Calling this a canonical masterpiece is almost redundant, yet revisiting Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood (2007) still feels shockingly alive, starting with Daniel Day-Lewis, whose Daniel Plainview might be the defining screen portrait of American ambition curdled into misanthropy. From the wordless, pickaxe-and-broken-bones prologue to the baptism humiliation and the “I drink your milkshake” finale, Day-Lewis maps a soul corroded by competition until there is nothing left but the will to dominate.
PTA sheds the Altman-sized sprawl of Magnolia for a flinty modern Western adapted from Upton Sinclair’s Oil!, then builds it with the precision of a surveyor. Robert Elswit’s images give the California deserts the gravity of a creation myth; Jack Fisk’s production design turns derricks and rigs into medieval siege engines; Jonny Greenwood’s queasy, propulsive score replaces needle drops with pure dread. The camera keeps gliding, measuring the distance between faith and capital as Little Boston transforms from scrub to boomtown under Plainview’s drill bit.
Opposite Day-Lewis, Paul Dano makes Eli Sunday more than a foil. He is showman and opportunist, desperate to sanctify the cash flow. Their feud is not simply oil vs. church, it is two versions of power jostling for the same flock. The film’s most wrenching passages belong to H.W., the son who becomes collateral in his father’s war with the world, and the boy’s deafness after the derrick explosion turns prosperity into curse. Anderson’s writing never begs for sympathy; it trusts the images and Greenwood’s strings to do the bruising.
There Will Be Blood is also a miracle of blocking and rhythm. Anderson stages negotiations like gunfights, family scenes like hostile takeovers, sermons like campaign rallies. Every choice clarifies Plainview’s worldview, from the way he tests every handshake for leverage to the moment he banishes the “brother” who threatens his myth. By the time the film leaps forward to the bowling-alley apocalypse, the marble floors and echoing chambers feel earned, a mausoleum built for a king who cannot be loved.
READ MORE MOVIE REVIEWS: The Darjeeling Limited, Zodiac, The Assassination of Jesse James
If Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, and Punch-Drunk Love were the apprenticeship, this is where Paul Thomas Anderson becomes a capital G great filmmaker, marrying maximal craft to a brutally deft idea. Some call it a parable about capitalism and American religion; others see the loneliest character study of the century. Both readings fit. What lingers is the feeling of watching a nation’s origin story distilled into one man’s refusal to need anyone. Perfect cinema.
Score: 10/10
There Will Be Blood (2007)
- Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Kevin J. O’Connor, Ciarán Hinds, Dillon Freasier
- Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
- Genre: Drama, Western
- Runtime: 158 minutes
- Rated: R
- Release Date: December 26, 2007
- Movies Like There Will Be Blood: No Country for Old Men, The Brutalist, Dune: Part Two, More Movies Like There Will Be Blood
Where to Watch There Will Be Blood (2007)
See all options for There Will Be Blood (2007)
