Immense Piece of Cinema

Rating: 8/10 (27 March 2008)

There Will Be Blood is the story of one man, Daniel Plainview, an oil prospector, and a successful one at that. His success is achieved at a cost - initially to himself in the hours/days/weeks of solitary searching, and the shattered leg that we see in the lengthy introductory sequence, but also and primarily to others.
There are other well-drawn characters in the film, notably Eli Sunday the local pastor and nemesis of Plainview, but all, even Plainview's adopted son, are meted various degrees of brutal treatment - physical and/or emotional - and the story sees all crushed beneath this juggernaut of near-psychotic ruthlessness. There is indeed blood, and there is absolutely no redemption.
TWTB is a raw cinematic experience, and made great by a number of factors. Daniel Day Lewis's performance as Plainview is simply immense; he is a worthy Oscar winner for such a frighteningly unsympathetic role. I find it hard to recall another movie so in thrall to a central character so human yet so irredeemable (in the truest amoral sense). Paul Thomas Anderson's direction is magnificent to my untrained eyes, matching the immense landscape and endeavour on show with the immense personal ambition visible in Plainview's near-mystical visage. His pacing of the film is masterful, allowing the character of Plainview to grow yet darken steadily through shades of deepening gloom to final blackness. The cinematography is excellent and Jonny Greenwood's percussive score provides a truly distinctive aural backbone.
All this is not without flaws. The parenthetical story element based around Plainview's half-brother Henry could possibly have been eliminated altogether to shorten the film without losing any real substance in the narrative (we learn a little of Daniel's family history but little more). The depiction of women - who are virtually absent in fact other than the muted and cipher-esquire character of young Mary Sunday - may leave some female viewers rather cold, though perhaps this reflects the rural/industrial environment of the era fairly enough. The film owes some obvious debts to Citizen Kane and Chinatown, amongst other works, but they're hardly poor influences to select!
In a word though, TWTB is marvellous. This is the kind of film that comes along perhaps only once a decade and will surely be treasured as an immense piece of cinema for many years to come.