‘There Will Be Blood’ lives up to hype

Jessica Lowe

Staff Writer

“There Will Be Blood,” promises the title of director Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest offering. It delivers that and so much more.

Set on the vast and barren California frontier, the narrative follows self-proclaimed oil man Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) from his modest beginnings in 1898 as a silver miner and concentrates most of its subsequent action on his dealings in the town of Little Boston.

There, Plainview competes for the townspeople’s allegiance and control of the oil-rich lands with opportunistic healer and leader of the Church of the Third Revelation, Eli Sunday (Paul Dano).

Anderson dedicates his film to the late director Robert Altman, a fitting tribute given that it offers a mediation on distinctly American ideals and experiences much like Altman’s films do, albeit with decidedly different techniques.

The film also draws inspiration from the classic “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” identically recreating a gold mining shot early on, and holding some of the same themes like greed and ambition.

“Blood” is a character study at heart. But unlike many such films, it doesn’t concern itself with attempting to condemn or explain its characters’ flaws. Instead it revels in them.

The film takes place during the decline of the Old West and celebrates a very different type of hero. Plainview is a man far less concerned with morality than competition and profit. His character is an exploration of the darker side of the American psyche and the all-consuming lust for power inherent in the American Dream. He takes it to its nightmarish and, ultimately, paranoid extreme.

Yet, for all his apathy and greed, Day-Lewis still manages to infuse his character with an eloquent and mesmerizing charm. Dano’s religious zealot Eli Sunday is an intriguing foil, often acting as a fun house mirror version of Plainview, but with arguably fewer redeeming qualities. The final scene between the two is not to be missed.

As an added bonus, Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood composed the score for this one, and his dissonant violins buzz with the same intensity Day-Lewis brings to his performance.

Numerous critics have already lavished this film with both praise and awards (such as the Golden Globe Day-Lewis received for his performance), but its feverish tale is also destined to earn a place among the icons of American film.