It seems too soon to use the phrase again after No Country For Old Men, but this is another American masterpiece that rates five stars and will have people talking for years to come. 'There Will Be Blood,' as Anderson has pointed out, only sorta adapts the first 150 pages of 'Oil' (a book thats 528 pages long) before heading in a very different direction. Testament to his skill, the first 20 minutes are done without dialogue, just a rumbling soundtrack from Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood – it’s a superb and riveting sequence.Īs a title, There Will Be Blood elicits dread and tension and the film delivers on this promise before serving up a knockout finale. While Day Lewis dominates as Plainview, he has an excellent sparring partner in Paul Dano as the not-so-good Reverend.Īs good as Magnolia and Boogie Nights were, PT Anderson has outdone himself with this movie. He has genuine moments of reason and humanity, but we always feel that the mad darkness in him is as deep and limitless as the oil beneath his feet. There Will Be Blood is Andersons loose adaptation of the novel Oil by Upton Sinclair, and it focuses its attentions on Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis). And Daniel will use anything – even his adoptive son – to build his oil empire.ĭaniel’s opposite number is an ambitious young preacher named Eli Sunday who wants to control Daniel with his blessings.ĭaniel Day-Lewis delivers an Oscar-worthy performance that’s genius in its nuance. Paul Thomas Anderson’s strange masterpiece, freely adapted by him from Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel Oil, is a tragic parable of man’s dependence on this commodity: formerly the lubricant of. When he strikes oil by accident, he’s in the right place at the right time – it’s the start of the 20th century, the age of the automobile, and he’s in the American West. Even better, this modernised Cain and Abel story has been made by writer-director PT Anderson with all the cinematic grandeur of Citizen Kane, the benchmark movie about American megalomania.ĭaniel Plainview is a hard-scrabble silver prospector working a small claim. 'There Will Be Blood' December 26, 20075:43 PM ET Bob Mondello Twitter Daniel Day-Lewis plays Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood, a film based on Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel Oil. Oil and religion? Profiteers and prophets? It’s no wonder that There Will Be Blood feels relevant to modern America, while also having the terrible resonance of a Biblical parable. There Will Be Blood is a 2007 American epic period drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, loosely based on the 1927 novel Oil by Upton.
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