The Big Kahuna. The game changer. The film that made Anderson a solidified mainstream beast of cinema. There Will Be Blood takes its inspiration from the novel Oil! by Upton Sinclair and follows Daniel Plainview (played magnificently by Daniel Day-Lewis) and his climb to the top during the Southern California Oil Boom.
The film is set in the late 19th century and is a seemingly traditional retelling of the American Dream but as with any PTA, not all is as it seems.
Quickly Plainview’s ambition is replaced with cruelty, deception and manipulation particularly in the relationship deterioration with his son, H. W. Plainview (played by Dillon Freasier and Russell Harvard as child and adult H. W., respectively) and the mistreatment of local preacher/proclaimed prophet, Eli Sunday (Paul Dano who also plays Eli’s twin brother, Paul Sunday).
Winning Day-Lewis a second Best Actor Oscar (my favourite Day-Lewis performance) and featuring a career smash for Dano, Anderson shows his control and maturity as a filmmaker with this one. Masterpiece is a term often thrown around meaninglessly but it is more than justified here.
It’s a shame that it was up against the Coen Brothers’ offering, No Country for Old Men, as it lost out on several deserved Oscars. Not to say No Country for Old Men shouldn’t have won but I personally prefer There Will Be Blood due to how well-realised Plainview’s character is while the direction is as slick as the oil they drill.
