IMDB Summary: A story of family, religion, hatred, oil and madness, focusing on a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.
Paul Thomas Anderson directs this dark narrative of oil business entrepreneur Daniel Plainview during his career. Plainview, played by Daniel Day Lewis, delves into the business during the turn of the century, when the practice is still a gamble, while still attempting to the single father for his newborn son. When he finds oil but is left injured, his career starts rolling. Fast forward ahead a few years, and Plainview is already on the top of his game attempting to set up various oil towns. When approached by Paul Sunday, played by Paul Dano, that there is oil on his land, he sets forth on this new venture. Although the land is abundant with oil, problems arise.
Most likely my favorite performance from Daniel Day Lewis as well as Paul Dano, There Will Be Blood did not disappoint. Yes, it’s Paul Thomas Anderson so it’s like 2.5 hours long and there are several periods where nothing much is happening. However, the acting and the dialogue and the rising actions of this film contribute so much that it’s definitely worth sitting through and watching it. Lewis won the Oscar for best leading role for this in 2007, but Dano wasn’t nominated for best supporting. The Academy made a mistake to say the very least, but I won’t go into film politics with you guys on this blog. (I don’t really want to bore everyone all the time.) Keep watching until the very end, you don’t want to miss DDL’s infamous “milkeshake” speech.
This film is a marvel when it comes to visual aesthetic as well as sound. I’m not a huge fan of the repetitive scoring because that gets rather annoying, but sound editing-especially after a certain scene when sound becomes very key in a character’s life- is so amazing! Comparable to the quality of The Hurt Locker for me. The cinematography, like any PTA film, is also astounding.
Right now it’s on Netflix, so even though I’m not too crazy about the story itself, I definitely think you all should give it a chance!
Rate:9/10
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