Thick as Blood, Slick as Oil: a Review of P.T. Anderson’s There Will Be Blood

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NOTICE: Highlight Hidden Text to Reveal Spoilers

Summary: Don’t read if you don’t want to know anything about the story. I’ve concealed the things I feel would ruin your enjoyment of the movie.

The first scene of Academy Award-nominated There Will Be Blood speaks volumes about what’s to come in the remaining 2 hours and 15 minutes without ever saying a word. Immediately, we’re thrust into a deep pit with Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), who, in solitude and silence, meticulously chips away at the earth until he dislodges his prize and gives it a dingy spit-shine. The tunnel dug by Plainview turns on him in those opening minutes, leaving the soon-to-be oil tycoon to die painfully and alone or drag his broken body out of the black dirt, across the desert, and into town, where cash awaits the redemption of his rock. Plainview chooses the latter.

By the time we cut to the next scene, oil has invaded Plainview and he’s dug himself another pit, the first of many to cover him and the surrounding land in black gold. It’s here, the site of Plainview’s first taste of oil and his first vision for effective drilling that death and fortune meet him eye-to-eye for the first time. And it’s here where he finds the only light in this dark film — an infant orphaned at the oil well and adopted by Plainview, who names the boy H.W.

Daniel Day-Lewis as Oil Tycoon Daniel Plainview

A decade later, with H.W. by his side, Plainview has become quite a successful oilman, traveling CA, preaching wealth and prosperity to desolate towns. By the time Day-Lewis speaks his inaugural words, “Ladies and gentlemen, I am an oilman. I am also a family man,” with confident, doublespeak charm, we’re certain he’s a snake. But we’re not yet convinced he’s evil enough to warrant the movie’s title.

We get our first look at the real man beneath Plainview’s tenacity and dust-covered suits in an ominous meeting between him and Paul Sunday (Paul Dano), who gives Plainview a tip about a ranch where oil seeps to the surface. This ranch happens to be the Sunday Ranch in Little Boston, CA, where Paul’s family — including his preacher-prophet-healer twin brother, Eli (also played by Paul Dano)* — live on goatsmilk and potatoes because they don’t have enough water to grow grain and what water they do have tastes like salt. Posing as a quail hunter with H.W., Plainview scouts the land, confirms the oil, and strikes a deal with the father and Eli, who, in the first of many attempts to establish himself and subvert Plainview to religion, convinces him to add a cash bonus for The Church of the 3rd Revelation to the negotiation table.

H.W. (Dillion Freasier) and Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) Scouting the Sunday Ranch

Father Sunday’s an easy buy, as are most of the other members of Little Boston, and soon a derrick casts shadows over the Sunday home while the land murmurs with the hum of machinery and the gurgle of oil. But, of course, things don’t go smoothly for Plainview; otherwise we couldn’t have a movie, much less one named, There Will Be Blood. Eli and H.W. reside at the center of that trouble, until it, like Plainview’s gushing Sunday well, escalates to the point of no return.

The Sunday Ranch

Analysis/Review:

On the surface, Blood doesn’t do or say much. The dialogue is sparse, often times jutting and awkward. Anderson gives us long scenes, where the actors do little and sound is reserved for the scuffle of chairs on the floor, the tearing of gristle between molars, the deep breaths of men in panic, fear, and unconventional ecstasy. But there’s more to this flick than meets the eye. Surely, you suspect a message about America’s love-affair with wealth, oil, and the entrepreneurial spirit. And you’ll find it in Blood. But, despite the propaganda of Oil!, the novel from which Anderson pulls a sketchy frame for his movie, Blood isn’t as much about “social” issues as it is “human” issues. Yes it’s about greed, but through the filter of mankind. (I can use that word here without PC worries because females are noticeably, and purposefully, absent from the movie, and the story takes place in a man’s world in a time when men ruled industry and home.)

It’s about what ambition will lead man to do. It’s about brotherhood. It’s about fathers and sons and the gritty truth beneath deceit. It’s about spiritualism, idols, and life-changing gospels. But it’s not about good versus evil. There’s redemption to be had somewhere, but Blood isn‘t a redemption story. It’s almost exclusively about natural evil and the violence that simmers in every man, waiting to burst forth from the flesh like oil from the ground.

And make no mistake. One way or another, the violence will get out.

Paul Dano as Eli Sunday

But that’s not to say Anderson’s most recognized film to date greets audiences with a bloody handshake and a cold heart. True, I spent most of the movie with my face half scrunched, letting out awkward laughs, and flinching at anticipated violence. But there’s a strange beauty to the violence (both mad-made and born of the earth) and, even stranger, something within Daniel Plainview — whom reviewers tout a primeval shadow of a man, so deeply marred by evil that he is either not fully evolved or not fully human — that’s oddly touching and frighteningly familiar.

He’s what you and I could become if we ever (intentionally or, worse, unintentionally) gave the side of us that we’d rather not recognize too much to hold on to. But there’s just enough of that side of you and me that we are proud to acknowledge still lingering within Plainview to make sure we recognize him as one of our own.

Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview

The first time baby H.W. reaches up to play with his new father’s mustache, Plainview seems briefly moved by the baby’s innocence. And we’re moved with him, even though there’s something sinister about the scene that causes us smart viewers to suspect H.W.’s innocence is about to be exploited for Plainview’s gain. Of course, as the movie progresses with our protagonist storming steadily down his path that we know must eventually end in blood (unless the title’s just a ruse), we congratulate ourselves for seeing through him back in the “early days.” But, in my book, that fleeting, touching moment between father and son is just as telling as the foreshadowing train, in which they’re sitting when it occurs, racing down the irreversible track. You see, even Plainview’s confession that he hates humanity and his scattered bursts of violence can’t quite smother his humanity.

And that’s key.

In the film’s final minutes, even as we’re disturbed or humored, whatever the case may be, by the ultimate revelation of Day-Lewis’ character, we can’t forget the Daniel Plainview we saw curled against his son’s body after the explosion. The gentleness of his hand wiping the black from H.W.’s face, the urgency in his voice. The quiet sadness in his eyes as he sends H.W. off to deaf school and the twinge of regret hidden in his performance of repentance. (I think we would’ve remembered even if Anderson hadn‘t flashed up an extra sentimental scene for us. Actually, I’d have preferred if he’d trusted us enough to let the former scenes speak to the final ones on their own.)

H.W. & Plainview

That’s due, in big part, to Daniel Day-Lewis’ acting. The other actors provide good performances, but it wouldn’t be unfair to call this a one-man Day-Lewis show. By the time the credits roll, he’s fully earned a standing ovation, even though most audience members are too exhausted to give it. It’s no accident they’re feeling so “drained” either. Drainage is an important theme throughout the movie — draining from the earth, fellow man, the heart, and the spirit — blood for oil, oil for blood, one in the same. That drained feeling comes not just from the script’s symbolism, but also from the infrequent dialogue, the slow movement of the camera and the story, and maybe most effectively, from the score.

Composed by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, Blood’s score echos that dichotomy and merging of beauty and violence. With soaring strings and an unusual orchestration of sounds that resemble drills and trains, the music is a character in the film, and more importantly, a constant symbol of the simmering violence driving the characters, as well as an omen of what’s to come. Greenwood had me jumping in my seat more than once when nothing shocking was happening at all.

But I do have to mention that this movie’s not for everyone. You won’t feel good when you leave the theater. The violence, though not as bloody as you might suspect, will probably make you shudder. Anderson’s direction seems forced in places, with scenes that try too hard and moments that doubt the audience’s intelligence. There are some holes in the story. And I felt a slight pretentiousness to the whole ordeal. But there’s redemption to be had in that pretentiousness via the acting, the music, and a script that’s a carefully woven tale; even where it falters, Blood is a powerful collection of parallels and imagery. For example, “twins,” both literal and figurative, human and elemental, show up throughout the story. And the movie’s culmination presents us with the most-apparent set of human ones embodying the most-apparent set of elemental ones — Plainview and Eli, embodying greed (oil) and religion (blood), both at their appropriate (but horribly inappropriate) “biblical” endings. Brothers, both washed in the Blood. (End of Spoiler)

At times There Will Be Blood feels like it would read better as a novel, chocked-full of symbolism. It’s Flannery O’Connor religion (without the agent of redemption) with a handful of Faulkner family values, a sprinkle of Hemingway sparseness, and a dash of Steinbeck desolation. But, it still works as a movie, even an imperfect and at times, arrogant, one. One that’s sure to affect you in one way or another. Like it or hate it, There Will Be Blood will work its way past the flesh and into the bloodstream, whether you want it to or not.

******

* There’s some debate about whether Eli Sunday and Paul Sunday are twins or the same person. Based on what I’ve read, I’m guessing they’re two people. Dano has spoken about “playing twins” and the original script had Paul Sunday telling Plainview that he’s going to take the money and leave the family. The confusion comes in when Plainview tells Eli about Paul’s success, which sounds exactly like the success on the Sunday ranch. Either option works with the twin imagery — greed and religion, oil and blood, beauty and violence — seen within and between the characters. Perhaps Paul and Eli are the same, which would work with the idea that all of those “twin” images end up being the same or at least bringing about the same results. (End of spoiler)

PS — I couldn’t help but think about the wonder of oil. How does it just exist? How did someone dig deep enough, find it, and figure, “Hey! We could burn this stuff and create energy!” (There’s another blood and oil similarity. Both are natural and mysterious and kind of used for energy. You might be able to tie that into evil too, as it has much to do with both blood in oil in the movie.) Also, were derricks created to help contain potential fires?

PSS — This storyline held extra interest for me because I used to work for the daughter of one of Texas’ greatest oil tycoons, who was ruthless and violent. At one time, he was the wealthiest man in the world.

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