A review of the film There Will Be Blood - Christopher Williams 7.9/10

Usually when writing a review about a film I prefer to look up some online criticism and read the wikipedia article as they both tend to offer some enlightenment to aspects of the film I may miss but as I wished to review this film straight after watching it (the credits are still rolling) I thought it best to make this as soon after as possible.

There Will Be Blood follows the life of an ambitious prospector who strikes lucky and turns into a millionaire through taking advantage of the inhabitants of a small village sitting on top of an ocean of oil, in particular by abusing the trust of the local church. Daniel Plainview, the protagonist who is beautifully acted by Daniel Day Lewis, slowly turns madder as the film goes on or at least begins to reveal the more insane aspects of himself and certainly as the film progresses an extremely unhinged look begins to form in the back of his eyes which is not only a credit to Lewis, but also adds to the extremely unsettling mindset of Plainview, who becomes more bloodthirsty as the film goes on. Halfway through the film Plainview expresses his hate and loathing for all those around him which derives from his jealousy of those around him whether they are successful or not. The only two caring relationships he seems to have are with an adopted son who by the end of the film he sadistically delights in telling him he is a "Bastard in a basket" referring to when he first came across HW (Plainview's son) and his supposed half-brother who when it turns out is no longer Plainview's brother he instantly shoots in the head and buries his body. It is interesting to talk about whether Plainview ever genuinely loved either of these two people which I must conclude by the end of the film he did but only grudgingly and did his best to repress this. For example when his son becomes deaf from an oil derrick explosion he instantly rushes onto the derrick risking his own life to attempt to save his son's but then after this occurs he seems frustrated with himself for caring and sends him away, partly due to the fact that his apparent half-brother turns up meaning he has other family, but also I think due to the fact that he does not wish to care for anyone around him, viewing it as weakness. Certainly at the end of the film when his son comes to tell him he is moving away to start his own business, he refers to him as merely "competition" and not his son. He then goes on to say that he never cared for his son and that he was merely there for good looks so that his oil business would essentially have a family feel, to make it more hospitable and compensate for the high amounts of deaths related to his business through accidents.

The highlight of this entire film is easy to identify and it is plainly and simply Daniel Day Lewis giving a brilliant performance as Daniel Plainview. Throughout the film he exhibits subtle but definitely detectable elements of madness which then come out beautifully in the end of the film when he brutally murders his brother-in-law for no apparent reason asides for sadistic pleasure as when his butler comes down to ask if everything is alright upon seeing the body he joyfully remarks "Yes, i'm done!" as a child might when finished with their toy or plaything for the night. His savage exterior is something Lewis should be proud of and he manages to layer this intimidating appearance with an extremely scary personality which is reflected by the other members of the cast from the way they brilliantly interact with and around him, creating his unspoken aura of menace.

The other thing worth mentioning is the fact that the film itself is very well shot with a variety of camera angles at each point which are always appropriate and highlight scenes beautifully. In particular, Anderson (the director) manages to capture some particularly haunting angles of Plainview dances and laughing manically with his business associate while their oil derrick burns like a towering inferno lighting up the night sky. This scene is also powerful as while he celebrates the prospect of making his fortune his son has just been severely injured from the explosion yet his mind is unsurprisingly elsewhere. As well as this the soundtrack is very imaginatively chosen with a mostly orchestral music throughout which often I note has a scratchy violin playing in the background almost reminiscent of the theme to Psycho, and I am convinced this was chosen to develop on the madness and hysteria that is growing within Plainview's mind as the film goes on.

Overall I would give this film a 7.9 as I enjoyed it thoroughly but significantly it left me with a feeling of dread and unpleasantness from the extremely pessimistic, sadistic way in which it presents certain aspects of humanity, especially at the end when the apparently pure, evangelic Eli gives in and confesses through tears that he too has sinned to which Plainview then beats him to death with a wooden skittle from a bowling set. My main criticism is the fact that the film has a fairly static pace and struggles to inspire any true excitement meaning at points I did find myself getting slightly distracted and I feel this could perhaps have been solved by a more varied soundtrack or perhaps by simply rewriting the plot to include a scene or two which didn't feel quite so slow-paced as the rest of the film but then again, this slow-pace does help to add to the character of Plainview himself from his measured approach to situations as despite the fact that he acts extremely irrationally, it is highly evident that he dwells on his decisions before he acts upon them making the film all the more chilling.