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The creed is greed in 'There Will Be Blood'
Oil is thicker than blood in this spirited tale that gradually devolves into an object lesson about power.
By Steve Persall, Times film critic
Published January 17, 2008
There Will Be BloodGrade: BDirector: Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Dillon Freasier, Ciaran Hinds, Kevin J. O'Connor, David Willis, Sydney McCallister
Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson, based on the novel Oil! by Upton Sinclair
Rating: R; profanity, violence
Running time: 158 min.
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The first hour of
There Will Be Blood had me believing I was watching the best film of 2007. The second hour retained Paul Thomas Anderson's epic as a Top 10 candidate, before the final 30 minutes - essentially one long, talky scene with possibly the dumbest closing line ever - eclipsed much of its greatness.
How appropriate that a movie about creating the oil industry and all its greed should erupt like a gusher, then settle into a steady flow before running dry.
There is eventually blood but too late for meaning, shoehorned into that disappointing final act by a filmmaker who enjoys flummoxing viewers remember Magnolia? and realized he hadn't done it yet. Anderson masterfully crafts a corroded American Dream - comparisons to Citizen Kane aren't out of line - then ditches it, reaching far beyond his grasp and perhaps that of anyone else.
The Kane in question is Daniel Plainview, an aloof, ferociously bitter oil man monumentally played by Daniel Day-Lewis, a Golden Globe winner for best dramatic actor. He is the only person on screen throughout the first reel, speaking only three words, while Anderson methodically depicts his dangerous obsession with gold mining in 1898. Striking oil on his claim is accidental but immediately profitable.
A few years later, Daniel has a full crew and a makeshift drill that collapses, killing a new father. Daniel takes the orphan under his wing, teaching him the business of coaxing oil-rich land from farmers unaware of what they're sitting on.
Except, that is, for young Eli Sunday (played by Paul Dano, the brooding, mute teen from Little Miss Sunshine), an aspiring evangelist who demands $10,000 extra to build a church. Everyone sells out something in There Will Be Blood, usually their souls.
Daniel and Eli share an uneasy rivalry: a man of God and a godless man. Dano's feverish performance matches Day-Lewis' intensity. The midsection of Anderson's film includes powerful collisions of their obsessions: Daniel agreeing to let Eli bless an oil well that's ruining their town, then reneging, and Eli humiliating Daniel into public repentance.
Those scenes come closest to what I think Anderson is going for, an allegory of moral and monetary corruption suited to modern times. Yet the film always falls short of revelation or, in the case of the finale, jumps the track entirely. The richer Daniel becomes, the more hypocritical Eli is shown to be, the less There Will Be Blood matters.
Technically speaking, Anderson's film is superb, with Robert Elswit's camera lavishing viewers with sprawling landscapes and naturally lit interiors expertly designed by Jack Fisk. Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood creates a score chiefly of sonic intrusions; long-sustained string notes sliding to others, an experimental vibe in a period piece. Somehow it suits Daniel's myopic ruthlessness.
Day-Lewis certainly gets that point across, although his appearance and performance recall his memorable "Bill the Butcher" in Gangs of New York. An actor working only once in a blue moon shouldn't so obviously repeat himself. If he wins the best actor Oscar, as the smart money says, Day-Lewis will be collecting a 5-year-old debt.
Steve Persall can be reached at persall@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8365. Read his blog at blogs.tampabay.com/movies.
[Last modified January 15, 2008, 17:22:49]
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