Reader Recommendation: There Will Be Blood (2007)

I knew this was a long movie, so I had been saving it for a day where I had plenty of time to watch it. Strange how it worked out that some days this week I've ended up watching far longer movies when I had far less time. Many weeks ago, a regular commenter of ours Neil suggested that we see There Will Be Blood if we haven't. I made a promise to myself that I'd get around to this Paul Thomas Anderson film when I could, and today worked out perfectly. I knew this was about an oil prospector, but not much else. I also had a suspicion that this film was the source of a very famous line I've been dying to see the source of. Hit the jump link and I'll let you know how I felt it all turned out.


Thematically, I found this to be quite a serious movie. It's all about religion and what family means and what you'd be willing to do or accept when money is involved. Lots of different themes all going on at the same time and intermingling together made it quite complex if you really start to think about it. That of course means it's not the easiest movie to watch either. You've always got to be paying attention to the story to get more than just a surface idea of what's really going on.

Anyways, the story follows oil-man Daniel Plainview as he searches for oil across the land. The movie starts out showing him mining alone for gold and silver. He finds what he's looking for moments after we join him, and events are quickly shown with the passage of years to the point where he is now a successful oil-man. It's also important to note that on an early oil drilling prospect, some falling equipment killed one of his men, and nearly Daniel himself, leaving a young baby behind that Daniel then decides to raise as his own. He takes his son everywhere with him and when he's old enough, works with him as a partner. They even find oil together.

Daniel Plainview doing business with his son and business partner HW

Another important aspect of the film is introduced when the newest town he starts drilling in is a very religious town. This is where we meet Eli Sunday, an ambitious young man who builds a church in the budding town and holds sermons for all those interested. He's quite forward and persistent, and generally doesn't make life easy for Daniel to do his work.

There's a lot of events that happen over the course of the story with the inherently dangerous work of oil drilling in the early 1900's, and along with injuries, family issues and matters of faith, it's a lot to take in. Certainly more than I can get into here. Also, oddly enough, although it is set in the right time period for a western and kinda looks like a western, it certainly doesn't have the feel of one.

Oh God, this priest is so annoying. Please strike him down. Amen.

I thought the lead actor Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview was quite good. He is certainly good at playing a drunk man, of which there are several scenes. He's a very imposing man and whenever his temper went out of control, I definitely believed it and was just thankful I was no where near him at the time. The other actor I'd like to mention is Paul Dano who played Eli Sunday. I'm not sure what it was about him, but I just hated him. He was annoying and I couldn't even stand looking at him. Everything about him annoyed me in some way, and I'm not entirely sure if that's how I was supposed to feel towards his character. Anyways, I hated him and was never once sympathetic to him, not even at the end.

I guess that was the main problem I had with There Will Be Blood. I didn't find any of the characters actually likable. Sure the acting was good and believable, I just found myself believing that they were all terrible people. The events of the story were the only thing keeping me going in this, and even then, it's a terribly slow movie. Yes lots of things happen, but it just all comes across as happening all so slowly. Even so, I don't think it ever really lost my attention.

There's some really good scenic shots to please the eye

This isn't a movie for everyone, and unless I knew a person was into serious dramas and could handle slow movies, I doubt I'd recommend it to them. Nevertheless, I still thought it was a very good movie. The fact that none of the characters were really likable also had the side effect that I was never really on any one person's side, which added an interesting take on the film. There are quite a number of other Paul Thomas Anderson films I'd like to add to my list, and after There Will Be Blood, I can honestly say I'm looking forward to see them.