There Will Be Blood
Saturday, February 2, 2008



Although long, this film is an instant classic. Frankly, if Daniel Day-Lewis doesn't win Oscar for Best Actor these folks in Hollywood are truly crazy. This guy blends into a character in ways other actors wish they could.

Frankly, the whole cast rocks. However, I'm biased, I love westerns. I love these gritty, earthy, grimy, teeth grinding, rough hewed men, and the crude rawness of the early frontier days of America.

This film is about Daniel Plainview (Day-Lewis). He is a man who becomes rich digging for oil: he excels in getting it out of the ground, honestly or not. The movie starts, in 1898, with him deep down in a hole prospecting, digging, and working hard for his money. There's no dialog for almost a good ten minutes into this story. Plainview is so determined, that even with a broken leg, he drags himself into town to have his discoveries (coal? silver?) weighed.

Are people stubborn like that today? I wonder.

He adopts as his son, HW (Dillon Freasier), a boy orphaned in a drilling accident. I love little boys, and this kid is adorable. He expresses more thought and emotion with those big green eyes in a baleful stare, than most actors can in a long winded monologue. He's got that old soul in a child's body part nailed.

It's hard to tell who the hero, or protagonist is in this story. Plainview (Day-Lewis) doesn't give insight into who he thinks he is until midway through the film. He has to explain his reasoning, because it is not apparent whether he's a bad guy. He's much more complex character. Who Plainview is, what he wants, and what drives him, didn't feel fleshed out to me.

Maybe I missed something.

He has many conflicts with Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), a young man who sees himself as an up and coming pastor, or shepherd in search of a flock. Sunday is over-matched against Plainview.

There's no real contest.

It's a very male driven film. Men are everywhere. Yay! It's traditional mano-a-mano. Women are rarely seen and little heard. They are background and scenery.

There Will Be Blood was directed, written and produced by Paul Thomas Anderson. The movie is based on the book, Oil by Upton Sinclair.

Labels: Daniel Day Lewis, Dillon Freasier, Paul Dano, westerns

posted by GoldenAh
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