There Will Be Blood: Drilling For The Great American Film (Spoilers!!)

“I don't think there's one word that can describe a mans life.”
-- Charles Foster Kane from Citizen Kane

“'Course I'm respectable. I'm old. Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough.”
-- Noah Cross from Chinatown

“Are you an angry man? Are you envious? Do you get envious? I have a competition in me; I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people. There are times when I, I look at people and I see nothing worth liking.”
-- Daniel Plainview from There Will Be Blood


After five years toiling away in the cinematic wilderness, Paul Thomas Anderson delivers a howling fury of an American epic, There Will Be Blood. He has loosely adapted Upton Sinclair’s Oil! with stunning and fascinating results. In between this film and Punch-Drunk Love, Anderson served as standby director on Robert Altman’s last film, A Prairie Home Companion. Robert Altman passed away after the film was completed and released, but Anderson was on hand in case anything had happened to Mr. Altman during the film’s production. Why? Very simple, Anderson is the clearest heir to Robert Altman’s masterful use of ensemble casts and multiple narratives. Such films as Nashville and Short Cuts are the epitome of this grand tradition that dates back to Grand Hotel. Paul Thomas Anderson showed this skill with Boogie Nights and then took it much further with Magnolia. He has used his own troupe of actors such as Julianne Moore, Luis Guzman, John C. Reilly, Philip Baker Hall and several others for his films. And while There Will Be Blood is a very different film in many ways from his previous efforts, something tells me he must have been deeply influenced by Edmund Goulding’s Grand Hotel just the same.

The previous films could not prepare me for the epic sprawl of There Will Be Blood.
The film centers on the rise of an oil man, played with gargantuan ferocity by Daniel Day-Lewis. Daniel Plainview is the actor’s most complex and compelling character to date. Bill the Butcher in Gangs Of A New York has nothing on Daniel Plainview. This new character is a welcome addition to his other great roles such as Gerry Conlon from In The Name Of Father, Bill The Butcher from Gangs Of New York, Danny Flynn from The Boxer, John Proctor from The Crucible, Hawkeye from The Last of The Mohicans, Newland Archer from The Age Of Innocence and Johnny from My Beautiful Laundrette. Daniel Plainview is the most riveting of all. Daniel Day-Lewis has the benefit of not flooding the screen with too many films. Daniel Day-Lewis is not an overexposed actor; and perhaps, his enigmatic presence pays off with each role. Lewis is on another level-- a much higher level. He is a flesh and blood creature who creates a role from scratch. Daniel Plainview is no exception. The success of the film rests entirely on his performance. This is not to say the other performances in the film are minor or inconsequential; nothing could be farther from the truth. Still, it is Daniel Day-Lewis’s Plainview that Anderson has decided to use as the film’s major character. Daniel Plainview is one of those larger than life characters in American film. He deserves to be in the same pantheon as Charles Foster Kane, Noah Cross, Michael Corleone, and Elmer Gantry. What makes the character so unique and compelling is that Lewis has an uncanny ability to channel John Huston throughout the film. I have never seen anything like it. His vocal pitches remind me of Huston’s Noah Cross from Chinatown. Surely that is no accident since the film has many similarities to Roman Polanski’s classic tale of greed, corruption, murder and water use in old Los Angeles. There is nothing generic about this awesome monster. And like Noah Cross, Plainview provides the film’s manic energy. Yes, Daniel Plainview is meant to be seen as a metaphor of predatory capitalism. Surely that is one of Anderson’s aims with the film, but to be honest that is a very simplistic take on the character and the film. Plainview enjoys the process and the competition of his business. The same could be said for the detailed and meticulous process in which Daniel Day-Lewis prepares for each role.

There is a beautiful lyrical component to Plainview’s words. His words go hand in hand with Jonny Greenwood’s thunderous score. Greenwood is the guitarist for Radiohead and his work here merits comparisons with some of Jerry Goldsmith’s and Ennio Morricone’s finest work. Morricone’s music served as character motifs in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time In The West. Greenwood’s score echoes Jerry Goldsmith’s score from Planet of The Apes while overlooking the desolate central Californian landscape. Greenwood’s music in integral to the film-- the music is its own character; just as in Dario Marianelli’s score for Joe Wright’s Atonement. Greenwood’s hypnotic score is the perfect companion to Daniel’s gravity as he descends into derangement and detachment. To be fair, Daniel is already somewhat mad when we meet him in the beginning of the film.

Daniel Plainview is a turn of the century oil man in Central California. When we first meet him, he is making his bones as a silver prospector. He comes into the oil business through dishonesty and deceit. He is the ultimate snake oil salesman. He is a master of the primitive oil technologies available. His arrogance is his greatest and worst asset.
In the middle of the film he tells one of his closest associates, Fletcher Hamilton, played by the always wonderful Ciaran Hinds:
“There is a whole ocean of oil underneath our feet; no one can get at it but me.”
Daniel is very sure of himself. We never doubt that-- not even in the film’s first fifteen minutes where no dialogue is spoken. Anderson’s grasp of the medium’s visual power is astounding as we watch Plainview go from silver mining to oil drilling. His well at Coyote Hills has served him well. He travels from town to town with his son, H.W. Plainview, beautifully played by Dillon Freasier. Daniel has created a family business. He needs the little boy to sell his sales pitch to various towns. Remember this is a man who has been in holes and pits most of his life earning a living. He is not a people person. The relationship with H.W. shows a tender side of Daniel. There is a deep bond between father and “son” until a permanent physical injury (a result of an oil drilling accident impairs the son’s hearing. He is the very definition of self-made. Plainview gives his sales pitch in each town-- he is the only one who can successfully drill the oil and he can give the towns their prosperity. Plainview is creation of mythic proportions. The performance is the stuff of legend.

