Oil Is Thicker Than Blood

There Will Be Blood is an example of a film that lets you escape into the world that the filmmaker has created, and the characters are our guides throughout that world.  For me personally, this film was released at a time when I started to get serious about my love of film.  This film is a modern American classic on the grandest of scales.

There Will Be Blood is the story of a turn-of-the-century oil tycoon, and his slow descent into madness.  One of the major reasons why this film is so brilliant is because the structure of the narrative is extremely character-driven in a deliberate way.  There is a reason why there are certain plot holes in the film: it is because Daniel Plainviews' (Daniel Day-Lewis) greed and obsession is more important.  This is Plainviews' story, which is exactly the way he would want it.  There Will Be Blood has such a carefully crafted screenplay, and when you have the greatest actor of our time breathing life into the dialogue, it is absolutely unforgettable.

Daniel Day-Lewis plays Daniel Plainview.  What makes Plainview such a great, and ultimately unlikable, character is that he actually starts out as a decent human being who wants success so he can provide for his family.  Then, you start to see that he is actually full of anger and hatred that is ultimately fueled by greed.  The scene where Plainview admits his own faults to his "brother" makes you realize that you are not going to be a fan of him by the end of this film.  Only "Mr. Method" himself, Daniel Day-Lewis, could have developed this character in the way he was meant to be.  Plainview is ruthless, peaceful, aggressive, and calm.  Day-Lewis haunts you in every frame, and gives one of the best performances in the history of film.

Paul Thomas Anderson is the director of There Will Be Blood.  I mentioned earlier that this film lets you escape into the world that has been created, and it is Andersons' masterful directing that lets you do this.  We see sweeping shots of the vast landscape (before and after Plainview has built his oil empire), and we also are shown in great detail how the oil wells work.   I also love the final "I drink your milkshake" scene at the end because, even in a generic two-shot, Anderson shows that while Plainview has completely gone down the well of madness (pun intended), he still has as much power over everyone else as he did at the beginning of his career.  I also want to point out that there is no dialogue in the film for the first fifteen minutes.  Only a director like Paul Thomas Anderson could make a film like that so interesting to watch, and There Will Be Blood is truly a masterpiece.

There Will Be Blood is easily one of the best films in the past decade.  This film represents what happens when you get the right actor and the right director involved in a project.  If you can handle long films, I promise you that There Will Be Blood is completely worth it.