A distinctly American masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (22 January 2008)

Like F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" or Modest Mouse's "The Lonesome Crowded West", "There Will Be Blood" is a distinctly American masterpiece. Its overriding themes of religion, greed, family and loneliness converge to evoke a desperation that could only have come from the oil rush gripping our country in the early 1900's. "There Will Be Blood" is a sprawling epic nourished through the umbilical of oil barons, railroads and the vast, desolate West.
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson ("Magnolia", "Punch-Drunk Love"), the film is a loose adaptation of Upton Sinclair's "Oil!" However, only the film's atmosphere and landscape are informed by Sinclair's portrayal of the oil business. The actual plot of "Blood" is wholly different, an intricate story of fictional oil entrepreneur Daniel Plainview and his battle with the disordered world that surrounds him.
Plainview is a misanthropist who paradoxically seeks companionship even as he loathes mankind in general. His investment in oil is motivated entirely by his desire to earn enough money to escape civilization altogether. He loathes religion, dismissing it as a superstition, and entertains human interaction only when he calculates that it is crucial to his oil mining. Daniel Day-Lewis' ("Gangs of New York", "My Left Foot") gripping portrayal of Plainview cannot be over-estimated. His willful stage presence lends the film a searing intensity that both counteracts and complements the film's measured pacing.
Yet while the story is certainly rich with detail and subtlety, There Will Be Blood is hardly a film of words. At times fifteen full minutes will pass without any dialogue at all. The space that fills these stretches of silence greatly enhances the film's sense of space and desolation. Even when characters do speak, nobody says more than necessary. Words are carefully chosen and tersely delivered, and there is much to be read between the lines.
Instead of leaning on dialogue, much of the film's force comes from its gorgeous cinematography. Meticulously detailed and breathtakingly beautiful, There Will Be Blood is visually arresting from the film's beginning to its conclusion. Similarly, the score (composed by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood) greatly accentuates the film's most dramatic moments. Yet while the music itself is impeccable, the way that Anderson employs it is even more impressive. Violins and sparse percussion rise and fall at unexpected moments, carefully cultivating a sense of unease while still managing to feel natural and well considered.
Perhaps the most incredible thing about "There Will Be Blood" is its minimalism. In spite of its long runtime (which approaches three hours), the film never feels indulgent or overly complex. Anderson slows down the pacing of the film to a deliberate lurch. This might frustrate impatient viewers, but the approach is ultimately makes the film's several climaxes more rewarding and its emotional peaks more stunning.
"There Will Be Blood" is both visceral and cerebral, the rare film that combines the raw emotion of our most human instincts with smart, well-conceived film-making techniques. Well worth the hype and capable of meeting even your wildest expectations, Anderson's latest is truly a masterpiece of American cinema.