There Will Be Blood

October 12, 202183/1002003 min
Year
2007
Director
Paul Thomas Anderson
Age
18+
Country
United States
Runtime
158.0
Overall Score
Rating Overview
Imdb
82%
Rotten tomatoes
84%
vod-news
83%
Rating Summary
PT Anderson's name already means something, or I should say something else. His self assuredness alone gives me shivers. A modern artist with such clear and severe vision of the world. Boogie Nights, Magnolia, even Punch Drunk Love have an Wellesian disregard for what's in or out. His films are landmarks that may infuriate some, confuse others and mesmerize the rest of us. Here, with the rigorous tale of an impervious oil man, PT Anderson outdoes himself. He has Daniel Day Lewis as his accomplice in a performance that would be as difficult to match as it is difficult to describe. There is a monstrous beauty here that not even a broken nose can disguise. The saga is filled with long silent moments of tension that take place in a cinematic canvas and an actor's head. PT Anderson must have known that this was going to be, not only not a mainstream opus but a hard pill to swallow. I for one stand up to applaud his daringness.

The story opens in 1898 in the New Mexico wilderness. A man named Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) works his silver mine. After blasting out the small mine with dynamite, Plainview falls and breaks his leg. After finding the silver ore, he drags himself out of the mine and into town to sell it. He hires a crew, including a man caring for an infant son. When the silver lode plays out, Plainview discovers oil in the mine. He designs and builds a pump and recreates himself as an oil man. The young father dies in a drilling accident, Planview adopts the young boy as his own and names him H.W. Nine years later, Plainview is a successful if still somewhat minor oil man. He has several productive wells around New Mexico and, with H.W. (Dillon Freasier), travels the state to buy the drilling rights to private property.

Karl

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