The town of Little Boston is where Daniel meets his match. He meets a worthy adversary in the form of Paul Dano’s Eli Sunday, a captivating preacher. Let me put it this way. As soon as the two meet, a slow building undercurrent of animosity oozes from Plainview. Eli is eager to have Plainview drill for oil to bring money for his congregation. He wants to make sure there will be a road to the church. He keeps insisting on it and Plainview grits his teeth in acknowledgement. Plainview cannot stand the guy. They play an interesting game throughout the film. Mind you the film stretches from 1897 to 1927 as the title cards inform us throughout the film. The introduction of Dano’s Eli Sunday gives us a wonderful contrast to Plainview. Plainview recognizes the charlatan traits that Eli displays in his evangelical tent revivals. Eli puts on a great show. In one scene, he gives a wild display as he casts out an old woman’s arthritis. Plainview refers to it as a “nice show.” Perhaps, Daniel’s degree of self hatred is that he recognizes the fraudulence and conceit of Eli’s persona. Anderson’s gives a blistering critique not only of capitalism, but also the hypocrisy of organized religion. The film is a damning indictment of religion in the tradition of Elmer Gantry and Wise Blood. Eli Sunday comes across as the long lost brother of Wise Blood’s Hazel Motes played by Brad Dourif. Both characters seem to be channeling Lancaster’s Elmer Gantry at times, but Dano seems to be doing a good job of following in Dourif’s footsteps. Eli is one tough customer; he haggles with Daniel over money throughout the film. One of the film’s signature scenes is when Plainview decides to be baptized by Eli in his church. It is the most hypocritical baptism since the iconic baptism sequence in The Godfather. There is different settling of scores going on within this baptism. There is not a large body count here, but there is a greater game going on between these two men. It is breathtaking to behold. Paul Dano holds his own against Daniel Day-Lewis. It is important to note that Paul Dano plays two characters in this film. Please pay attention to him in the film.

The triumph of Paul Thomas Anderson’s film is that there is so much to ponder after the film is done. After a string of films like Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch- Drunk Love, Mr. Anderson would seem the last person to adapt a period piece to the big screen, but he has done it while certainly working outside his comfort zone, with Daniel Plainview, he is working with a character he knows very well. Plainview possesses the smarts and world view of Philip Baker Hall’s Sydney in Hard Eight. He possesses some of the same attributes of Mark Wahlberg’s Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights. There is a very strong argument to be made that Daniel Plainview does not know how to handle his great success and great wealth. He sleeps on the floor whenever we see him-- even in his beautiful mansion in the film’s final act. Ironically, he has some things in common with Adam Sandler’s Barry Egan in Punch-Drunk Love. Like Egan, Plainview is self-made and his inner rage can manifest itself with horrifying consequences. Remember the scene in Punch-Drunk Love where Egan destroys the restaurant restroom; it shows his internal anger. There are several instances of this fury in There Will Be Blood. Plainview is in constant competition with Standard Oil. He does not want to sell them his business at all. The Standard Oil representatives cross the line implying that the deal would be good for him and he can spend more time with his son. A big mistake, Plainview’s rage comes through. There is no deal. As we learn later, he is in constant competition. He cannot stand others to succeed. He is not fond of other people in general. He is the nihilist from the get go. He is the most nihilistic character in American cinema since Charlton Heston’s George Taylor in The Planet Of The Apes. The Egan analogy is appropriate. While he certainly can deal with people to further his business interests, he is an introvert at heart. People are only good to him as ways to achieve his ends in business. At least Barry Egan was willing to let others in; it was his great turning point in the film. Plainview develops an isolationist streak as he gets wealthier in the film. He wants to get away from these “people.” The isolationist theme is prevalent as it was in Citizen Kane, The Godfather Part II and The Aviator. Each film, including There Will Be Blood echoes a certain isolationist feeling present in American society at the time they were made-- the desire to retreat from outside conflicts and world affairs.

Robert Elswit continues his brilliant work as Mr. Anderson’s cinematographer. Central California has never looked so beautiful. Come to think of it, California has never looked as beautiful as it does in this film. The film was shot in Santa Clarita, and El Mirage Dry Lake, California as well as Albuquerque, New Mexico and Marfa, Texas. It is interesting to note that Giant and No Country For Old Men were filmed in Marfa as well. In a year of beautiful looking films such as The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, Lust, Caution and Atonement, There Will Be Blood raises the stakes considerably. The film continues a vivid visual legacy from such films as Giant, Heaven’s Gate, Days Of Heaven, and Citizen Kane. The daunting and barren early Twentieth Century landscape acts as its own character throughout the film. Beneath the land there is an endless treasure trove of black gold. When oil is found, it has an ominous tone and effect. Workers are hurt or killed. Some of the accidents have life altering effects on the major characters. This is a far cry from when James Dean’s Jett Rink found oil in Giant.

Paul Thomas Anderson has made the great American epic. It is his most ambitious film to date; it is the most ambitious film I have seen in many years. The film deserves to be in the great pantheon of American films such as Citizen Kane, Chinatown, The Godfather, The Godfather: Part II, Elmer Gantry, Days Of Heaven and Giant. It is a film we will be talking about for many decades to come. Because of the film’s rich cinematic heritage, it serves as a compliment to those the great films. Anderson has done his part and his film is a way of communicating with those great films and their filmmakers. There are so many ideas presented in the film, one could be forgiven to think of the film as a series of loosely strung together vignettes. Yet, those vignettes do add up in the end. Mr. Anderson has given us a film to ponder over for the rest of our days. There Will Be Blood is the classic film about greed, wealth, religion, success and madness. Like Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Thomas Anderson is becoming a living legend.