“I. Drink. Your. Milkshake! I drink it alllllll up!”
The title wasn’t clickbait! There was in fact blood!
The Oscars were this past Sunday and after accumulating 14 nominations without ever taking home the gold statuette, American filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson finally won big, taking home three prizes for the Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, and the most coveted prize, Best Picture, for his exhilarating satirical political-thriller One Battle After Another. While I absolutely adored the film, I thought it would be the perfect time to introduce you to (or remind you of) what is widely regarded as not only his personal best, but also as one of the greatest films of the 21st century and of all time. That would be his 2007 film There Will Be Blood
I’ve seen many extraordinary films but a few have left me at such a loss for words when it comes time to sit down and write my little reviews as There Will Be Blood has. I’m not even typically a fan of period films, but I can’t think of many films that managed to capture my full attention and interest in the first 15 minutes quite like this, as the opening instantly sucked me into this bleak yet intoxicating world, a place that seemed to not only entice me, but our protagonist also. Paul Thomas Anderson truly is an ingenious visionary, with his rare ability to craft such engaging and diverse stories all the while demonstrating a deep understanding of society and humanity within his characters. And There Will Be Blood is PTA arguably at his peak both in his writing and directing.
What strikes me most about There Will Be Blood is how PTA engraves such strong criticisms of capitalism, power, and greed as well as a detailed exploration of mental deterioration and its impacts on human morality into the film itself. He incorporates these ideas most potently through Daniel Plainview, a simple yet determined silver miner turned dogmatic oil prospector, a man who over the course of the film, slowly becomes more and more consumed by his own ambition and total detestation for humankind. Daniel makes for maybe the most compelling and mesmerizing character study I’ve ever seen, as his own fiery wrath, self-destruction, and self-isolation, developed via a deepening moral erosion and psychopathic brutality, mirrors that of his growing capitalist greed and twisted sense of ambition. And the way that the film symbolizes this struggle between capitalism and religion in a grab for power and influence, amidst the emerging influence of industrialization in the West, is just genius. PTA achieves this through the slow-burning feud between Daniel Plainview and Eli Sunday, a turf war simultaneously fueled by a series of reciprocated humiliation rituals and a clashing of their egotistical personalities, their opposing ideologies. This hot pressure cooker continues to boil, the blood stains piling up on both of their hands, until it can no longer be contained and it erupts into a jaw-dropping, volcanic, and triumphantly operatic conclusion. We see this sort of explosion not only in the characters’ relationships, but also in the film’s polarizing cinematography, backed up by PTA’s spellbinding direction behind the camera. The film has multiple glorious visual moments, but the glaring and graphic imagery of the oil derrick explosion in particular is just so mesmerizing and brilliant. It appears almost as if Lucifer himself had unleashed his fiery, hellish flames upon the world from the depths below, as both the outer frame of the screen and Daniel’s eyes become illuminated with this devilish red.
And when it comes to performances, there really isn’t ANYTHING new for me to add, especially regarding you-know-who, but I’m going to anyway. Believe me when I say that Daniel Day-Lewis’s cold, ruthless eyes alone deserved that Oscar. He truly is one of, if not, the greatest actor of all time and this is undoubtedly one of the greatest performances (if not THE greatest) I’ve ever seen. His ability to instantaneously transform from a seemingly charming businessman and loving father to a cold-hearted, soulless misanthrope is unmatched and simply awe-inspiring to witness. Even just down to his demeanor, attitude, and the way he speaks, DDL completely disappears into the role of Daniel Plainview in every sense of the character and is genuinely terrifying to watch on screen. But even with how phenomenal Daniel Day-Lewis is, Paul Dano matches his energy, both the intensity and insanity, and is able to keep up with him the entire time, giving a truly brilliant and charismatic performance as Eli (and Paul) Sunday. He’s one of those underrated actors that fully commits and is just remarkable in everything he does, an actor that I’ve come to love and deeply appreciate ever since discovering him. The fact that he wasn’t even nominated for his performance at the Oscars is just completely beyond me. And that final scene… I can’t even describe the feeling of awe it gave me, the anxiously-pulsating rush that filled my body. I was utterly stunned and horrified watching one of the most explosive endings I’ve ever witnessed in my life. Paul Thomas Anderson, the man and filmmaker that you are…
There Will Be Blood is an unsettling, yet riveting story about oil, blood, power, and madness from start to finish, made complete with the genuine perfection of PTA’s spellbinding directing and writing, the mesmerizing cinematography, the brilliantly discordant and unsettling score, a remarkable supporting act from Paul Dano, a career-best, tour-de-force performance from the one and only Daniel Day-Lewis. It depicts the interworking relationship between economics and human morality in a way that no film I’ve ever seen really has. To summarize a quite complex story, There Will Be Blood explores just how far a man will go, the people he’ll screw over and the bonds he’ll sever, in order to come out on top, victorious. Paul Thomas Anderson may just be the one of the greatest filmmakers to ever pick up the camera. You just haven’t realized it quite yet.
And for reasons entirely unknown, I could really go for a milkshake right about now…
