret that the director has an intense disdain for this type of faith.
There Will Be Blood is a horror film, though not the type you would expect. Watching the third act and the madness that takes place on screen is enough to unnerve even the most hard-hearted individuals. Instead of the horror coming from the outside in the form of serial killers, monsters, and ghosts it comes from within in the form of our fallen nature. I think that is something we can all relate to.
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Tom Connors on Feb 25, 2008 12:53pm
You're right about this being an intense film. Day-Lewis is definitely convincing in the role he plays. I read somewhere that in between sets he doesn't break character. His emotional and verbal acting embodies the role he plays.
The most disturbing part of the movie to me, however, is the mockery made of the blood of Christ. It seems the producer/director Anderson seeks to make an analogy between the sacredness of oil and the blood of Christ. At the beginning of the movie, a child is anointed with oil to establish the setting for the analogy. The church of the "Third Revelation" being led by the self-serving Elmer Gantry type leader, Eli Sunday, sing choruses about the blood of the Lamb in a way and setting that appears cultic, backward and flat out weird. Unfortunately, this type of movie which shows only the ugly side faith, only gives fuel to those who already feel the church is filled with people who are disconnected from reality