There Will Be Blood
2007 · Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Original language: English
- drama
The story
Ruthless silver miner, turned oil prospector, Daniel Plainview, moves to oil-rich California. Using his son to project a trustworthy, family-man image, Plainview cons local landowners into selling him their valuable properties for a pittance. However, local preacher Eli Sunday suspects Plainview's motives and intentions, starting a slow-burning feud that threatens both their lives.
What it’s like
Wide, sun-bleached landscapes and blown-out golden light give way to candlelit interiors and the sooty black of oil derricks, all shot in a grainy, widescreen 35mm palette that feels both epic and claustrophobic. Long, mostly static frames let faces and silences do the work, while a dissonant, droning score built on strings and pulsing low notes swells beneath the wind and the hiss of gas and machinery. The vibe is brooding, feverish and bleakly grand, a slow burn that builds dread through stillness rather than action. Its pacing is deliberate, with long stretches of quiet punctuated by sudden eruptions of rage. The emotional register is cold and corrosive: a fiercely self-centred man and a sanctimonious rival grow locked in a poisonous bond, and the father-son relationship curdles in quiet, painful ways. Violence is sudden, brief and brutal, including a bloody, startling act late on, and there is intense cruelty and verbal menace throughout, but no gore for its own sake. This suits a late, lonely night for viewers who want heavy, unsettling drama about greed, ambition and the American dream turning monstrous.
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