THERE WILL BE BLOOD
Finally, Obsessed With Film have a review of one of the best films of 2007. Paul Thomas Anderson's instant classic becomes the fourth film to receive a perfect score rating in the last four months... no feat any film had managed prior to December.
Paul Thomas Anderson Based on a novel by Upton Sinclair Starring: Daniel Day Lewis, Paul Dano, Dillon Freasier, Ciaran Hinds Distributed in the U.K. by Miramax Film was released in the U.K. on Feb, 15th 2008. Review by Oliver Pfeiffer
rating: 5
Anyone lamenting the death of cinema should urgently watch Paul Thomas Andersons brilliant, mesmerising and truly epic period drama There Will Be Blood. This is not just recommended cinema this is essential cinema, and further proves that after a long relentless slew of remakes, reinterpretations and revivals that there is life (yes even blood) in the old cinematic art form yet. But then again why should we be surprised that Anderson has nurtured a refreshingly layered classic? This is after all the same director who made the Altmanesque ensemble film cool again with Boogie Nights and Magnolia, modelled an Adam Sandler film that was actually worth watching (Punk Drunk Love) and gave old timers Burt Reynolds and Philip Baker Hall another stab at the big time. Opening with an audacious eerie ambivalence worthy of a Stanley Kubrick film, There Will Be Blood pits the audience deep into an alienesque barren landscape (not unlike 2001) and then surrounds them with a throbbing, intense score (courtesy of Radioheads Jonny Greenwood) that loudly creeps up on you like an unwelcome stranger. Here we witness the literally painstaking, determined struggles of our lanky lead character Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis) hunting for silver ore down a mine. He stumbles, he falls, he breaks a leg in the process but he discovers his silver and courageously drags himself to town to sell the rock. After further investigation oil is discovered in the mine, which is then ferociously pumped but in turn inadvertently causes the death of his oil partner, (the first titular reoccurring reference) whose boy, H.W, consequently becomes the adoptive son of our prosperous new oilman. For 20 minutes not a solitary word is uttered in the film, even Plainviews curses and rejoices are noticeably muted. This serves to concentrate and intensify the unfolding drama of a simple man who is slowly drowned by the wealth and corrupting greed that his oil discovery brings. It is to Andersons obligated credit that he decides to slowly churn out the fundamental consequences of our lead player. Hes not afraid to dwindle indulgently in early scenes, building his narrative to a momentous crescendo that is both strangely disquieting and positively reassuring. But without a decent lead actor to anchor the films heartless soul and an opposing competitor with the weight to stand in his shadow, the film could have been lost to the open wilderness. Daniel Day Lewis, (adapting a noticeable John Huston drawl) is, without question outstanding in the role of Plainview, a man, not unlike the eventual monstrosity of Charles Foster Kane (or indeed Noah Cross in Chinatown), who becomes internally tarnished by his own ambitious greedy desires to capitalise on his founding fortunes. To counteract this you have the persistent hindrances of a fanatical preacher, the equally money-hungry Eli Sunday, who deliberately leads Plainview to the oil underneath his familys land for his own effortless desires. Son of an impotent and feeble father, Sunday is one of those truly nasty character creations that come alone once in a while to remind you of the very real monsters that are hidden behind the scenes in our very own world. Although occasionally lapsing into manic fits that favour comparison to an unhinged Gene Wilder, Paul Dano is creepily menacing in a role that should have at least garnered an Oscar nomination. His pedalling, competitive bartering with Plainview is at once persuasively indulgent, mean fisted and eventually sadly complacent. When in one scene he is beaten to a pulp by Plainview, who punishes for his continual disruptive demands and for his deceiving incarnation as a supposed faith healer, (he has failed to heal Plainview's deafened adoptive son) we almost feel sorry for the young nipper. Then in the very next scene Danos sudden launched attack on his weak father at dinner reveals him as the evil, greedy money-hungry devil in black that he really is. But There Will Be Blood doesnt suffer fools gladly and proceeds to equally shape Plainview into a tyrannical mogul monster, who revels in sucking the profits of everything that prosperous around him. He is as cold as steel, and confesses to finding no redeeming features in anyone: at one point potently reflecting that he wants to earn enough money so (he) can get away from people. His eventual dismissal of his son (and appointed business partner) - after a severe gusher accident renders the boy permanently deaf - is delivered harsh and without warning. But there are moments that suggest Plainview may not have become the bitterly wretched hulking figure that he is, if life had treated him more compassionately. The characters that stick close to him seem to be only there to a share a piece of the profitable pie, and his lack of any trustworthy legitimate family suggests he is a man doomed from the start. Andersons regular cinematographer, Oscar winner Rovert Elswit, frames the feature as a sprawling epic in the Fordian cinematic sense of the word, and lenses the Californian landscape with delicious mystic as if it were a character in its own right. This is surely one of the most pleasurable films to watch, with some scenes in particular bearing a jarring tinge of sun-drenched decadence that alert you to the fact that you are watching something truly special. It is the wondrous unearthing of this very landscape that ironically counteracts the guarded inner feelings of Plainview, which are often shrouded in secrecy. This is a man who will surely stand the test of time as one of the most important and significant, death defining cinematic character creations and it is all the more powerful that his presence is shrouded in ambivalence. Paul Thomas Anderson has conjured a powerful, poetic masterpiece of triumphant proportions and one in which all subsequent films, in this genre at least, should now be measured against.