There Will be Praise

Rating: 10/10 (29 September 2009)

The world of cinema has seen and marveled a plethora of phenomenal performers, who over the years have entranced billions of viewers globally with their guile, grandeur, subtlety, eloquence and idiosyncrasy, but I dare say that none of their performances can match Daniel Day-Lewis' portrayal of Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood, for sheer ruthlessness, panache, eloquence and cheek. Being the chameleon that he truly is, Daniel Day-Lewis incredibly musters up all his prodigious talent as an actor to conjure up his misanthropic alter ego, Daniel Plainview, whose perpetually smirked face bolstered by his malice filled eyes makes him one of the strongest and the most fascinating characters ever caricatured on the silver screen. Daniel Day-Lewis is at the top of his game and virtually unstoppable as Daniel Plainview, a portrayal that not only resuscitated him as an actor, but also established him as someone who wouldn't leave a single stone unturned to bring his character to life and perhaps it is this very attribute that has helped him in his endeavor to be the absolute best at what he does.
Paul Dano is absolutely brilliant as Eli Sunday and has complimented Daniel Day-Lewis in every sense of the word in spite of the fact that he barely had a week to prepare contrary to Daniel Day-Lewis, who had a whole year to prepare. Eli Sunday is ambitious, enigmatic, placid, pesky and pusillanimous and despite being highly contrasting to Daniel Plainview, ironically has many similarities to him, especially the uncanny demeanor that helped them both to inveigle others. It is the chemistry and the ever growing tension between them that makes the movie haunting and spectacular.
There Will Be Blood is a morbid tale of greed, betrayal and obsession adorned by some great performances, visually stunning cinematography and masterful direction. Plainview owns a mine with potential silver deposits and his assiduity finally pays off when he discovers a silver ore. He sells it to acquire a crew to help him with the subsequent diggings in the mine. After the mine runs out of silver, oil is discovered in it and hence begins Plainview's journey of insatiable greed and morbid obsession. In order to acquire more oilfields and to strike out further deals easily, he adopts a young boy and names him as H.W. to help build a facade of a benevolent family man for himself. It almost takes him a decade to establish himself as a minor oilman, but this moderate success further intensifies his avarice. Subsequently, a young man named Paul Sunday (Paul Dano) visits Plainview's camp and offers to sell information about his family's ranch, which he claims to have an ocean of oil underneath it. Plainview and H.W. travel to the Sunday Ranch pretending to be on quail hunting while hiding their ulterior motive of verifying Paul's claim. Being as perspicacious as he was, it didn't take him long to find the vestiges of oil in the cracks formed due to the recent earthquake. He tries to inveigle the Sunday patriarch (who almost cried with rapture on hearing the offer) to sell him the land at a moderate price (which he calls quail price and not oil price), but is stymied by owner's ambitious son, Eli Sunday (also played by Paul Dano), who asks him to pay an additional ten thousand dollars towards the building of the Church of Third Revelation. Plainview reluctantly pays him five thousand dollars as advance and promises to pay the remaining amount once the drilling starts. Plainview assembles his crew at the Sunday Ranch and builds the first derrick. He also buys almost all of the land surrounding the Sunday Ranch so he will have not only those drilling rights but also the right to build a pipeline to the ocean to circumvent the railroads and their shipping costs. Eli wants to bless the derrick before drilling begins but Plainview rebuffs him. Using the money given by Plainview, Eli builds his church projecting himself as a preacher, faith healer and prophet. Soon the church has many followers, most of whom are Plainview's workers. Eli's increasing influence on the people and his display of false divinity starts pestering Plainview, who is further flummoxed by congregation's frequent gatherings (the daily prayers prevented the workers from taking desired rest, thereby decreasing their efficiency). Plainview beseeches Eli to make them less frequent, but Eli dismisses him with disdain. Plainview's ruthless ego is badly jolted by Eli's stubbornness and he brutally assaults him and even threatens to kill him when Eli asks him for the remaining money. Eli returns home all covered with mud after Plainview's assault and takes out his frustration on his myopic father, blaming him for acquiescing to Plainview's naked ambition. H.W. is deafened during an oil rig incident and starts behaving as a brat. Disconcerted by the change in the mannerisms of his son, he sends him away. Eli soon gets his revenge when a fellow named Bandy forces Plainview to get baptized at the Church of the Third Revelation (as a penance for a murder that Plainview committed and of which only Bandy knew). While baptizing him, Eli humiliates him by repeatedly slapping him and calling him a sinner for abandoning his hapless child. This incident further intensifies the hatred in Plainview and sets the tone for a deeply haunting finale when they meet many years later.
P.T Anderson once again proves his mettle as a director and manages to pack a punch with this poignant and a deeply disturbing masterpiece. The movie incredibly succeeds on every level and entertains immensely, while still delivering a strong message. It was undoubtedly the best picture of 2007 and one of the best of the decade. In fact, it was very remiss of the academy to keep up with its long earned notoriety and prefer a relatively mediocre 'No Country for Old Man' over this truly haunting masterpiece.
P.S. 10/10