There Will Be Blood

There Will Be Blood is, in all aspects, an amazing piece of cinema. It has jackhammer performances, incendiary writing and is achingly, beautifully filmed.

More than a month after seeing it for the first time, I am still puzzling over the various triumphs of Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest work.

There Will Be Blood is loosely based on author Upton Sinclair’s Oil!, a 1927 novel about the rise of a blood-hungry oil prospector. Daniel Day-Lewis plays the main character, Daniel Plainview, an intensely competitive man who will stop at nothing to make money. He eventually takes charge of a young boy, raising him as his son, but more importantly, using him as a mask to trick unsuspecting ranchers into giving him their land.

Day-Lewis’ performance is the thing Oscars are made of: He intensely inhabits the mind of his character, growing into a greater monster as the film progresses. A lesser actor would have ruined a line such as “I hate most people,” but out his mouth, we understand that a hateful man is espousing his worldview. It seems realistic, even understandable. Plainview is laser-focused on making money, and he will crush anyone that stands in his way.

Plainview’s main nemesis is Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), a young preacher who exerts immense control over the small village that has oil. He wants power, too. And money. He isn’t the polar opposite of Plainview as much as he is the same-he’s just using the word of God instead of the power of oil.

Dano is largely out-acted by Day-Lewis, but considering the circumstances, holds his own. Eli Sunday has his own personal destructions, and he is dangerous in a very real way. But the final bloody scene of the movie conquers any question about who rules this movie.

The thematic elements are clear. Greed. Oil. Religion. The bleak nature of man. It all fits into Anderson’s world, where every single person is damaged and imperfect.

The common critique of Anderson’s previous work (and one that is largely true) is that he goes too easily into the grandiose and epic. Think the falling frogs and singing in Magnolia or the crazy, long-winded love that blossoms in Punch-Drunk Love It was too easy. But There Will Be Blood feels exact and personal. Yes, it’s long, but nothing feels out-of-place. This is undoubtedly Anderson’s best work in a career made up of great filmmaking.

Another much-hyped aspect of There Will Be Blood was the score by Radiohead guitarist Jonnie Greenwood. It would be an unusual choice for any other director, but Anderson has a history of sticking to his guns when it comes to music (Aimee Mann in Magnolia). Greenwood’s score is not pleasant background noise; it’s a purposely intrusive and exciting element of the film. Harsh synth-strings buzz and build throughout, evoking a tense atmosphere that captures the building of an empire.

Whether you end up liking There Will Be Blood or not, it will almost inarguably go down as an important watermark in movie history. It also proves, finally, that P.T. Anderson is his generation’s master filmmaker.

There Will Be Blood��Exclusive engagement at Cinema 21 starting tonight