Religion versus Capitalism
There Will Be Blood spans several decades, starting in the late nineteenth century when wily prospector Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) struck his first payload, and begins buying up land across California while teaching his young son H.W. (Dillon Freasier) the tricks of the trade along the way. Out of the blue, a young man named Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) tips off Plainview with information about the presence of oil beneath his family's ranch. Obtaining land around the property didn’t turn out to be as straightforward as he hoped, as he has to put up with Sunday’s scheming twin brother Paul (also Dano), who is also an influential religious figure in the area. Plainview has great contempt for people and their selfishness, and his hatred grows the more they try to leech on his successes, to the point where he eventually alienates everyone around him.
People usually have the misconception that Oscar movies are artistic, in the Wong Kar-Wai sort of way, though they’re mostly right when it comes to Blood. It’s not as WTF as 2001: A Space Odyssey, and unlike Pulp Fiction the story unfolds in a conventional, linear fashion. But the experience of watching it is unnerving, with its eerie score intruding nearly every non-dialogue moment, and the way it is edited and paced, you can’t guess what’s coming even if you already did. It also has a surreal ending that has the famous “milkshake” line (let me know if it’s still relevant in 2020), and a conclusion that’ll leave you scratching a hole into your head.
There’s talk about how this movie’s about capitalism versus religion as embodied by Plainview and Sunday. Blood seems pretty subjective about it, and leaves more to the viewers’ interpretation than they probably needed. Anyway, it’s good to find a movie that makes you work the grey cells a little, much like 2001, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and some Stanley Kubrick movies.
It’s also a great showboat for actors, but despite having character actors like Ciaran Hinds on board, the only two who got to let it all out were Day-Lewis, who won his second golden man with his performance, and Paul Dano, last seen in Little Miss Sunshine, who also was the endearing nerd from The Girl Next Door and the creepy serial killer (not a spoiler) in Taking Lives. Everybody more or less knew what to expect from Day-Lewis, but I doubt many were anticipating the youthful Dano to scrap head-on against the veteran actor as his character’s arch nemesis. He surprises everyone here by actually pulling it off very well. No love from the award-givers though.
There Will Be Blood is great for those who like their coffee a little stronger. It left such an indelible impression that I was too overwhelmed to tell whether I liked it or not. The only thing I could say was “wow”.
And yes, there was a bit of blood. - BMF
Direction and screenplay by Paul Thomas Anderson (Punch Drunk Love, Magnolia). Stars Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Ciarán Hinds, Kevin J. O'Connor and Dillon Freasier. Based on the novel "Oil!" by Upton Sinclair. |
