Greed. Betrayal. Family. Oil. Milkshakes. These are the plot elements of Paul Thomas Anderson's There
Will Be Blood.
A film like this is not an easy ride, it doesn't have a smooth beginning, middle or ending. It's a movie that makes you think, and that's what makes it great. It puts you on an uneasy, emotional roller coaster that doesn't stop (for me at least) until days after you finish watching it.
The plot is about miner turned oil man named Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his quest to be the best oil man in the world. Daniel Day-Lewis gives an performance deserving of the shiny gold man he won a few weeks ago. It's easy to see that the man put all his sweat, blood and tears in to this role -- and it pays off.
However, one actor who doesn't give enough credit for his performance is Paul Dano as Eli Sunday. This kid -- whom you may remember as the brother on a vow of silence in Little Miss Sunshine -- plays a faith healer in the local church. His performance and as a stereotypical cast-those-demons-out-now preacher is just simply amazing.
You know what though, if I talk anymore about the movie I'm only going to ruin it for everyone who hasn't seen it yet.
Overall, I highly recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys movies. I had previously thought the No Country For Old Men was the best movie I'd seen of the year and was totally deserving of best picture of the year award, until I seen TWBB.
If you've already seen the movie and want to read my take on some key scenes there's more after the jump.
There are things in this film that I haven't felt during a movie in a long. And thats what makes it so kick ass, it stays with you and makes you think about what greed can do to people. How far it pushes them in to the depths of hunger for money and power.
I feel there are three key scenes in the movie that stand out and really showcase what movie is about.
The first scene happens fairly early in the movie. After setting up his oil rig in Little Boston, Plainfield's son (H.W. Plainfield who is adopted by Daniel from a young age, merely as a cute face to help sell him self as a family man in the oil business) is watching the workers do their thing on a roof, looking down at a massive drill bit burrowing deeper in to the earth, when out of nowhere the oil well erupts we a great force knocking H.W. backwards and subsequently damaging his hearing to the point of total deafness.
As all this is happening, the senior Plainfield rushes to the aide of his son. He does show some humanity by trying to comfort him, and it is obvious that he does love him, but his son is nowhere near as important as the oil and leaves H.W. with one of his employees to watch over him as Plainfield looks over the oil well which is now throwing fire hundreds of feet in to the air.
Now, while all this is happening, the musical score starts off with an off-beat snare drum and one single bass note played over and over again (think Running with the Devil by Van Halen), eventually more and more drums are added until the musical score makes sense. What P.T. Anderson and Johnny Greenwood accomplished with this bit of movie magic is that it made me feel what Daniel Plainfield was feeling. Confusion the slowly gave way to comprehension. That, my friend, is worth the price of admission.
The second important scene occurs after Plainfield sends his son away to a school for the deaf. His method of sending his son to the school is abandoning him on a train with one of his employees.
Some time passes and some other key plot points that I won't go in to happen, but I'll make it short. In order for him to continue with his drilling, he needs permission to lay pipe under the ground of a property of a man whom Daniel snubber during the initial lease agreements. The old man agrees to Plainfield's offer on the condition that he is baptized at the local church run by Eli Sunday.
Plainfield reluctantly agrees, and attends church and is humiliated in front of the church by Eli. Slapping him repeatedly in the face and making him shout out "I abandoned my child!" to the congregation, God and himself.
What happens is that he goes through several emotions during the scene, anger, denial, acceptance and regret for sending his son away. But all that human emotion is pushed down by greed knowing that the deal is complete.
The third and final scene occurs many years after the drilling in Little Boston. Daniel Plainfield is filthy rich, living all alone in a huge mansion, H.W. leaves him as his business partner to start on his own, this infuriates Daniel and leads him to call him an orphan an tells him "You have nothing of me in you, because you're not mine!" H.W. replies to him in sign language, "Thank God."
Emotionally devastated by the departure of his son and his alcohol abuse has caused a once great and powerful man in to a sad shadow of himself.
Eli Sunday shows up unexpectedly, he has become a successful radio preacher but has fallen on hard times. Eli begs Daniel to start drilling under the land where he had previously laid pipe leading to the ocean. Eli says he wants $100,000 from Daniel for bringing him this information
There's a lot of details I'm leaving out, but go see the movie, dammit.
Daniel says that he will as long as he admits that Sunday is a a false prophet and God is a superstition, mirroring what Eli had done to Daniel during his baptism. Eli also goes through the same emotions that Daniel went through as well. Daniel tells him the the land has dried, and Eli is pushed to his lowest point ever.
I won't go in to any more details as I feel this is the best part of the movie. This scene gives us the famous milkshake line.
More then that however, it brings up so many other questions to ponder. Even the notion that Eli might be a homosexual. There's something so devilish about Eli Sunday, I can't put my finger on it, but it's kind of obvious that he's a false prophet when he declares God a superstition for money. I don't think any real man of the cloth would do that, no matter what the situation would be.
Watching a movies like this, makes me want to be creative. It makes me
wish that I was a director and famous writer. Anything. I think when a
movie can do this to someone, it gives me hope that good movies do
still get made and for every Norbit, I Know Who Killed Me, Mr. Brooks, there's going to be movies like No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood. That makes me hopeful and that makes me remember why I love movies in the first place.
In closing, I can't think of a more perfect movie. When I was watching the Oscars the other night, I was quite excited the No Country For Old Men won for best picture. However, after watching There Will Be Blood, I'm recasting my vote.
Go see this movie now, you will not be disappointed.
