A marvellous character study of ambition gone sour and endless greed

Rating: Null/10 (10 August 2008)

As a struggling silver miner, Daniel Plainview scrapes together a living until he stumbles upon a more profitable route for this talents  oil drilling. Starting small with one crew and one pitch, the film follows the growth of Plainview's business as he starts to expand. When he learns of oil-rich land out west in California, he and his young son head out there to capture the land and the rights to drill in the area. It is here that he meets the aspiring preacher Eli Sunday, who is interested in what the oil profits can do for his church. As with many of his recent ventures, this new location is a success although, with every victory and crushed competitor, Plainview's drive and ambition grows and consumes all around him.
I had heard so much hype and praise for this film on its release that I decided to wait a while before going to see it; after all then someone is saying that it "rewrites cinema" (or words to that effect) then it is hard to come to it as an individual without feeling the pressure to praise it and love it so as to not stand out from the crowd. Recently I watched it and was pleased by how easily I was drawn into it but also how quickly the three hour running time flew past. From the very start the story-telling begins and through simple scenes we come to understand the drive and sacrifice made by Plainview to even have a foot on the ladder. It is to the film's credit that it does not paint him as unworthy of the success he will find this way and the viewer is not able to hate him for his intrepid spirit and hard work. It goes without saying that the film follows the logical extension of his drive to succeed and that the next two-thirds of the film presents a much harsher and unpleasant side to this ambition.
It is a subject I have often wondered about because the CEO of where I work is in his sixties but is still working and active, making hundreds of thousands each day with shares movements and deals  what makes him keep going when he could clearly just pack it in, buy an island and sit on it. Well, whatever it is, it is probably the same motivation that got him to the position he is in. I am not in any way aligning the two men, but with There Will Be Blood, this is very much the crux of the film as it is a character piece looking at Plainview in this regard. The way it does it is with patience and intelligence so that it is never a matter of one act that pushes him too far, or one moment that flicks a switch within him but rather that it is simple, logical and totally natural for this character. I do think that the conclusion perhaps could have been better but otherwise it is a faultless piece of work.
Visually the film is striking. Not for any one image or moment of style though, but for the endlessly eye-catching framing of shots or positioning of the camera. The canvas of the western is of course present but we are never staring at it and somehow, even as two characters greet each other by a pipe being buried against a wide horizon, we are still focused on the tiny characters. A lot of this has to do with an utterly convincing performance from Daniel Day Lewis  it has been said loads but I cannot help but repeat how good it is. Again, it is not down to one moment that can be used as a clip for the Oscars but rather a complete immersion in the character so that he is able to convince whether as a man starting out or a man who is at the end of his life. No matter how impressive the visuals, you never take your eyes of him. To me he is the whole film and the support cast do struggle by being in his shadow to a certain extent, but mostly they all still work. Dano is probably the secondary most important character in the piece and he does pretty well with it although he doesn't really seem to age across the film, which I found distracting and detracting from his work.
Along with the visual structure, the use of music is impressive, never forcing its way over the action and only ever being part of what is happening  it is the Academy's loss that they "couldn't" recognise the score because the absence of this film makes them look daft. Indeed, in hindsight, so does the dominance at the awards of No Country For Old Men and it should have been more of an even split because they are both very good and very thoughtful films  although for me There Will Be Blood has it over the Cohen's here. OK it is not as entertaining or as accessible a film as that thriller but it is much more engaging and interesting in what it does. From script through acting, filming, scoring and total delivery, it is a magnificent film.