There Will Be Blood (2007)

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Kevin J. O’Connor, Dillon Freasier, Ciarán Hinds, Russell Harvard, David Willis, Hans Howes. [R]

Seething, bravura epic story of Daniel Plainview (Day-Lewis), a deeply amoral turn-of-the-century oilman poisoned by capitalist greed and aimless rage; a man who takes little pleasure in his ambitions, but is uncontrollably fueled by his savage obsessions to succeed and thwart (or even destroy) all who may oppose him. Its relentless descent into the subject’s dark heart, mirroring the ugliest sides of the American dream of dominance over all competitors, is a spellbinding trip from its opening salvo: fifteen dialogue-free minutes gripped by Robert Elswit’s ravishing photographic poetry in motion and framing, Jonny Greenwood’s uneasy yet mesmeric score, and the sheer physical presence of Plainview. Day-Lewis so thoroughly commands the screen—a towering but eccentric portrayal for the ages—that it almost overshadows the brilliance of the film around it, from the accomplished sets and costuming to the fascinating juxtaposition of Dano’s more timid and feckless (yet no less ambitious and corrupting) preacher, a “prophet” for the Church of the Third Revelation. The fact that Plainview’s self-consuming war would enfold the preacher’s religious hypocrisy only makes the oilman’s accumulation of wealth and power more compelling (and, at times, troublingly relatable). Some have resisted the film’s go-for-broke final chapter, but it’s such an aberrant dovetailing of so many elements that came before it that it emerges as an outlandish flourish of a masterstroke, satisfying all of the oil-streaked ashes of decayed humanity, avarice, violence, and black humor that had been churning inside the engine all along. Loosely inspired by Upton Sinclair’s novel, “Oil!” but the two hardly resemble each other. Day-Lewis and Elswit were both awarded well-deserved Academy Awards. Anderson dedicated the film to Robert Altman, who passed away during the editing process.

99/100