'I am an oil man'
'I am a false prophet and god is a superstition'
There will be blood 9.7
Short review:
This is a technically masterful film in all senses from the best of modern directors: Paul Thomas Anderson. Unbeatable performance from DDL, full of metaphor and hidden detail among all the visual and audible beauty. Best, most complete film of the last 20 years.
Full review:
I am somewhat in love with There will be Blood, for lots of reasons.
The main theme and driving force of the story is the Age old rivalry of New school vs old school, Daniel Plainview vs Eli Sunday, unstoppable capitalism vs immovable traditional religion. It is laced through all of the story, sometimes literally or metaphorically-most of the films plot i think is a metaphor for the modernisation of the world, and asks, was the industrial revolution simply born out of individual's greed?
This is a technically masterful film in all senses from the best of modern directors: Paul Thomas Anderson.. for me all of his films range from very good to momentous, this is probably his best, only Magnolia can really box with this one.
It is entirely engrossing from the first few mins with no dialogue (we first see him working in his element, alone in the dark), to the famous final scene and line with multiple meanings. Rightly so, the film focuses almost entirely on the main character and little else. That first stretch shows so much without speech, within 14 mins we know alot about him, not least his intelligence and toughness and ruthlessness.. 120 years ago, lying underground, leg broken in the middle of nowhere should have been game over.. but he has found his prize in the rock, so drags himself through the desert so he can claim it. He designs a new pulley system, which results in a man's death, but he still manages to profit from it by taking the man's child. Significantly the first words we hear is him pitching to a group of townspeople, using his 'son' as a tool to gain trust (he is a malicious seller, an early blueprint of the Jordan Belfort model) he is shown in close-up, a shot we will get time and time again through the film. Simple shots of faces do alot of the storytelling in the film, relying on the actors and audience to interpret the feelings and emotions on show. He tells the people why they should use him, they argue among themselves, which he can't be doing with, so he walks away.. his next pitch is to a family, not a whole community. Eventually he is approached with an offer of opportunity but still clearly has little patience with people and is not easily trusting, especially of somebody motivated by unselfish means i.e. the Church. Most of these character traits are shown, not told in close ups and conversation scenes.
For me, and rightly so again, i think the central performance is the most important aspect of the entire production, so much so his rival, although instrumental to the story, is inevitably sidelined in comparison. Paul Dano as Eli, and briefly as Paul does a great job has to work around the main man, not so much alongside him. Like in Gangs of New York, Day Lewis is utterly ominous but in a different, more complex way to Bill the Butcher. Painview is contently and almost completely rotten from the inside out, a self-proclaimed sociopath. There are occasional glimpses of a more decent, emotional side to him buried below the surface which appear then quickly recede again. However, interestingly in each case they are open to interpretation and could be attributed to him feeling loss only personally, not for the good of any other human being. i.e. a shooting occurs and he appears to show regret but only after finding an old photo, so is he actually lamenting loss of childhood innocence - a well used theme in film history - Citizen Kane style? He also seems genuinely emotional about the boy in the superbly acted Church scene where he is forced to confess, but this represents a loss in the rivalry stakes and perhaps a balance of power shift away from him. He does seem barely but genuinely protective and affectionate to the young Sunday girl Mary, although she does not reciprocate.. this again could be put down to presenting a wholesome persona for his own means and more of a respectful toleration for females in general, after all they pose no threat to him - as were the times.
On the whole he sees other humans as either handicaps to his life or things to manipulate and take advantage of (he says as much in one of the many speeches in the film) e.g. his 'brother' shows up out of nowhere and he quickly decides his son is not so needed anymore, so makes arrangements to re-home him. Daniel Plainview, for me, represents an evolved Disney villian mixed with Mr Burns (himself based on Mr Potter from It's a wonderful life). He is on screen for almost all of the 150 mins and i couldn't take my eyes off him, for me he is among the all time most interesting film characters. Almost every scene shows more of how Daniel Plainview has a contempt for life outside of furthering his own success.. it makes me wonder why he wants to make money atall, by being in business with other people.. whats the ultimate goal? It seems like a hollow pursuit as he never enjoys anything, except maybe winning itself.
