2007, USA
Adventure, Drama
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Extended version:
Who could have predicted that following films about porn stars, raining frogs and sex line snafus, director Paul Thomas Anderson would tackle the epic evolution of man and his battle for independence from a power greater than himself? Or maybe it is just about oil.
Loosely based on Upton Sinclair’s novel Oil!, one might deduce that There Will Be Blood merely chronicles the battle between an oil baron and a preacher in turn of the century California. One may conclude that Biblical references run amok. But it is best to remember that in the beginning, there was a silver miner.
The story begins in 1898 as a prospector mines for silver despite personal risk. In 1902, he has gathered men to help drill for oil, diverting danger from himself. By 1911, he has accomplished great success with men working on his oil derricks across the country, directing the process from a safe distance. Throughout, cinematographer Robert Elswit beautifully captures the silence of both isolation and disconnection.
With a nod to the dawn-of-man sequences from 2001: A Space Odyssey, the bridging music of Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood helps to charge progress ahead. Initially all noise and cacophony, the music lurches towards the terrifying unknown. With each step advanced, the more civilized and less primal the music becomes in each aural chapter.
Daniel Plainview is the prospector turned oil baron, and his name describes his objective. He will do anything to get every last drop of oil -- even pose an orphaned boy as his flesh and blood to reassure families while he is hustling them.
As expected, Daniel Day-Lewis does not just portray Plainview, he devours him. His voice is gruff and familiar, like George Burns minus the laughter, yet is delivered with such authority that it is impossible to consider him creating any other sound. His character quickly ticks off most of the deadly sins without a second thought, even in the face of God.
That is, God as interpreted by young evangelist Eli Sunday. Impressively, Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine) goes toe-to-toe with Day-Lewis. His character is a worthy foe, equally as hungry for a larger church as Plainview is for oil rights. Which is more threatening: a wolf in sheep's clothing or vice versa?
Greed and salvation are bartered, but each is a creature of habit -- conversion is not an option. When Sunday asks to bless the town's new oil derricks, Plainview refuses. When Plainview's son needs to be healed, Sunday determines God is otherwise detained. When a landowner stands in the way of a pipeline to the sea, he requests Plainview's baptism. But Plainview has already been baptized by the oil that gushed when he crawled from the earth's womb.
This is a demanding film, metaphorically and spiritually, and the light at the end of the tunnel is the title's self-fulfilling prophecy. Oil keeps a lake of fire well lit, as beast and prophet battle in perpetuity.