Paul Thomas Anderson's gut-wrenching, raging bull with tour de force Daniel Day-Lewis

Rating: 10/10 (19 March 2008)

'There Will Be Blood' appears with a atonal string note of unease, and with the first wordless 15 minutes it's the darkness of Daniel Day-Lewis, deep in a mine shaft, that creates this relentless intensity; people at the cinema were wincing, laughing and chit-chatting in the opening sequence, not managing to keep a straight face-to-face with such a gritty and greedy man. And by the time the movie's ended off you'll feel gut-punched, it's like you've been going one too many rounds in the ring - but the feeling isn't Anderson' failure of making this too long, but its exhaustion of such intensity and breathtaking cinema-making. The harsh power of the movie shows violence of the flesh and spirit of the American character - Daniel Plainview (Day-Lewis) is the dark underside of the American success, a man with an enduring greed and brutality who looks at people and sees nothing worth liking. During his progress from being a sweaty, dirt-covered loner in the desert digging for silver to becoming a highly-regarded, successful oil tycoon of ruthlessness he rapes, pillages and murders and winds up so estranged from the normal human beings that he's forgotten that he is one on his own. Plainview encounters Eli Sunday, fantastically played by Paul Dano, a charismatic preacher who gets in immediate competitive force with Plainview. Sunday's shrieking preachment of the gospel offers an alternative offer of redemption through his powerful faith, rather than Plainview's promising of wealth - and Sunday's faith in God is unshakable, compellingly preached and with forceful power. The Clash between these two titanic egos is the heart of the film; Plainview doesn't have any sentimental side, but he has got H.W., a bastard-child who Plainview uses as an illusion of family values to buy land, fooling the owners for their "oceans of oil" under their feet. The connection between Day-Lewis and H.W.'s extraordinary Dillon Freasier is masterfully skillful, H.W. is the only peak hole we've got into Plainview's soul - and we don't get the answer though Plainview paints himself as a family as well as an oil man, even at the end to which Plainview sociopath-speech bristles with gruel and evil - does Plainview lack of human feelings? Or does he choose to ruthlessly deny them? And Anderson's painting of his nation's soul is dark - if Plainview and Eli Sunday represents the bigger forces of religion and capitalism and the role they've played throughout America's history, this bleak history lesson shows the behind-the-scenes and corrupted story of a land drenched in greed, violence and hypocrisy. And Anderson uses every tool at hand to drive his masterpiece-story home; the production design is breathtaking, proving that cinematography can be form of art when black smoke and an oil well sprouting with fire and flame is so visually astounding that it not only looks the movie, it speaks for it. And great photography is combined with a revolutionary soundtrack, created by Radiohead guitarist and composer Johnny Greenwood it shifts between its genius work of absence and shocking use of frightful and powerful arrangements. The harrowing climax is the finale of Plainview and Eli, the false prophet arrives to blackmail the viciousness in the greed-mansion built, you don't need to be a A-student to see that this won't become a pretty sight. A Bloody Hell will break loose. Daniel Day-Lewis' performance is a landmark performance, he blows and bellows and triumphs in making us see ourselves in Plainview - no matter how much we want to look away 'cause of its discomfiting presence, its impossible to tear your eyes away from. Daniel Day-Lewis makes a 'volcanic' performance, and Anderson has created a landmark in cinema history.