There Will Be Blood
Written and Directed by
Paul Thomas Anderson

One of the better things Hollywood high mucky-mucks did for the World was to prevent the election of Upton Sinclair as Governor of California in 1934. If, Paul Thomas Anderson's adaptation of Sinclair's novel "Oil!" is any clue, he would have been terrible. 

Or then it could have been completely Anderson's fault.

The original novel was about how those evil oil men were ruining California. However, in the movie version, Daniel Plainview(Daniel Day-Lewis) is actually not that bad. Granted, Day-Lewis plays him as if he were Snidely Whiplash, or some other stock villain, but for most of the film, he's actually a pretty honorable guy.

 

The film begins with him finding gold somewhere in the west, and his partner getting killed while digging by-hand(!) for oil. When the partner dies in an accident, he adopts the guys baby son then immediately cutting to a mass meeting where he and his now ten-year-old son H.W.(Dillon Freasier) giving a presentation about what he could do for the community. They ask too much and he and the kid leave in a huff. Then a stranger comes up to him named Paul Sunday(Paul Dano) who tries to make some money by selling Plainview a lead. This turns out to be solid and Plainview buys the property from the owner(David Willis), Paul's father, with the proviso added by Paul's brother Eli(also Dano), that Plainview's company give five grand to the Church.

Eli fancies himself a prophet, Plainview fancies himself an atheist, and the film is mostly about the conflict between the two. Eli has a certain mystical power and he uses it and accidents happen, but Plainview is smart and a very hard worker and gets that ocean of oil underneath the ground. Its not particularly clear whether or not Anderson thinks of Plainview as a hero or not, he certainly doesn't think of Eli as one. When a man who claims to be Plainview's brother(Kevin J. O'Connor) shows up and Plainview opens up and tells him that he IS, in a way, a stock villain, then he proves it.

 

The acting is what makes this movie. Dano and Day Lewis give truly great performances, as do Oconner and Freasier, especially after his character has an accident. The supporting cast is excellent, but it's mostly Day Lewis chewing the scenery that grabs one, especially near the end, which is some of the best overacting I've seen all year. This thing is mediocre because it's soooo bad and places and sooo good in others. Still, it should be seen.
 


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