A True Achievement by both Anderson and Day-Lewis

Rating: 10/10 (11 April 2008)

2007 was, in my opinion, a weak year for Hollywood. At some point in late spring it seemed that the summer movie season had been set up to be especially uninteresting. Despite featuring everybody's hero Johnny D., Pirates III failed to entice me to part with anything green. Bourne III also came and went with the same effect.
Meanwhile, while commuting to the office, I thoroughly enjoyed two really engrossing audio books: Mr. Wilson's War and No Country For Old Men.
The fall movie fare was equally dismal, though as a family we did go and take in that most unusual Sixties reprise, Across the Universe. As we tiptoed toward the year's Christmas culmination, it was with great exhilaration that I learned that both audio books which I so thoroughly enjoyed had been made into films, and I knew that I'd find a way to see each of them.
For some reason this film, There Will Be Blood, never crossed my radar. I have been a strong admirer of some of the work Daniel Day-Lewis has produced, beginning with My Left Foot, the film I believe put him on the map for me.
As Oscar season approached Day-Lewis buzz was all the rage. This film, written, directed and produced by Paul Thomas Anderson, had created a phenomenal opportunity for Day-Lewis to shine, if you call being a very dark-hearted character shining. Anderson came to our attention as director of Magnolia, a film populated by mostly tragic characters.
There Will Be Blood is a character study of one character, the singular Daniel Plainview, as portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis. It could be argued that Eli Sunday is also a major character in the story, but his role seems more as a foil for Plainview. It's a very sad story about a man whose ambition and social isolation make him worse than cruel.
Anderson's achievement here has him being compared to Kubrick, which is saying plenty. Some say he has stylistically mimicked Kubrick intentionally. The manner in which the story is told, the impassive eye of the camera as all, exemplifies the preeminent rule of storytelling: show, don't tell.
For this reason we are never "told" the motivations of characters. We extrapolate motivations by the behaviors revealed by the camera lens. At one point Daniel Plainview states outright, "I don't like to explain myself." This style of film making is much like life. People seldom explain the why of their behaviors. Often they do not even understand themselves the why of what they do. Yet we can see who they are by what they do. Sort of. Every picture tells a story, but it takes a lifetime of pictures to fill out the full orb. This film strings together the key pictures of a man's life, the hardening of a very hardscrabble man.
Another site pointed out several comparisons to Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, beginning with the desolate opening scene with is off-setting music score to the final clubbing in the bowling alley, which seems so much a shadow of the ape with the bone clubbing a beast. Many more echoes can be heard.
The soundtrack of this film exacerbates the tensions whirling about inside its central character. The strings, rhythms, syncopated percussion, create a disconcerting, grating feeling. The irresolution and intensity of the strings is most effective in leaving viewers unsettled and uncomfortable.
The film does have its critics. It is not a pleasant experience. But it's a powerful film, and Daniel Day-Lewis is incredible to the very end. When he says, "I'm finished," the meanings are many. The film is through, his mission is complete, his life is ruined. His desolation is absolute.