Rating: R | Runtime: 158 minutes
Release Date: December 26th, 2007 (USA)
Studio: Paramount Vantage
Director(s): Paul Thomas Anderson
Writer(s): Paul Thomas Anderson / Upton Sinclair (novel Oil!)

I will bury you underground

There Will Be Blood is a staggering work of genius. Paul Thomas Anderson has, if he hadn’t already, cemented himself as the director of the present and future. While his previous work compared to the great Robert Altman, this entry is by all accounts his Kubrick picture. At every turn I could think of nothing else but comparisons to Stanley Kubrick’s body of work. The cold, detached artistry of it. The gorgeous visuals bolstered by powerhouse performances. The patience with which to allow a story of this kind to ferment and reveal itself.

Here comes the shocker: I think it’s his worst film when considering my emotional connection to it. I’ll add that his worst is still better than 99% of the films made in a year, but a disappointment is still a disappointment. What really pains me, however, is that it is a flawless piece of art. At every moment I can only think of perfection and yet a void remains. It’s an issue of there being brilliant parts whose sum just doesn’t add up for me. If anything, There Will Be Blood may make me change the way I look at cinema.

No other film this year will stick with me longer after viewing it and that should be enough to earn it movie of the year. But despite hitting on so many cylinders, it unfortunately left me in confusion by the end. Much like Kubrick’s “masterpiece” Barry Lyndon (which I thought of more than once sitting in the theater today), this is a piece of work that will be studied and dissected and copied for years to come. It’s technically perfect and yet it left me cold. I just can’t wrap my head around that dynamic.

Here is where I wake up and recognize just how personally films can touch a person. There Will Be Blood should take home many awards and will deserve every one of them. I would even venture to say it would have my vote in all those categories too … all except Best Picture. Will it have earned that victory should it occur, though? Yes. I just wouldn’t be able to vote for it myself.

Nevertheless, Anderson has my undivided appreciation. It’s visually stunning without a single bad moment. Even with the audience around me laughing at inappropriate moments (instances with comedic elements that a character in the scene also saw, but that shouldn’t have conjured laughter), there were no faults. Reaching people in that way to make them so uneasy that they must release the tension with a laugh only strengthens arguments about its greatness. It makes me angry that I can’t just say, “Screw it. It is the best film I’ve ever seen.”

At its core is a tale of one man’s complete and utter descent into hell. What once was a man of integrity and hard work becomes someone filled with greed and hubris who flies too high without feeling the slow burn of his wings. Daniel Day-Lewis deserves every accolade thrown his way. His ability to embody these intense characters is astounding. Taking four years off between films is not only a small price to pay for his genius, it is necessary for audiences to recover from his brilliance if not for him to retrieve the energy he’s left on the celluloid.

The devil is most definitely inside of his Daniel Planview. He’s unable to trust or love those closest to him and sees the loneliness and solitude awaiting him. Beginning on his own by necessity in 1898 (so much so that his falling down a well and breaking his leg leaves him without help around for miles), he will eventually find himself a victim to that same detachment in 1927 despite being surrounded by wealth and employees. It takes a little while to notice that the family behind his “family business” now consists of one member.

The supporting roles are superbly fleshed out too. From Ciarán Hinds seeing what was happening in the desert wasteland to Kevin J. O’Connor as his unknown brother to Dillon Freasier as his son and partner H.W., each is a piece of this puzzle that builds to its inevitable conclusion—one bringing to mind another Kubrick classic in The Shining. Only one person truly succeeds at attempting to match Day-Lewis’s dedication to the work, though. Paul Dano.

Cast during production after letting go of another actor who had already begun filming as Eli Sunday, Dano is scary sight as prophet for the Church of the Third Revelation. His sermons are powerful and difficult to watch. Whenever he and Day-Lewis share the screen, you can’t imagine what might happen next. The spite and hatred brewing beneath both exteriors is palpable and ready to spill over at any moment. Words cannot describe the effectiveness of their relationship as both are very similar in opposite ways. They each taste evil and relish in its deserts.

Despite an almost three-hours runtime, the pace is breakneck. Even more remarkable is the fact that much of the film is told in silence save for Jonny Greenwood’s haunting and disjointed score (reminiscent to an episode of “Lost”), with only actions and scenery progressing the plot. The first twenty or so minutes are completely wordless and yet still create a robust background for Daniel Plainview to come into focus.

I can’t comprehend the genius that is Paul Thomas Anderson. Sure he owes plenty to the masters who came before, but you can’t doubt his skill and artistry. He has my full respect and I will surely rewatch this film multiple times to bask in the perfection at work. I therefore give him the full benefit of the doubt. I’m the one who’s broken. Nothing this glorious can be less than the best. So, while I can’t see it now, I might one day discover where it was I went wrong.

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Daniel Day-Lewis as “Daniel Plainview” and Dillon Freasier as “H.W.” star in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood”. Copyright: © 2007 by PARAMOUNT VANTAGE, a Division of PARAMOUNT PICTURES and MIRAMAX FILM CORP. All Rights Reserved. Photo by Francois Duhamel.