A landmark in modern film

Rating: 10/10 (2 September 2012)

When I first saw "There Will Be Blood," I didn't really know what to think. It was a movie that grew on me, and in time I had to watch it again. Not solely because the plot itself is great, (which it is) or the cast is great (which it also is), but mainly because all the aspects of film that make a great movie great are in this movie. The cinematography is great, as Robert Elswit asc. gives the audience vivid, powerful shots of Texas in the early 1900s throughout the film. The film starts with a very quiet Daniel Day-Lewis in a mineshaft chiseling away what will be his future. After an incident which causes a broken leg makes the audience wonder why Daniel Plainview (Day-Lewis) is the way he is, i.e. full of hatred, greed, and disgust for man, the audience will also grow to like him in parts of the film. That is, until the climactic ending in which we find out that Plainview is really insane.
The movie is about Plainview's life around the oil industry at the turn of the 1900s and how the wealth and success that he encounters slowly kills him (figuratively speaking). His character is confusing, as you don't really know whether to like him or hate him--but if any other actor had taken on the role of Daniel Plainview the movie would not be nearly as good--or probably not good at all. Daniel Day-Lewis gives the performance of a decade. He is absolutely excellent in this film, and it made me fully appreciate what actors do for a living and how hard the job can really be. Daniel Day-Lewis turned in to Daniel Plainview in this film.
The film is disturbing at certain parts, as we watch Plainview abandon his adopted deaf son H.W., after H.W. attempts to burn down a cabin that Plainview had been sleeping in, or at the end of the film when Plainview ends up killing a young evangelistic preacher after he embarrasses Plainview in front of a church congregation. Having said that, you know that Plainview loves H.W. unconditionally throughout the film, and up until the end H.W. loves him back. The relationship that he has with his son in the movie is really the only thing keeping him from going fully insane.
"There Will Be Blood" is a landmark of a film. Paul Thomas Anderson did a phenomenal job making this movie, as it will no doubt be a classic for years to come. This is a movie that should be taught in film classes as a masterpiece, a work of fine art, a film comparable to other greats such as Casablanca, La Dolce Vita, and Citizen Kane. And after this performance Day-Lewis will go down as one of the greatest actors of all time.
A must see for anyone who truly appreciates film for what it is.