Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson (2007)
Rated R There Will Be Blood follows an oil miner named Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis). In 19th century America, Plainview mines for silver and gold. He has an adopted son, H.W., who is the child of a dead miner. Plainview goes all around the country looking for business with his son, appearing to be a friendly family man. One night, he is approached by a young man named Paul Sunday, who says that there is an oil deposit under his family's home in New Boston, California. After making a deal with Sunday, Plainview and his peers journey to California to set up a new oil mine. When he gets there, he is met with Eli, Paul's twin brother. (Paul Dano) Eli demands $10,000 from Plainview, which he says will go to the church. Upon arriving in Little Boston, it is evident to Plainview that they are a deeply religious town. There is immediate conflict upon Plainview's arrival, including his relationship with Eli which seems like it's going to be rocky, and things escalate when the rig is destroyed due to an explosion. Plainview's adopted son H.W. goes deaf, and now there's no source of income for Plainview. He totally neglects his son and sends him off to a school for the deaf, and then goes around town looking for more land to purchase to mine oil from. During this time, Plainview gets meaner and more and more of a horrible person. His horrible-ness comes to an all time high when he realizes that his brother had been lying to him during his stay with him, and he wasn't his brother after all. Plainview proceeds to kill him. This is discovered by one old man from whom Daniel wanted to purchase land to build a derrick on. He forces him to go to Church and become a faithful member, and promises then he will be forgiven and a member of Little Boston. Plainview is inducted into the church by Eli, and they seem to be on good terms for now. Years pass with Plainview still living in Little Boston, becoming an alcoholic and moving into an abandoned mansion. His life has declined rapidly. The end of the movie is filled with escalation of tension built during the movie, and you can tell by the title of the film what happens in the closing scene. SPOILERS This movie was DARK. You can kinda tell that from the title, but even then, I was still completely shook when the events unfolded and how it ended. You know what's going to happen, and by halfway through the movie, you know who the big conflict is going to be between, but you really have no idea who's blood it will be until the very last few minutes. Spoiler: it was Eli's. At the end, even though they both suck, I kind of wanted it to be Daniel because he is the WORST. He gets worse and worse as the film goes on. His relationship with H.W., his not real son, is the most prevalent relationship that showcases how terrible of a person Daniel is. There is a scene towards the end when H.W. visits Daniel in Little Boston years later, and though he is still deaf, he is now happily married. He wants to better his relationship with Daniel, who is essentially the only family he has. Daniel tells him that basically he is an embarrassment and a disappointment, and that he never wants to see him again. It is really heartbreaking. The big thing in this movie that I saw as a downside was the plot and the ending. It is so slow (not exactly boring), and by halfway through the movie you kinda know exactly what's going to happen. However, there are a ton of other technical aspects that make the movie really admirable. The movie isn't scary, but it's filled with a sort of staged suspense. This is mostly done through the soundtrack. For the entire film, there's a high pitched piano/violin noise that's used in horror movies (do you know what I am talking about??) that makes you feel like something is going to happen or jump out at you the entire time. In that way, the slowness of the plot kind of works to film's advantage. The cuts in this movie even add to the suspense. There are a ton of fades, making each scene seem really heavy. I watched this because I loved the way Phantom Thread was shot, and this one definitely held up to the expectation I had for Paul Thomas Anderson. Even though I didn't really love the plot of this movie, it was so well made. I don't know if I can have favorite directors yet, because I'm not ~cultured~ enough in the film world, but this made me really enjoy Anderson's work, so I'll probably continue watching his movies. The cinematography in this film is also incredible. Every still looks like it could be the cover, which is why the slide show was necessary for this review. Eve though I didn't love the story or the ending, there are so many other aspects of There Will Be Blood that made me really appreciate the film.
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AuthorCasey Land Archives
January 2018
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