There Will Be Blood - 2007
I wish I could say that this was anything short of a masterpiece. I wish I could say that it wasn't the best movie of the Aught's, or of our relatively young current century for that matter. The contrarian in me wants to claim that DDL's Daniel Plainview is too over the top or Dano isn't believable enough. That Greenwood's score is too...string-y?? That this is all too overlong and overwrought. But, in this case, the contrarian would be a moron.
Paul Thomas Anderson may not be the best boyfriend in the world (if we can believe the likes of Fiona Apple and her ilk). He may kiddy rage when he loses best screenplay for Boogie(funny story). But don't let his coke-filled tears (does cocaine soak into tears?) fool you. This dude can bring it. And he pulled out all the big guns for There Will Be Blood. For starters, he lets the aforementioned Jonny Greenwood (of Radiohead fame) compose the score. It is like a living, breathing characterin this story. In fact, the film begins with 16 minutes of wordless action amidst haunting strings, and this sets the tone for the entire picture.
There Will Be Blood is not the kind of film where you can say "at its core, this is about.." It's simply too broad and deep for that. I mean, at its core, it's a cat and mouse game between two flawed men. But it's also a story about greed and consumerism, about the trappings of faith and the smokescreen of inauthentic religion. It's a character study about distancing oneself from every other living being and the kind of soul-shriveling that results from such endeavors. It's a story about a man and his boy. Again, about another man and his church. It's a story of hatred and pride, family, competition, and the quest for supremacy at all costs. It's America at the turn of the 20th century and beyond. (Psst...it looks an awful lot like America 100 years later too!)
See it ten times, and you'll find ten different threads to follow. Spend an entire watch just looking at the vistas and cinematography, the derricks and production design. Check out the landscape juxtaposed with all the close ups. Try to spend an entire viewing experiencing this through HW's eyes, and witness the pain of dissolution. Yet again, watch for all the incredible moments of dialogue. Hear the echoes in the two mens' quests. They are both selling something. Are you buying it?
Come for all of the trappings - PTA, Greenwood, the shots, the costumes and countryside - but stay for the characters. These are three of the most intricately drawn in recent memory. Dano's preacher is both harrowing and somehow humble. Full of his own distinct pride, yet cowering at the feet of the more alpha Plainview. HW is a terrific narrative device, representing first Plainview's connection to filial love and genuine affection and finally his rejection of it entirely. Finally, we have the man himself. DDL. He is, quite simply, one of the most monstrous villains in screen history - the quintessence of money and power and influence corrupting a man. The personification of greed. And in Daniel Day Lewis' able hands, Plainview slowly wilts into a shell of himself, losing what remains as he loses the humans around him, until a thrilling denouement which cannot be forgotten.
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