Uncompromising "Blood"

Rating: 9/10 (14 February 2008)

In a telling confession Daniel Day-Lewis's Daniel Plainview says, "I see the worst in people" The paradox is that you can't fool a man immersed in his own darkness. Daniel Day-Lewis is amazingly powerful as oilman Plainview in Director and Screenwriter Paul Thomas Anderson's stark and unforgiving "There Will Be Blood". Day-Lewis is uncompromising as a man, who forfeits his very soul for wealth and power, with his eyes wide-open. I think that Daniel Day-Lewis will win the Oscar. Based on the novel "Oil" by Upton Sinclair, "There Will Be Blood" tells the story of oilman Daniel Plainview at the turn of the 20th century. Daniel and his son H.W. (Dillion Freasier) forge an oil empire in California, but at the greatest of costs.
Running at almost 2 hours and 40 minutes "There Will Be Blood" is engrossing storytelling. "There Will Be Blood" runs too long, dragging on in the middle. It is easy to despise and dismiss Daniel as an inhumane beast; however, it is the vestiges of humanity from Day-Lewis's performance and Paul Thomas Anderson's layered narrative that makes his decline into the abyss profoundly sad. There is an electrifying moment when Daniel screams, "I've abandoned my boy!" You may have heard that the ending is brutally shockingwell, it is. However, it is strangely in context with character. Thomas Hardy said character is fate.
A weird integrity is at play: Daniel Plainview is enraged and ruthless throughout. However, he is the only character that remains true to himself. Daniel also can spot a liar a mile away. This dynamic fuels the force of wills between Daniel and local church prophet Eli Sunday (insufferably pious and duplicitous Paul Dano). Director Anderson brilliantly disguises the surface as the conflict of faith, but is really about avarice. Robert Elswit's cinematography is breathtaking. Johnny Greenwood's musical score is almost a character itself evoking tension and grating nerves.
"There Will Be Blood" evolves the story of Daniel and his son H.W. as they acquire land leases and drill for oil in "Little Boston" in turn of the century California. There Daniel begins his empire, and clashes with evangelical Eli Sunday (Dano), whose motives may not be so transparent. Daniel also apparently reunites with his long lost half-brother Henry (good Kevin J. O'Connor). Daniel strikes oil and personal tragedy. Day-Lewis as Daniel is unnervingly chilling in a scene where he leaves the local train station. "There Will Be Blood" explores the aftermath of the tragedy, and more poignantly the choices Daniel makes as he gradually relinquishes his very soul. There is blood, and more blood.
Aside from some welcome brevity, Paul Thomas Anderson direction and narrative are nearly masterful. However, none of this would work without the commanding performance by Daniel Day-Lewis. It seems that Daniel Day-Lewis revives from movie hibernation every 4 or 5 years to submit a stunning Oscar performance. He is powerful. Day-Lewis as Daniel is no saint nor is he a good man deep down. However, as portrayed by Day-Lewis we can never dismiss him as a monster, because we see his humanity gradually get beaten of him partly from circumstance and mostly by his own doing. Daniel Day-Lewis's performance absolutely compels, and ultimately provokes a profound sadness. "There Will Be Blood" is disturbing and uncompromising work that is well worth watching.