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Movie Description
Director Paul Thomas Anderson's THERE WILL BE BLOOD is a masterly, unflinching examination of a consummately evil man. Daniel Plainview (via a transcendent performance by the great Daniel Day-Lewis) is, as he likes to remind those around him, an oil man: he finds it, he drills for it, and he makes money from it. Following a tip from a visitor named Paul Sunday, whose family sits atop a veritable ocean of oil, Plainview travels to the town of New Boston, California, with his young son. Sunday's preacher brother Eli (both roles are played by the excellent Paul Dano) grudgingly accepts Plainview's ambitions under the condition that he help fund the town church. As Plainview's plans come to fruition, a series of events begin to fracture the insular world he has constructed for himself, pitting Plainview against Sunday and forcing him to become even more vindictive and ruthless.
Anderson proved with BOOGIE NIGHTS and MAGNOLIA that he was adept at handling expansive storylines and layered plots; however, he stakes out a claim here as a new master of the cinematic epic. The film is visually stunning, and alternates between lush widescreen shots of the desert and meticulously composed, darkly lit close-up of his actors, presenting complex images of the American landscape and the souls that dot it. As a narrative, THERE WILL BE BLOOD is told with a sense of economy, yet never at the expense of the film's inherently grand scope. It's difficult to determine precisely what Anderson wants his viewers to take from the experience: the film is, in the end, appropriately complex and ambiguous. THERE WILL BE BLOOD forces us to confront Plainville, who seems to be a larger-than-life personification of evil; that we don't entirely understand him at the film's conclusion is not a shortcoming, but rather a tribute to the depths of this most vile creature and this most brilliant film.
Industry Reviews
"[The film] creates considerable heat and light and does some serious aesthetic damage....Day-Lewis and Anderson share a ferocity of approach to their work..."
Los Angeles Times - Kenneth Turan (12/26/2007)
"A complete universe is created before a word is spoken in THERE WILL BE BLOOD, a towering new American epic and instant modern classic..." -- Grade: A
Entertainment Weekly - Lisa Schwarzbaum (01/11/2008)
Ranked #7 in Rolling Stone's "10 Best Movies Of 2007" -- "[Anderson's] filmmaking is raw, risky and built to leave bruises. This is his bloody and brilliant CITIZEN KANE."
Rolling Stone - Peter Travers (12/27/2007)
"In P.T. Anderson's latest and most impressive vision of all-American excess, business and religion go the distance in a battle to the death..."
Film Comment - Harlan Jacobson (01/01/2008)
4 stars out of 4 -- "THERE WILL BE BLOOD hits with hurricane force....In terms of excitement, imagination and rule-busting experimentation, it's a gusher."
Rolling Stone - Peter Travers (01/24/2008)
"It flows smoothly, linearly, building momentum and unbearable tension....[Mr. Day-Lewis] seems to have invaded Plainview's every atom....It's a thrilling performance..."
New York Times - Manohla Dargis (12/26/2007)
"[Dano's] combination of cherubic earnestness and steely composure recalls the young Ed Norton; his fire-and-brimstone sermons are the stuff of fever dreams, rivetingly played."
Sight and Sound - Hannah McGill (02/01/2008)
5 stars out of 5 -- "The breadth of vision is impressive, but the lean, stark filmmaking more so....This is also Anderson's most classical movie..."
Uncut - Tom Charity (03/01/2008)
5 stars out of 5 -- "The last scene is like a gusher, an explosion of high drama after all the low-key tension and unease."
Empire - Helen O'Hara (03/01/2008)
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