Scan and Pan
Sunday, January 06, 2008
There Will Be Blood
Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) is an oilman who travels around early twentieth century California with his son H.W. (Dillon Freasier), always looking for the next opportunity to increase his fortune. When he learns about the possibility of a major oil field located beneath the remote town of Little Boston, he begins purchasing as much of the town's land as he can, with the dream of finding that oil and building a pipeline to the Pacific Ocean. His presence brings him into conflict with a young faith healer and preacher named Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), and the two vie for dominance over the other.
This extremely loose adaptation of Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel, Oil! by writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia) is a searing epic that effortlessly spans three decades. Instead of relying on a cast of thousands, Anderson chooses to tell this story as an intimate character study, a choice that proves to be richly rewarding as it unfolds into an uncompromisingly bleak tale of greed, misanthropy, and obsession with competition and wealth acquisition to the point of insanity. His well-honed satirical darts hit the mark every time, while the themes of an oil-hungry society and religious fervor resonate as a powerful allegory. A keenly black sense of humor makes itself known in the second half of the film, adding yet another dimension to the story.
Anderson's craftsmanship as a director is superb, and there's not even as much as a frame out of place. He boldly allows numerous scenes to play out without dialog, allowing images and ambient sounds to move the story along. It's almost like a silent film in that technique, but it only makes the actual dialog, as sparse at it may be, that much more powerful. Anderson has always been a good director. There Will Be Blood surpasses all of his previous works. This, my friends, is how you make a film.
Cinematographer Robert Elswit (Syriana, Michael Clayton) finds beauty in stark, naturalistic lighting, making the harsh landscape a character in its own right. Production designer Jack Fisk (Mulholland Drive, The New World) and costume designer Mark Bridges (8 Mile, The Italian Job) vividly resurrect four different periods of time for the film, achieving the effect of being lived in instead of created. Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood contributes a richly textured score that perfectly complements the visuals and conveys the underlying themes of the story in scenes that lack dialog.
Day-Lewis adds yet another great performance to his résumé as Daniel Plainview. If he doesn't win the Best Actor Oscar, something is rotten in Hollywood. His charismatic turn as the oilman seduces you into giving him your full attention at all times. He's subtle at one moment and grandiose in the next. It's like watching his body be possessed by the spirits of John Huston and Orson Welles.
Dano brings a terrifying fervor to his role as a faith healer with a growing number of followers, although Plainview sees right through him from the start. First-time actor Freasier is more than convincing as Plainview's son, a shrewd boy raised at his father's knee in the California oil fields.
The strong cast includes Kevin J. O'Connor as a man who claims to be Plainview's half-brother, Ciarán Hinds as Plainview's right hand man, David Willis as the patriarch of the Sunday family, David Warshofsky as an oil company representative, and Hans Howes as a landowner whose initial refusal to sell his land is eventually an obstacle in Plainview's plan to construct the pipeline.
There Will Be Blood is a stunning masterpiece, a label that should never be tossed around carelessly, but one that it fully deserves. Some critics are comparing it to Citizen Kane. At the very least, it may just be the best film to be released in 2007. Yes, it's that good. People actually stood up and applauded as the end credits rolled.
[5 out of 5 stars]
If you thought American filmmakers had nothing left to say, then this is a film that will renew your faith that there are still inspired American directors with quite a lot to say and who can say it brilliantly.
Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) is an oilman who travels around early twentieth century California with his son H.W. (Dillon Freasier), always looking for the next opportunity to increase his fortune. When he learns about the possibility of a major oil field located beneath the remote town of Little Boston, he begins purchasing as much of the town's land as he can, with the dream of finding that oil and building a pipeline to the Pacific Ocean. His presence brings him into conflict with a young faith healer and preacher named Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), and the two vie for dominance over the other.
This extremely loose adaptation of Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel, Oil! by writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia) is a searing epic that effortlessly spans three decades. Instead of relying on a cast of thousands, Anderson chooses to tell this story as an intimate character study, a choice that proves to be richly rewarding as it unfolds into an uncompromisingly bleak tale of greed, misanthropy, and obsession with competition and wealth acquisition to the point of insanity. His well-honed satirical darts hit the mark every time, while the themes of an oil-hungry society and religious fervor resonate as a powerful allegory. A keenly black sense of humor makes itself known in the second half of the film, adding yet another dimension to the story.
Anderson's craftsmanship as a director is superb, and there's not even as much as a frame out of place. He boldly allows numerous scenes to play out without dialog, allowing images and ambient sounds to move the story along. It's almost like a silent film in that technique, but it only makes the actual dialog, as sparse at it may be, that much more powerful. Anderson has always been a good director. There Will Be Blood surpasses all of his previous works. This, my friends, is how you make a film.
Cinematographer Robert Elswit (Syriana, Michael Clayton) finds beauty in stark, naturalistic lighting, making the harsh landscape a character in its own right. Production designer Jack Fisk (Mulholland Drive, The New World) and costume designer Mark Bridges (8 Mile, The Italian Job) vividly resurrect four different periods of time for the film, achieving the effect of being lived in instead of created. Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood contributes a richly textured score that perfectly complements the visuals and conveys the underlying themes of the story in scenes that lack dialog.
Day-Lewis adds yet another great performance to his résumé as Daniel Plainview. If he doesn't win the Best Actor Oscar, something is rotten in Hollywood. His charismatic turn as the oilman seduces you into giving him your full attention at all times. He's subtle at one moment and grandiose in the next. It's like watching his body be possessed by the spirits of John Huston and Orson Welles.
Dano brings a terrifying fervor to his role as a faith healer with a growing number of followers, although Plainview sees right through him from the start. First-time actor Freasier is more than convincing as Plainview's son, a shrewd boy raised at his father's knee in the California oil fields.
The strong cast includes Kevin J. O'Connor as a man who claims to be Plainview's half-brother, Ciarán Hinds as Plainview's right hand man, David Willis as the patriarch of the Sunday family, David Warshofsky as an oil company representative, and Hans Howes as a landowner whose initial refusal to sell his land is eventually an obstacle in Plainview's plan to construct the pipeline.
There Will Be Blood is a stunning masterpiece, a label that should never be tossed around carelessly, but one that it fully deserves. Some critics are comparing it to Citizen Kane. At the very least, it may just be the best film to be released in 2007. Yes, it's that good. People actually stood up and applauded as the end credits rolled.
[5 out of 5 stars]
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