“There Will Be Blood” is worth a watch
Make no mistake about it, There Will Be Blood is a pretty powerful film. The hype that surrounded it, though, may have left me expecting more than I got.
Daniel Day-Lewis plays Daniel Plainview, a greedy oil tycoon who is trying to drill in as much of California as he can at whatever cost. Day-Lewis was incredible in this role, and if you only come away from this review with one reason to see this movie, let it be Day-Lewis. He plays the ruthless Plainview with a perfect blend of moodiness, rage, violence, and insanity to make you hate him with a passion, but still want to get inside his head. So consumed by material wealth and greed is Plainview, that, among other things, he goes along with a baptism (though he despises God) just to gain access to land to drill for oil, and uses his son as a shill to create the illusion of family values.
His greatest opponent in this film is the preacher Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), a false prophet-type zealot just as consumed by greed as Plainview, who puts religion in the way of Plainview’s every move, and the tension between the characters is not only palpable, but almost enough to make you cringe.
But the plot is thin, and the story doesn’t progress very far. Yes, we are dealing with characters, especially Plainview, who represent the darker side of a success story, but a film can’t survive strictly on symbols and representations, it needs some storyline or, at the very least, a sense of forward motion. There was a lot of potential for a great story to be told, but it just didn’t live up to my expectations.
Another interesting point that I have to mention is the music. It’s a very odd sound that really detracts from the movie itself. It’s not odd in an ironic sense (as if Plainview is killing someone and there is a cheerful score playing behind him), it’s odd in a distracting sense. The music is more a cacophony of irrelevant melodies. The film was scored by Radiohead guitarist/composer Jonny Greenwood (which may help explain the music’s jaded, bland sound.)
Furthermore, the plot does get a little choppy and you do sometimes feel an opposing sense that the storyline is almost rushed and spewed out in chunks, yet the film is nearly three hours long. But again, watch this film for Day-Lewis’ performance, if nothing else. He earned his Oscar.
*Images courtesy of http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie-photos/there-will-be-blood/
November 12, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Just watched this last week. Took a while for me to catch up with my Oscar list. I thought it was amazing.
So what do you think about the ending? Is Plainview’s son off to Mexico to repeat the tragedy?
November 12, 2008 at 7:03 pm
I got the impression that his son was a much better man, and had come to terms with the fact that he was nothing like his father, and to an extent was happy about it. If anything, he would probably be an honest businessman who learned all the things not to do from his dear old dad.
November 19, 2008 at 10:19 am
Ah yes. So I wonder iis there such thing as an “honest businessman” in this cinematic world?
Plainview does try to do some good along the way – taking in an orphan, protecting the little girl from her abusive father, getting the best teacher for his son… but he loses his way at some point.
Is there always “blood” in business – meaning someone’s success always depends on another’s failure? Plainview has a monologue about that -about how he can’t win unless someone else loses.
So even if the son goes off to Mexico and runs a successful and “good” oil business – is someone still going to suffer? Another town? Workers? His children?
Is there always going to be blood mixed in with the oil?
November 19, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Good point. I’d say that his son will be as honest a businessman as he can. Plainview’s good deeds were often counteracted by his bad ones. Yes, he took in the orphaned boy, but soon after his going deaf, Plainview abandoned him on the train because he had become too much of a liability.
The monologue about “winning at someone else’s expense” is true, but there also seemed to be a tinge of enjoyment that Plainview got out of that reality. This further flirted with the idea that he was merciless and cold to everyone and anyone he came in contact with, regardless of who they were.
I think there will always be blood mixed in with the oil, but the question is how much? Plainview began as a tough businessman, and deteriorated into a madman who ended up killing a handful people throughout the film, mainly because he had become completely consumed by money and power.
Will his son follow the same path? Will he start as a businessman and end up a killer? I’d say anything is possible, but I still lean towards “no”, if only because of the seemingly heartbroken disappointment he exhibited at the end when his father was screaming at and degrading him.
November 20, 2008 at 10:05 am
I really like your final statement above.
“Will he start as a businessman and end up a killer? I’d say anything is possible, but I still lean towards “no”, if only because of the seemingly heartbroken disappointment he exhibited at the end when his father was screaming at and degrading him.”
So it seems you are saying that being “heartbroken” is somehow connected to caring for people more than money – or creates some possibility of minimizing the killing he does in the process of running a business.
I’ll think about that more.
My guess is that they don’t talk about being “heartbroken” in business schools.
November 20, 2008 at 10:09 am
…But I’m pretty sure they talk about “making a killing” when it comes to money.
December 12, 2008 at 4:34 pm
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