- Despite the title, this is actually a pretty bloodless movie. We get a little bit of blood when one of the oil workers dies in accident — which was effing gruesome, holy crap — but it’s not until the end that the promised blood of the title actually delivers. I mention this only for the sake of people who fear bloody films.
- Daniel Day-Lewis is good in everything. EVERYTHING. He’s what Gary Oldman could be if he’d actually take on decent scripts rather than schlepping himself out for crappy films. Where was Gary Oldman in 2001 when Day-Lewis was tearing up the screen as Bill The Butcher in Gangs of New York? He was playing a disfigured quadriplegic paedophile in Hannibal. Jesus Christ. Anyway. This is about Daniel Day-Lewis, not Gary Oldman.
You know, you expect him to be good. You expect his performance to be the highlight of the movie, even. You see the trailer and think “This is going to be brilliant” — even though you’re questioning what the hell Paul Thomas Anderson is doing directing a pseudo-Western — based on the brief snippets you get of Daniel Plainview. But nothing can prepare you for how fricken phenomenal he is in this. I can’t even explain it. Describing the character he plays won’t convey it. Listing the gamut of emotions he displays throughout the film won’t illustrate it. It’s just there and it’s gripping and epic.
You know, I’ve seen all the other films that the Best Actor nominees for the Golden Globes are in and you know what? They can all fuck right off, this isn’t even a contest anymore. I usually get bored when someone is a shoe-in for the Oscar, but it will be a crime against humanity — yes, a crime against humanity! — if he doesn’t win for this. Now I just have to wait for him to be nominated.
- Speaking of how awesome Daniel Day-Lewis is, only he could have pulled off that final showdown with Eli Sunday. That scene was so over the top, so theatrical, and so borderline ridiculous and yet it wasn’t mockworthy or eyeroll-inducing and didn’t cause me to throw up my hands in disgust like I did when Sunshine took an unforgivable turn toward the absurd… simply because Day-Lewis walks the fine line — and it’s a fucking tight rope, people — between genuine mania and cartoonish buffoonery. Guess which side he comes out on. Context, for those who haven’t seen it and may not: as an older man with a body rendered decrepit with age and injury, he takes on in a fight the young priest who was his nemesis in one particular oil town sixteen years earlier. Except the fight takes place in the bowling alley in the basement of his oil money mansion and he throws bowling balls at the priest before bludgeoning the priest to death with one of the bowling pins. I mean, picture it and tell me that’s not ridiculous. The genius thing is that it’s not, it’s completely not, and Day-Lewis actually makes it believable and serious and dramatically awful.
- The kid who played Daniel Plainview’s son, H.W. Plainview, is a) freaking adorable and b) was awesomely tragic. H.W. doesn’t say much throughout the film but he says a lot with his face and his physical manner. His most heartbreaking scene was the one after he’s gone deaf where his father is holding him one night and he’s making gutting, awful sounds trying to hear his own voice.
- Something I really liked about the trailer for this movie is how long they sustain the clip at the very end without cutting to something else (the “I can’t keep doing this on my own” bit). It’s all in the pregnant pauses in his delivery of the line and it was so refreshing to see that. This is a roundabout way of saying that this movie is clearly character-driven and focused on studying Plainview in particular rather than being particularly plot driven. Because there’s not much of a plot so much as a “Go west, young man” American-dream type story of “Man starts out small working for others, man starts own company, man goes west and makes millions” but that in and of itself isn’t terribly interesting beyond providing a context for the character studies.
- I mentioned that I really liked the longish takes and camera work in general in Boogie Nights and the same is true for There Will Be Blood. Actually, the cinematography and production design in general are tip top.
- My absolute favourite scene was when the first gusher gets struck in Little Boston and then promptly catches fire and in large part this was due to the music. The score for this film is brilliant and outstanding and you might think I’m abusing my <em>phasis tags here but they really do express how truly awesome this scene is. Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead did the score and it’s seriously the best one I’ve heard in ages. There’s a presence of traditional string arrangements but he layers it with all these other types of sound and instrumentation and in this particular scene it just builds and builds and feels very referential to nature, like the buzz of a swarm of cicadas or the incessant tattoo of a heartbeat. The whole score is phenomenal, but it’s extra special in this scene. Bonus points for everyone.
- I don’t want to describe how awesome this movie is anymore, just go see it. It makes me sad that it’s in such limited release. I don’t know that this film will necessarily be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s worth seeing for Daniel Day-Lewis.
There Will Be Blood
Ladies and gentlemen… if I say this film is fantastic, you will agree.
IMDB Plot Synopsis A story about family, greed, religion, and oil, centered around a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.