One of the best films of the century

Rating: 10/10 (11 March 2013)

There Will Be Blood is a challenging film. It's not hard to comprehend (meaning no much time jumps or stuff like that) but there's something about it that just keeps baffling. That "something" is probably the difficulty to realize how audacious this movie is. It's an uncompromising and ruthless image of an abominable man that doesn't embellish its subjects: capitalism, rapacity, greed, madness and revenge.
In 1898, miner-businessman Daniel Plainview labors alone in his silver mine. While climbing out of the pit, the ladder breaks down, Plainview falls, breaks his leg and goes unconscious. When he wakes up, he shouts "No!". But not for pain, but because it slows him down, and doesn't let even a broken leg to stop him from delivering the silver nuggets to be evaluated. Silver is followed by oil, but it could be anything else as well, because Plainview only cares about money and beating others in the competition. He later travels to the town of Little Boston to look for oil with his adoptee H.W. Plainview. They are, however, challenged by preacher Eli Sunday, who sees Plainview's true intentions but whose objectives are similar to his.
There Will Be Blood is unlike anything writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson has done before. He became famous with his two films in the end of the 90's: Boogie Nights, a depiction of blue movie business in the 70's, and Magnolia, a drama about a quantity of people intersecting during two days. Where those films had large ensemble casts and enormous amount of characters, There Will Be Blood is a true one man's show. The movie is completely built upon the character of Daniel. He is the movie's absolute point of reference, first seen as a greedy, misanthropic bastard, a character impossible to sympathize with. But as the movie proceeds, new aspects of him are revealed. But that doesn't mean they'd be positive aspects. He is a discordant, colorful character.
But the movie isn't just a story about him. There Will Be Blood is a very powerful and profound thesis about American greed and capitalism that still ravage the country and the other world today. Anderson contrasts two hunters of power: Daniel tries to justify his actions through common wealth, Eli through religion. Anderson's view of their duel is merciless: either one of them isn't better than the other one, even though Daniel's unscrupulousness is quite hard to transcend. Both men treacherously use other people for their own benefit, lie and make vows of bright future to people, while their only goal is money and power, with only means and requisites being different.
Daniel Day-Lewis delivers a towering, ballsy, simply astounding and one of the best performances of the decade as Plainview. He embodies this travesty of a human being, becoming only more insane and crueler as the film proceeds. It's only in the end scene where he hops on the borders of overacting, and might even cross them, but it doesn't bother. Paul Dano is also superior as Eli, putting his babyish face and intensity in good use as this devious preacher. He's not as mind-boggling as Day- Lewis, but it's still a remarkable performance considering that he had only 4 days to prepare for the role. God knows how incredible he might have been if he had had more time. The technical section is also glorious: Robert Elswit's cinematography is flawless and very beautiful, and Jonny Greenwood's strong soundtrack creates a nightmarish and hypnotic atmosphere to the background.
There Will Be Blood is a movie that requires multiple viewings to grow to its full measures, and once it does, it reveals to be a masterpiece. Like all of Anderson's previous work, the film requires concentration and patience but rewards the viewer massively. The film might be too heavy for some, since there's actually not a single happy moment, but to me, this is an unforgettable masterpiece that is going to stand the test of time and will be viewed over 50 from now. This Anderson's best film to date and an instant classic.