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There Will Be Blood

Written/Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson

Based on the novel Oil by Upton Sinclair

Rated: R Moderate violence

Run Time: 158

  

Freezing air bit at my ears as I briskly walked to the ticket counter.  Our giant multi-screen cinema is graced with a giant parking lot, since it was a Friday night the lot was packed and the frigid walk was long.  Punch Drunk Love (2002) was his last theatrical release, and that is too long for his greedy fans to wait.  I know I know, greatness takes time, and don’t saturate greatness.  Well, I want to.  I want to see a new P.T.A. film every year.  A new P.T.A. film every year would be as fantastic as his new feature, “There Will Be Blood.”

 

This is our first review and we will keep it as spoiler free as possible. Nothing is more irritating than reading a review that tells the whole movie.

 

The movie makes little bother with the back story of Daniel Plainview played by Daniel Day Lewis, nor do we care, his past is not the story we paid to see.  We’re dropped into one of Plainview’s early expeditions.  Alone is his dark pit, Plainview’s hammer crashes at the rock, sparks fly, as they inevitably do when Plainview encounters any contention.  After presumably, many, many hours of arduous labor, Plainview makes his crack in the world, and it bleeds.  But that my friend’s was the easy part.  No part of Plainview’s obsessed quest to own all the oil comes easy.   As the movie progresses, the rocks Plainview needs to break grow; while his singular determination deepens.  Plainview is a man with a clear ambition, as he achieves his goals; his greed begins to consume him, leaving no room for anything else.   The movie attempts at times to show why Plainview turns into this monster.  But, in all reality, it is Lewis’s astonishing performance that allows us to believe that nothing is as important as his oil.  All other things are left in a wake of destruction, all the while purposely isolating himself so only he is left to marvel at his accomplishment.      

 

Let’s talk about Paul Dano’s character, Eli Sunday. You could call Sunday the Antagonist, but that would make Plainview the protagonist, and that just doesn’t work.  This is not a good Vs. bad, good wins, kind of movie.  As in real life, it just isn’t that simple.   Sunday plays the priest (man of God, I can’t remember which type) to this small town and has developed a feverish group of disciples.  Sunday’s character wants (and later needs) things from Plainview, and Plainview does not easily give things away.  The friction between these two characters’s builds in a soft, subtle way, until Plainview can’t keep his pleasantries under control and shows Sunday how dark the Oil mans soul has become. 

 

I’m going to touch briefly on the score.  The music was done by Jonny Greenwood of Radio Head.  As with Punch Drunk Love, P.T.A. uses the music to stir emotions in a not so subtle way.  The music in Blood is not as over the top as Drunk but it is ever-present.  I found that watching Drunk was like watching a movie with subtitles.  The same was true at times while watching Blood.  At the beginning the subtitles are kind of in your face and a bit annoying, look down, look up, look down and so on.  By the end of the first act reading the subtitles is as easy as breathing.  The same with the musical score, at the beginning the music is in your face, screaming to be heard, as the movie goes on it feels more natural.  The music in Blood leads the viewers through a scene, it pulls on emotional cords, makes you tense up, then lets you know when to relax.  The score for “There Will Be Blood” was absolutely one of my favorite parts of the film.

 

On to direction.  What can I say; it was invisible, as it should be.  This is Paul Thomas Anderson’s best work to date.  It is obvious that Blood was a labor of love.  P.T.A. teams up with his old faithful Robert Elswit, who is solid as ever.  Long slow camera movements dominate the landscape.  Anderson will hold the camera on his subject for a beat longer than our MTV generation is used to; letting us revel in the scene, maybe getting a little uncomfortable.  Not showing the action but focusing on the reactions of the actors was fantastic.  Don’t get me wrong, you see it all, you just may not be used to the artistic way it’s shown.  Every scene was a crafted work of art.  If not for any other reason, go see this movie for the sheer beauty of it.

 

As you can tell I really enjoyed this movie.  This is a movie that was hitting on all cylinders and is a great candidate for picture of the year.  Lewis is almost a shoe in for best actor, the movie is up for eight Oscars and I won’t be surprised if it wins half of them.  I’m not saying this is a perfect movie, it’s not Citizen Kane.  I had a few minor issues of unresolved story lines, but they were small and that’s just me gripping.  This is not a date movie; there is no romance worth mentioning.  This is not a main stream movie, if you don’t like to think or get lost in a movie this is not for you.  If you have a small bladder then Netflix this one with a run time if 158 minutes it’s not short and believe me, you will not want to leave your seat.  If you want a unique story with strong production values, superb acting, this is the movie for you.  If you are tired of predictable movies that a studio churned out to make a dollar then this is a movie for you.  If you’re reading this, then you have similar tastes as me and this is a movie for you.    

 

Have fun at the movies, and enjoy the stimulating conversation this movie is sure to evoke afterwards.

 

Doug-