Theatrical Review of There Will Be Blood

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"There Will Be Blood" is little more than the story of a man on a mission. A mission to accumulate as much wealth as possible. A mission to bring people under his control. A mission to stomp out anyone or anything which may clash with his philosophy. A man who claims to be a long lost brother, a boy he raises as his own son, poor ranchers in California. The "who" doesn´t matter to Daniel Plainview (a spectacularly engaging, terrifying and magnetic Daniel Day-Lewis) as he builds an oil empire over the course of three decades. He only cares about the "what"…namely power.

Clocking in a a bursting 158 minutes, the latest Paul Thomas Anderson epic comes onto the scene reminding viewers more of the 1956 George Stevens opus "Giant" than anything else in recent-or past-memory. There is a slow, methodical pace to the picture at every turn; Anderson never feels the need to explain what has happened during the large jumps in time or from one scene to the next. It is up to the audience to follow along and, most importantly, pay attention. The first half hour or so is devoid of any dialogue, substituting words for the tribal-inspired score from Jonny Greenwood. It brings to mind the work on the score for the television series "Lost" in that the music crescendo´s at a climactic moment and then, without warning, spirals back down to soft, easy listening. Add in exotic sounding instruments-a pair of wooden sticks, perhaps?-and this isn´t the typical prospecting/western score. It´s more alive than any soundtrack in any movie of this kind ever has before.

Enough can not be said of Day-Lewis, Oscar winner for 1989´s "My Left Foot." We follow Daniel Plainview´s character arc with such intensity because of the actor, we can pinpoint the moment things begin to go sour in his life. It´s not the script pointing and shouting "Oh, this is a really important moment"; rather, it is a culmination of little things throughout the film, starting very early, compounding on top of one another that make Daniel the man he ends up being. The only things he has known are oil and his boy, H.W. (Dillon Freasier, quietly effective in the role). All he wants out of life, at least initially, is to be more than he currently is.

As Daniel´s ego spirals out of control, he engages in a battle of wills with Eli Sunday (Paul Dano, playing two characters), an up-and-coming minister. It starts over simple negotiation and escalates to a beat down in the mud, a humiliating exorcism and, finally, in the most violently nonviolent action sequence in film. It´s not enough for Day-Lewis to simply get lost in the character, he fully inhabits Daniel from his mumbling, soft spoken ways to outrage rage, the way spit drips off his lip when he and Eli engage in their final test of wills. His is a transformation of epic proportions benefiting the scope of "There Will Be Blood" and because the actor throws himself into the part, we don´t see the man who played Bill the Butcher or Christy Brown or John Proctor. We see Daniel Plainview, a bitter, resentful, angry man.

It is Daniel Day-Lewis who makes "Blood" the immense joy to watch it turns out to be. Which isn´t to say the rest of the cast doesn´t hold up their end of the bargain. They do in more understated ways. Eli´s conversion happens mostly off screen, including the genesis of a terrifying encounter with his father. In his own way, Eli becomes the very thing Daniel is: power hungry, full of hubris and desperate. The only disappointment is we don´t get to see him turn to the dark side, so to speak. Dano excels at the part because we have been conditioned to trust cherubic-looking teenagers instead of fearing them. He, too, feeds on the power and adoration his congregation gives him, something we become all too aware of in a baptism scene.

Anderson does a great service to all his actors with his directing style. No quick cuts or coverage of dialogue-intensive scenes. The camera stays focused on a speaker or follows the action in a single unbroken take, allowing the emotions to flow freely through the shot without creating them in the editing room. He also lets the action build, slowly yet steadily like the slow ascent to the top of a roller coaster. We know the inevitable ending, but each time the tension is ratcheted up another link, it is farther for us to fall. It´s not given to us all at once until Anderson is ready to unleash unbridled fury. His directing style, the slow pacing of the story, his Oscar worthy lead actor and payoff any audience will remember long after the end credits have faded, we are sucked into this world, never letting our attention wane for a moment lest we miss another revelation.

No matter what the camera focuses on, it is wholly unconventional, whether it be the amount of darkness in a given scene, the way actor´s faces are obscured or the stark reality with which a raging oil fire is shown, billowing black smoke into the blue California sky. In all its magnificence, in all the potential destruction the fire could case, the scene is breathtaking, similar to the burning oil fields on our TV screens during the first Gulf War. As fire shoots up into the sky, engulfing a wooden derrick, it provokes a reaction within us. Not beauty or awe as one might expect, but of terror and sorrow. The work put into the construction and drilling-especially without the use of modern technology-is gut wrenching to see go up in so many flames.

"There Will Be Blood" wants to play up the battle between money and religion and, for the most part, it succeeds. The conflict begins very early, when oil rich land is dangled in front of Daniel´s nose by Eli´s brother, Paul. One of the first questions Paul asks is in regards to Daniel´s faith. His response is clearly a lie when he refers to embracing all religions. And subsequently, every single scene featuring Daniel and Eli is riddled with tension based on their personal beliefs. My one question, though, is why? Why does Paul go to Daniel? Why does Eli take it upon himself to battle Daniel? Are Daniel and Paul the same person or twins? If they are the same person, why does Eli bring an evil to his home? To prove himself? To give him someone to fight against? See, the screenplay (also by Anderson) is content to present information yet not explain it. It by no means degrades the film and, I expect, an entire film class could be devoted to those issues.

(Why it is no one thinks to communicate with H.W. via the written word after his accident is beyond me. It seems like the easiest thing in the world to do, yet the solution doesn´t occur to a single person. And while we´re on the subject, his lineage is up for debate as well. Did Daniel really use him as a ploy to get land and support or are they really related? Again, these relatively minor points don´t matter except to make fascinating conversation.)

Even at it´s engorged running time, "There Will Be Blood" begins and ends in a blink of an eye. Director Anderson and the cast create a world and situation epic in scale, yet based on a handful of people. There is no noble quest like "The Lord of the Rings" or galactic stakes as in "Star Wars," only people caught in a tidal wave of events. Daniel Day-Lewis should get…nay, deserves an Oscar nomination and win for his role here, as well as Anderson for directing. This is also a movie designed for the high definition format and I personally can not wait to re-experience it on whatever format it may be on. "There Will Be Blood" ranks right up there with the best of the year, scoring an 8 out of 10.

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