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There Will Be Blood (2007)

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Time Out rating

Average user rating

51 reviews

Synopsis

Paul Thomas Anderson’s first feature since 2002’s ‘Punch-Drunk Love’ is loosely adapted from ‘Oil!’, Upton Sinclair’s novel about, er, oil. The turn-of-the-century Texas setting could offer allegorical potential, while the rarely-seen Daniel Day-Lewis’ starring role as budding tycoon Daniel Plainview confirms this as one to watch.

Movie review

From Time Out London

We begin down a hole. It’s 1898 in the Southern Californian desert and Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a lithe, daddy-long-legs of a man, a lone-gun silver prospector whose tools, as he scratches around in the dark, are a pickaxe, a rope, some dynamite and sheer will. The scene, like many in the film, is gruelling, elemental, horrific even.

He falls, breaks his leg and gains a limp that will stay with him for the rest of this bold, epic film. We hop forward to 1902, and Plainview is digging again, only now he’s on the hunt for something else: oil. He strikes black and brandishes his filthy hands to his accomplices. The dirt under his nails is a badge of honour, and one never to be removed; he wears it years later, even when he’s moping around a mansion, his mind driven loopy by success and paranoia.

Another hop and it’s 1911, and we reach the meat of the movie. A smarter Plainview, a fedora on his brow, is in the shadows of a meeting of folk in Little Boston, California on whose land he wants to dig. ‘I’m an oil man…’ he implores, the first noise we hear from his mouth, not a word wasted, barely a breath not invested in his success. His voice is simple but mellifluous, its stresses and dips unusual but alluring. It’s the first hint in this long, odd and stunning film that this character – this wicked creation, this symbol of a nation, this quiet monster – will lodge in your psyche long after the movie cuts dead on an ending that’s strange and sudden, irritating and pleasing.

On one level, Plainview is a pure businessman – ruthless, self-centred, adaptable. On another, he’s a mystery – sexless, rootless, unfathomable, silent. The questions roll off the screen. Does he care for his adopted son, HW (Dillon Freasier) or does he see him only as a useful face to have around during negotiations? Are we meant to root for Plainview’s individualist tendencies against the expansion of the Standard and Union oil companies? No – as soon as the film hints this is going to be the tale of an underdog, Plainview does something awful. Faceless, corporate behaviour begins to look benign. On yet another level, Plainview reflects, then and now, the power of the church; it’s a local pastor, Eli Sunday (a wily Paul Dano) who leads him to the loot. It’s the same pastor whose pockets he must line and religion he must embrace.

This is Paul Thomas Anderson’s foundation myth – taken from Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel ‘Oil!’, which in turn was inspired by men like Edward Doheny, the oil man who went from rags to riches and died in 1935 in the same mansion where Anderson shot his final scenes. Anderson’s story is precisely dated, stretching from 1898 to 1927, and mostly lingers around 1911 as Plainview builds a gushing derrick.

But the beginning of his film feels like the beginning of the world for all its sense that nothing came before. Anderson is arguing that this chasm in the earth, and similar chasms, were the birthplace of America. Little Boston becomes a theatre for his Genesis, or for Exodus, from which the film takes its name. It’s stressed by the primal buzz of Jonny Greenwood’s wonderful score that’s set to the film’s first image of a barren hillside.

Day-Lewis’s performance is as good as the awards suggest: it’s big, it’s wild, yet it’s also restrained by the sparing talk of his character and framed by a film whose ambitions are bigger than his acting. That Anderson, the film’s writer-director, whose ‘Boogie Nights’ was a riot but ‘Magnolia’ and ‘Punch-Drunk Love’ both noble failures, has come to make this intelligent and enthralling masterpiece is both a little surprising and intensely satisfying.

Author: Dave Calhoun 2008-02-04 16:33:47

Time Out London Issue 1955 Feb 6 to 13, 2008

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User reviews of this film

David said...

Posted on Mar 06 2008 23:35 DDL was superb, lots of other good acting as well, camera work was often great and some really well thought out scenes. I certainly didn't think it was boring, though I can understand why many people found it 'slow'.
But I just felt there was something not right about the story line - especially the ending. I didn't think at the end of the day it was primarily about power, drive, wealth, pioneering, the forging of US identity... but actually about Plainview's mental illness. How else can you explain his brutal, 'sick' behaviour?
Yet somehow that doesnt really get explored at all... I found that very frustrating.

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SK said...

Posted on Mar 06 2008 20:22 I saw this with my wife and another couple; the girls absolutely hated it and we lads loved it. One of the strongest, most engrossing, powerrful movies I have seen in years. Truly moving performance from DDL. There's so much in the story on so many levels - those who complain it's slow, miss the point, you feel like the Plainview character might... lonely betrayed driven greedy hugely successful yet ultimately, it all was futile as he's so so empty and unhappy despite all the success. Reminiscent of Scarface, another great film....

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fayble said...

