Overview
“There Will Be Blood” is a 2007 American epic period drama film set in California during the oil drilling boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
It depicts a feud between a man who is obsessed with profit seeking by oil drilling, and a preacher who collects donations by delivering his fanatic sermons.
Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The screenplay is inspired by the novel “Oil!” (1927) by Upton Sinclair. 158 minutes.
Plot
In the early 20th century California, Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), who is a silver miner from Wisconsin, establishes an oil drilling company. He adopts H.W., an orphaned son of a worker who died in an accident. He takes H.W. with him to the negotiating table in order to make investors think that he is a family man.
Daniel hears from Paul Sunday (Paul Dano), a young man living in Little Boston, California, that there is an oil deposit under his family’s property. Daniel goes to Little Boston with H.W. He buys up the land cheap, and succeeds in oil drilling, but an oil gas blowout accident deafens H.W.
A man who claims to be Daniel’s half-brother, Henry comes to visit Daniel. Daniel hires Henry. H.W. gets jealous of Henry, and sets fire to their house, intending to kill Henry. Daniel sends H.W. away to a school for the deaf in San Francisco.
Daniel builds enormous wealth by oil drilling, and brings prosperity to Little Boston.
Paul Sunday’s twin brother and an evangelical preacher Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) is going to extract money from Daniel to build his church, but Daniel is unwilling to make donations to the church, so it gives rise to a feud between them.
Commentary
This film is highly appreciated by critics as a drama film that compares favorably with “Citizen Kane” (1941) directed by Orson Welles.
Daniel Day-Lewis’ realistic performance is worth seeing.
Music by Jonny Greenwood, the lead guitarist and keyboardist of the English alternative rock band Radiohead.
At the 80th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for eight Oscars. Day-Lewis won the award for Best Actor, and Robert Elswit won the award for Best Cinematography.
