THE POPCORN REEL FILM REVIEW/"There Will Be Blood"

The Father, The Son and The Holy Blood Of Oil                                                                                    

By Omar P.L. Moore/January 4, 2008                                                                                                                                                                                  

Dillon Freasier, left, and Daniel Day-Lewis as H.W. Plainfield and Daniel Plainfield respectively they are both outstanding in their roles in Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood", the director's first film since 2002's "Punch-Drunk Love".  (Photo: Francois Duhamel/Paramount Vantage)

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It has been five years between films for director Paul Thomas Anderson and the characters of his previous efforts have typically been unsettled, manic types whose addictions and denials are emblazoned like badges of honor upon their foreheads and within their hearts.  With "There Will Be Blood" -- loosely based upon Oil!, Upton Sinclair's classic novel about the fight for control of America's oil empire at the turn of the 20th century -- all of that changes.  Daniel Day-Lewis, in a towering performance as Daniel Plainview, is an oil prospector looking to add more wealth to his slowly but steadily growing empire in California in the late 1800's to mid 1920's, and unlike other Anderson predecessors isn't shy about his ambitions, nor his wretched, misanthropic heart: "I look at people and I see nothing worth liking," Plainview says with a sly, maniacal smile on his face.

 

As his name suggests, Plainview is a python in plain view: you can see him coming from a mile away in Mr. Anderson's epic tale of capitalism, oil lust and the people (both relatives and strangers) who get in the way of both.  Early on, Plainview slithers across the ground after suffering an injury, and from there he slithers into our minds, imprinting his heartless character so well that Mr. Day-Lewis, a tried-and-true method actor, threatens to stop Mr. Anderson's new film dead in its tracks.  Mr. Day-Lewis, winner of the Oscar for "My Left Foot" in 1990, is that good here, and larger than life as Plainview, in one of the great 21st century portrayals of an evil beast one will see, and will most likely add another Oscar to his mantle. 

 

"Blood", exquisitely shot by frequent Anderson cinematographer Robert Elswit, realizes a time just prior to the Great Depression in America when oil is the lifeblood of the west.  The mix of religion and capitalism and blood -- all historically interchangeable variables -- are ingrained into the fabric of the film, the music of which is orchestrated by Johnny Greenwood's distinct and ominous original score, some of which appears to be a variation on Bernard Herrmann's "Psycho" music score, and if it sounds that way at some moments, it isn't by accident.  Moreover, in the lead character's pathology, family is a means for money-making not people-loving, and when a loved one is hurt and an oil well is falling apart, you'd better make sure that you stop the fire from spreading on that rig.  (Priorities, priorities.)  "I can't keep doing this on my own, with these . . . people," Plainview later says.  He may as well have substituted the word "cockroaches" for people.  He's as slimy as the oil he covets so fiercely and as savage as the eruption of the oil rig he has erected on another's ranch.  On numerous occasions Plainview emphasizes by his actions that oil is thicker than blood, and that the two don't mix well.

 

In not so obvious ways "There Will Be Blood" is another deeply personal film for Mr. Anderson (as was his 1999 film "Magnolia") and although it covers the years 1898 through 1924 in a seemingly nostalgic chronicle, it also serves as a direct parallel to and illustration of the current Bush Administration's use of religion, capital and consequences vis-a-vis Iraq, via George W's "evildoers" reference, Ken Lay's Enron, and Dick Cheney's Halliburton and gas pipelines through the Caspian Sea via Afghanistan.  In that way, "Blood" may be viewed as satire, and at times Daniel Plainview is winking and nodding at an audience whose sophistication he has already anticipated, about 100 years in advance.  When he becomes indignant at the knowledge that he owns all but one oil patch, we aren't surprised.

As show-stopping and scenery-chomping an acting job is done by Day-Lewis, the other actors around him hold their own marvelously, in particular Paul Dano as Eli Sunday, a young preacher man cut from similar cloth as Plainview, and Dillon Freasier, a revelation here as Plainview's young son H.W., a silent, innocent sidekick with a blank, even blanched expression that speaks volumes both about himself and his daddy Plainview; he seems trapped by circumstance and looks as if he has been struck by lightning, a fearful look permanently etched on his round cherubic face.  Mr. Freasier is very good indeed and the contrast in his and Day-Lewis's acting styles allow them both to augment each other in the process.  And Mr. Dano, he of "Little Miss Sunshine", in which he played Dwayne, here borrows a kernel of the volatility of that prior character and alternately sublimates and amplifies those unpredictable qualities in Eli, whose oil-rich land is owned by Eli's father Abel -- that name too is a foreshadowing not borne of accident, either.  (Mr. Dano also plays Paul, a brother of Eli, and he looks completely different, even as he plays one side of the same coin.)  Eli is a pre-cursive Jim Jones -- though lacking the requisite Kool-Aid he has plenty of water, which his parishioners drink from. 

 

Despite its title, "There Will Be Blood" isn't very violent at all, it is only violent in Daniel Plainview's rapacious behavior.  He spews an acidic and biting line near the film's end that hits home and is the quintessence of his agenda.  As the oil wheels turn, his greed burns, boils and rots, polluting the natural landscape and choking the lifeblood out of competitors.  The most telling thing is that throughout the film it is hard to tell where oil ends and blood begins, as events both subtle and telling shape the film from its very start to its very end.  Somehow there may be a perfect coagulation of the two.

Paul Thomas Anderson, who with this film (which he also wrote) demonstrates that his depth and breadth as a filmmaker has grown infinitely, patiently shows us the oil trade, its inner workings and its politics, with its players big and small, and his careful direction of landscape, a vast open expanse which screams, "This land's not your land -- it's just pure oil land . . . this land belongs to only me," or so this particular variation of the parodied song goes, whose subverted lyrics were likely concocted by Daniel Plainview himself.

With: Ciaran Hinds and Kevin J. O'Connor.  "There Will Be Blood" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for some violence.  The film's running time is two hours and 38 minutes and expanded across the U.S. and Canada today, while continuing in New York City and Los Angeles.

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