Posted on Mar 06 2008 16:53 I have to say that I can appreciate the film and thought DDL's performance was immense but I have to agree with some; that the film was incredibly slow and it does have a feel about it that it was made for the sole purpose of being epic and winning awards. I can't say that I enjoyed the film particularly as it felt like everything was going slowly; perhaps it was meant to be feel tedious and resemble Plainview's initial struggle; I don't know but it didn't live up to my expectations despite the great acting performances.

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John Woods said...

Posted on Mar 05 2008 08:25 I cant comment on this filmas it was so boreing I fell asleep before the end, SO SLOW IT ALLMOST STOPPED

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Keef said...

Posted on Mar 03 2008 18:26 Err, Harj, it's a shame that, as a film student who has seen the film three times, you couldn't get the director's name right in your review!

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meluk said...

Posted on Mar 02 2008 23:53 What a dissapointment! I have just come back from the cinema thinking that I wasted 3 hours of my life. The film did not have an interesting story line and it was totally boring! DDL's performance is OK though..

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Tom McMaster said...

Posted on Mar 02 2008 21:56 This is an amazing film. Daniel-Day Lewis gives a masterful, but unfortunately rare performance ,as Daniel Plainview. Forget about the fact that this is considered a long film. I found that i enjoyed it so much that the time just flew by. Daniel-Day Lewis thoroughly deserved his Oscar for this performance. It's a pity that the man only features so rarely in films.

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Adam said...

Posted on Mar 01 2008 11:44 This film had been hyped from the get go, their was some fantastic performances mainly from Daniel Day Lewis but also the guy who played Eli was great! The fil was very slow moving and ended really weird, but saying that I'm glad I saw it.

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angelsw said...

Posted on Mar 01 2008 11:25 How disappointing! Day Lewis is indulged in his mawkish portrayal and is an overbearing HAM throughout. Who wrote this garbage? Eli was good. It was nothing to look at and was a monumental oil well of self serving, pretentious, unintelligible claptrap stealng all the bad characteristics from epics of yore and none of the depth and finesse. Don't bother with this one.

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harj said...

Posted on Feb 28 2008 10:45 magnificent! Others on this website that have scored this film as a zero or 1 star-what were you watching!
As a film student who grew up watching the masters at work Paul Anderson Thompson is as good as they get. This film is ART- the Soundtrack, Cinematography, Acting is Top NOTCH! DDL is a master at work-watch the bext actor in the world work his magic! I have now seen this film 3 times & will go again. CLOVERFIELD, RAMBO etc... plenty of dross out their for those that want to put their brain in neutral! WATCH THIS!

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Munster said...

Posted on Feb 27 2008 18:45 I was utterly transfixed for all two and a half hours of this film. What a brilliant piece of work. It asks all kinds of questions about the desire and drive for wealth and power and many parallels can be drawn in our world today and Plainview's surroundings. Daniel Day Lewis rightly won the Oscar for Best Actor. Thank you Paul Thomas Anderson. As for those that slated this film, I really can't stand it when plebs write in telling us all how much of a waste of their time and money this film was. Might I suggest you read Time Out's review before every film? Those films with 1 star are suitable for you. Live by that rule and you'll never be disappointed again.

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Gerry said...

Posted on Feb 27 2008 11:31 A total waste of 3 hours. There were people snoring after one hour...DDL was the same character as in the Gangs of New York !!!! Same ranting, same acting.The film was made for the Oscars, it is just a pity there was no competition. Do not believe the all that is written in the press..........There are better films out there.....

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Andy J said...

Posted on Feb 25 2008 22:53 I'd love to write how much I enjoyed the film, how Daniel Day Lewis's performance conjured up memories of a De Niro in Taxi Driver or Raging Bull; that PT Anderson's opus that was Boogie Nights (my favourite film) had been miraculously bettered. But I can't. And the reason that I can't is that my dear old friends at the Odeon Warrington are NOT showing a film in the week it netted it's lead a Best Actor Oscar. Well thanks very much Odeon. We may not be cultured here in Warrington, but surely if you can show the likes of 'Over Her Dead Body' (unanimous Razberry winner) and Definitely Maybe - then surely you could've found space to show There Will Be Blood. Idiots.

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kerri said...

Posted on Feb 25 2008 18:06 THIS FILM WAS THE WORST FILM I HAVE EVER SEEN AND HOPFULL WILL EVER SEE!!!! I WAS THINKING ABOUT A REFUND FOR THE TICKET BUT JUST WANTED TO GET OUT OF THERE!!!

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JC said...

Posted on Feb 25 2008 17:44 After reading the critic reviews I was really lookig forward to seeing it. I have just returned from watching it and would agree that DDL is superb but apart from that there is nothing to this movie. I have read the reviews about it being epic and the scenery and close-ups etc and to an extent I agree with the comments but there was absolutely no compelling story-line. For me it was boring verging on painful.

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