By Blake Penfield, Contributing Writer
Beware: children and pregnant women may not want to attend this ride. It’s not crude. It’s not crass. Instead, it’s a portrait of the sickness that hides in humanity’s heart. Perhaps no other picture in the last year provides such a gut-wrenching, beautifully dark, obtusely blunt and deliberately unapologetic character study as director Paul Thomas Anderson’s masterpiece, “There Will Be Blood.” Translation for the polysyllabically impaired: it’s good.
Based on Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel “Oil!,” the film tells the story of Daniel Plainview, a prospector turned oilman after discovering an oil deposit while mining for silver. Plainview makes a moderate amount of money from the find and acquires a taste for Texas tea (black gold, if you like.) Plainview’s business further expands after he touts the son of one of his fallen employees as his own son, H.W. Plainview, and declares his operation a “family business.”
The story takes off when a teenage boy by the name of Paul Sunday drops by Plainview’s office and sells him information about the location of a colossal oil deposit – which just so happens to be the boy’s family property. Suspicious of the boy, Plainview travels with H.W. to California and inspects the land. After he verifies that Sunday’s claims of oil are authentic, Daniel Plainview attempts to buy the land from Mr. Sunday for a drastically lower price than it is actually worth. Here the audience is introduced to the ying to Plainview’s yang: Eli Sunday.
Eli is the twin brother of Paul Sunday, who is the minister of the local charismatic church. Eli’s ambition is rivaled only by Plainview’s. He refuses to let his father be duped and forces Plainview to pay the proper price for the land with the intention of using the money to build up his church.
To say much more would be giving away some genuinely shocking moments. The rivalry between Plainview and Sunday becomes the spine of the film. Suffice it to say that the town
just isn’t big enough for the two of them.
“There Will Be Blood” is, above all, a character study. It takes a hard look at the ravaging affects greed can have on a person’s soul. However, the film is anything but preachy. In fact, it’s the movie’s unwillingness to condemn the erratic, nefarious actions of both Plainview and Eli that makes it so interesting. The film seems almost disinterested in the madness of these two men, casually capturing their degenerate behavior with an attitude that seems to say, “This is just how it is.” However, it is exactly this objective portrayal of amorality that incites such a strong reaction in the audience. By letting viewers do all the moral judgments for themselves, the film challenges its audience in a way that any hand-holding morality story could never achieve.
Now we come to the meat of it. If you thought I’ve been glowing about this film so far, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Daniel Day-Lewis is good. I mean, Daniel Day-Lewis is really, really good. The man practically vibrates with on-screen bravado. Remember when you first saw “Pirates of the Caribbean,” and you couldn’t take your eyes off of Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow? Day-Lewis’s Plainview makes Jack Sparrow look boring and uninteresting. With a single glance, Day-Lewis forces his audience to measure just how close each of us can come to the calculated madness he portrays. This is a performance that must be seen to be believed. He has already won the Golden Globe for ‘Best Actor’ in a Drama and has been nominated by the Academy for ‘Best Actor’ in a Motion Picture. If he does not win the award, it will be the single greatest injustice to humanity since the “Star Wars” prequels.
Paul Dano’s portrayal of Eli Sunday is also fantastic. He exhibits a maturity and theatrical understanding far beyond his years. While the Globes or the Academy has not honored him, his performance is still one of the year’s most memorable.
The cinematography in the film is almost as breathtaking as the performances. Wide, sun-drenched shots of the California desert set the film in a decidedly bleak and scarred tone that collaborates perfectly with the subject material. The shot composition is artistry in itself. Any one frame of film could stand proud as a piece of art by itself. Thankfully, the Academy has chosen to honor the movie with a ‘Best Cinematography’ nomination.
Musically, “There Will Be Blood” has one of the most unique film scores my aural appetite has had a chance to feast on this year. Composed by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, the score is filled with stark strings that pluck and prance their way into your head and won’t let go. Much like the film itself, the music constantly hits you with shocking, unexpected eccentricities. It’s just so bizarre that you can’t help but be swept away in it as it floods over you. In fact, I liked it so much I went out and got the soundtrack.
The only thing I found to complain about is the pacing about three quarters of the way through the 2 hour, 38 minute film. The film takes its time setting up its characters and settings. Paul Thomas Anderson wants you to know these characters well by the time the madness begins to ensue. Though, with Daniel Day-Lewis onscreen almost every second of the film, it’s very difficult to get bored.
This film may not be for everyone. Casual movie-goers may have difficulty getting into the characters. And, in a film focused almost exclusively on character study, this could be a significant hurdle. However, if you allow yourself to be taken captive in the film’s objective look at deplorable men and their despicable actions, the performances, music, editing and cinematography create a piece of art that is even greater than the sum of its considerable parts.
“There Will Be Blood” richly deserves its eight Academy Award nominations (including ‘Best Picture’) as well as its top spot on the American Film Institute’s top ten films of 2007.