This could have easily become a completely over the top panto role but DDL masters it so brilliantly to make it thrillingly menacing and still believable. I think no other actor could have (or can) communicated so much with the physicality as he does here (joaquin phoenix could have a good go) It has and will go down in history as an almost perfect performance. It reminded me in effect, tone and quality of a mix of Al Pacino as Scarface and Heath Ledger as Joker, although it eclipses both.
As mentioned, alot of the brilliance is in his facial expressions and voice, both are unrecognisable from his other roles (youtube clips from age of innocence, my beautiful laundrette and lincoln to see the variation) he shows insane vocal control even in the less meaningful dialogue. The image of his face is shown multiple times and always tells a story in itself, the raised eyebrow, thick moustache, unshaven, pale eyes-one often open more than the other and of course that hat...
Most of the work for this role happens before the cameras start rolling, not just getting into character but months, even years of research and being involved in all stages of character creation-he was given a few hats to choose from, wore them each for a while to find the one that felt best. His well documented determination to method acting paid off massively, as it does in most of his other roles from 2000 onwards. He is the only 'god level' actor and a hero of mine.
And then we have the last scenes 25 years on in the mansion, adding to an already unpredictable plot. We see some of the best acting ever on film, the Milkshake speech is mostly in one long take. Daniel has somewhat lost his mind, or at least his grasp on things and has become less introverted. It is important Eli and Daniel have a final showdown and some of the best lines take place here. Even the very classical music over the credits is food for thought, its very different to the rest of the score. Like a release, more jubilant once he is 'finished'.
Besides his character and performance the film is extremely well directed and photographed, but not just simply to look good, nothing in this film is accidental or purely surface level e.g. the early shot of the empty train track disappearing into the distance is gorgeous, and I expect to see a train rolling in from the distance, slowly filling the frame, but the camera then pans to the side to show them arriving by car, the new revolutionised version of personalised transport, all other characters are still products of their environments and use trains still. Each shot seems to be considered from an artistic standpoint first and foremost, there are too many to mention but needless to say most frames of the film are poster-worthy. This is a very Stanley Kubrick approach, which is as high as praise can get for a director.
The music is hugely important (composed by Johnny Greenwood from Radiohead, who often works with Anderson) it helps establish a pessimistic, suffocating, unsettling atmosphere of this baron but innocent land being taken over by this man's unflinching 'evil'. There is recurring strings music - i'm still not able to work it out 100% but I think there are 2 layers, one note from high to low, layered on another from low to high and the result is genius. All the visuals and score means this would be potentially even better to watch in a cinema. Even the costume design, something I rarely pick up on, seemed perfect. Of course there also seems to be a feeling throughout of biblical influences, as there would have been in small-town America in this era, all the character names for one, and at the start oil even serves as a representation for holy water on the baby's head.
It may be easy to under-appreciate how good the dialogue is with all the rest of the quality on show, and DDL's delivery is second to none, but still there are many quotable lines simply for their meaning and their sound;
'Get liquored up and take them to the peach tree dance'
'a good, strong, expensive meal'
'I drink your milkshake'
'You're just the afterbirth eli, slithered out on your mother's filth, they should have put you in a glass jar'
'Drainage Eli, you boy'
There will be Blood is full of great scenes, some of the best of any films. I particularly love the montages whilst he is giving his speeches; starting work on the first Derrick and measuring for the pipeline, and all of the conversations. I also love, as mentioned in other reviews, that some details of the story are left to the imagination to keep your mind working.
I know and accept that some may call it slow, and there are many films I love which I would certainly class as slow myself, but i dont think this is at all. There aren't many scenes that don't advance the story in some way. In some cases, at least for me, the story from a film is of relatively minor importance compared to all the other more technical aspects, they are mainly what create the lasting feel, tension, appreciation and what really stick with me once a film is finished.. of course story and all of this should go together but some really great films have next to no or a very broad story and are an exploration of other parts of life, designed to pose more questions than they answer.. e.g. another great Anderson film The Master. As with so many great films there are loads of details hidden in dialogue or visuals to aid the storytelling.
There will be blood was released in 2007, and there has been nothing better made since. Rarely do films give you so much as you watch and so much to think about afterwards like this one does. One of my top 10 all time films, just a masterpiece and a work of art.
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