Avarice, ho

Rating: 10/10 (9 February 2008)

This film supersedes categorization. It overrides the fact that epics have been dead for the past 30 years or so (a fact which I continually lamented). Daniel Day-Lewis gives the performance of a lifetime as Daniel Plainview in this, Paul Thomas Anderson's claustrophobic masterpiece. Paul Dano capitalizes on the opportunity to show his raw talent as Eli Sunday. Daniel Plainview is a vicious oil magnate who won't hesitate to slit your throat if you bat an eyelash in a way he feels is offensive. Eli Sunday is an eager, deluded evangelical minister. These two titans will clash repeatedly on the screen until the bloody end, in which it feels as though they are playing a drawn out game of Russian roulette in which each is attempting to go in opposite directions yet they are on a furious collision course.
Enough with the metaphors and analogies. When and if you go see this don't expect gallons of blood to flood the theater, as PTA uses what blood there is scrupulously, and to great effect. It is a great indictment of capitalism and evangelism and doesn't strain to show what they are as most films do. I won't vindicate you by going as far to rant about this being the best film ever as it is not a time-tested wonder like Lawrence of Arabia or Citizen Kane (not to say those are my favorite films, these just have appealed to the conventional sense of epics and are therefore comparable). I'm just saying this is an overall worthwhile and satisfying film, which can be very hard to find these days among the mindless soulless morass that is Hollywood film which never fails to produce a plethora of slashers, bad parody films and video game reminiscent action and almost always fails to deliver films like this, that may feel like a kick in the teeth (which can be a very good thing).
The cinematography is damn near intoxicating, just a wondrously shot film, which might very well have brought a tear to my eyes if they hadn't been wide open for the duration of the film. The spectacle is as aesthetically pleasing as it is terrifying for the psyche.
The soundtrack (kudos to Johnny Greenwood) is as close as it gets to overpowering without annoying me. Also I'd like to thank PTA for using Brahms' Violin Concerto (last movement I believe) at the end, wonderful selection.
If there was one thing I pondered it was how PTA adapted this from Upton Sinclair's "Oil!" as the two stories are so divergent that if I hadn't heard so previous to seeing the film I would have wondered if I had walked into the right theater. But thank you PTA, however much I loved the book, for changing so much about it as there was plenty making a straight book- to-film production of "Oil!" couldn't convey.