There Will Be Blood

Cast
Daniel Plainview: Daniel Day-Lewis
H.W. Plainview: Dillon Freasier
Eli & Paul Sunday: Paul Dano
Henry: Kevin J. O'Connor

Plot synopsis

There Will Be Blood is a story about religion, family, greed and most importantly, oil. It highlights the effect oil has on one man, and a community suffering as a result of it. The film follows charismatic and ruthless Daniel and his rise to power. His drive is to succeed and to see that competitors fail, on top of that is his intense hatred of others. When he learns that oil can be extracted cheaply from a small town in California with a plentiful supply, he relocates his operation and begins to manipulate and exploit the local people into selling him their property. He shrewdly gains the co operation of the people by projecting himself as a family man and using lofty promises to build schools, create jobs, cultivate the land and see the community flourish. Over time, Plainview's sins gradually accumulate as his wealth and power corrupt him, causing him to slowly alienate himself from everyone in his life.

Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the finest directors under the age of 50 working in the world, aside from perhaps Chris Nolan. He's an amazing filmmaker and a terrific writer. All of his films are different! They are technical marvels, masterly created with a slender touch. Even with sardonic themes, he manages to make all of his movies incredibly beautiful and brings out great performances from his actors. Out of most of the "younger" directors working today, he has the most longevity. Possibly the greatest American auteur to come out since the 1970s. His filmmaking has a very individual style, it has a personal, unique stamp that makes an indelible impression on the watcher. 
There Will Be Blood stands apart from PTA's first four films but shares a similar theme and style such as human greed, flawed characters, savagery, optimism and obsession. The film was more overtly engaged with politics than his previous films, it examines capitalism and its affect on communities. It is a powerful evocation of exploitation. A direct dig on American culture and it's unrecognisable flaws, its hypocrisy and its self - centered pride. It is a strange and disquieting film. Vaguely prophetic by showing us the past, present and terrifying future of our dysfunctional dependence upon oil.

There Will Be Blood is a hard, bold and pretty violent picture. It has a lowering psychotic atmosphere which adds to the feeling of unease. Eerie film scores rattle their way through heavy drones of the drilling rig as the entrepreneurial Daniel spits and exudes venom, sounding like the Devil's acolyte.
There Will Be Blood introduces oil's savage history in Daniel Plainview, a haunted man,  and his neurotic relationship between natural resources and their capital. It hints at the grim future of oil, an insatiable human addiction to acquire and be in control of it.

Oil, the dwindling lifeblood of 21st century prosperity, the world depends on it, countries fight each other for it, blood itself has been spilt for it.
Plainview is a man with one common love: oil, and the wealth it brings. He is distrusting of people. He isn't married, showing he doesn't feel the human need for companionship. Though in the beginning of the picture, he does show compassion and tenderness to his adopted son H.W. who brings some humanity to Daniel.

Daniel Plainview is PTA's representation of America. He has been born with a driving force of ambition, screwing people over whilst making something of himself. He takes what he wants and he leaves, he sucks the place dry and leaves a carcass. Other people, their misery and lives are irrelevant.

We watch Daniel grow from a poor man, prospecting for silver to his meteoric rise as one of the wealthiest oil tycoons in America. His tactics are iniquitous, nefarious even. He will lie, steal, cheat, manipulate others, forsake his son and even kill in his graceless journey for wealth and power. Plainview is an unstoppable force, almost magnificent in his power. He has an  exploitative influence on unsuspecting villagers.
He projects himself as a plain speaking family man, yet he is pronounced and shrewd. His words are articulate but as a film audience we find them hard to believe. However, it is easy to understand why the simple town of Little Boston is so naive, it is a town of mostly barren farmland with little opportunities. Plainview is a resolver, he offers the town industry; the people jobs and schools and the community relishes it, falling hook, line and sinker. 

Plainview's madness is not driven out of love or revenge but by the pursuit of wealth for wealth's sake. He becomes a monster out his financial lust, he is PTA's poster child of excessive capitalism, cupidity and avarice. The unnatural traits take over him, he becomes mad as a hatter and locks himself up in his mansion. Driven by pride and a misanthropic contempt for people.
Daniel's one vulnerability is his adopted son but the loss of H.W.'s hearing means he can no longer communicate with him. When Daniel ceases to be able to use him as a way of duping townspeople and sealing transactions he sends him away to school.
Along with the rivalry between himself and Eli Sunday, he slowly loses the little humanity he originally had. They are polar opposites; Daniel gives forced, uncomfortable and stiff speeches to ordinary folk and lacks the theatrical/corporate, snake-like salesman rhetoric, reserved for his great enemy, Eli.
Thus, when a stranger "Henry" claims to be Plainview's brother, he confides in him. As soon as Daniel realises Henry is an imposter, he kills him in anger. With this act he has forsaken all humanity he had, losing all respect and trust for people.

Major credit to the cinematographer Robert Elswitt for masterfully photographing the exhilarating sequences. One of the most beautifully captured scenes that stands out in There Will Be Blood is when the oil strikes. Oil explodes out of the ground like a volcano, gushing relentlessly with arresting force. The oil accidentally sets ablaze as the vast open California landscape basks in the glow of Plainview's discovery. Hundreds of men swarm the site, like merciful beggars, astounded by their finding. The noise of the explosion deafens H.W. who is playing nearby, yet his crying is ignored. The towering inferno looks like Hell on Earth and Plainview is the devil. He stands, captivated and enamoured by the incandescent geyser of oil. He is poised resolutely, neglecting his son crying and suffering in pain. His gaze is deranged like a ruthless madman, a sign of what is to come.
Also huge credit to Johnny Greenwood and his magnanimous score which is a masterpiece of modern classical composition, echoing the greatest works of surrealist composers used in many Kubrick films. The ominous clamour against the visual if stark mountainous landscape. It's the camera angles and the mixture of the score that make the film such an unforgettable and  uncomfortable experience.

The final scene in the picture is astonishing, the whole film builds to this climax. Holed up in his vast Tudor manor house like a hermit, Daniel finally confronts his enemy, Eli. Hatred burns within his body. It contains some of the greatest acting ever filmed and is electrifying to watch. The scene is instantaneous, surrealistic and bizarre yet completely expected, living up to the title.

There Will Be Blood is an intensely epic character study, it's a portrait of an average man. It studies his descent into madness, greed controlling him and possessing him till he cannot interact with people without hatred and suspicion clouding his mind. He cannot see the good in humankind and instead chooses his own company, forgetting all that is admirable and replacing it with all that is detestable.

Dedicated to Jack Simms