There Will Be Blood: Why It’s Paul Thomas Anderson’s Masterpiece

Paul Thomas Anderson is one of Hollywood’s best directors working today. A lot of his works have been acclaimed by critics, from Boogie Nights to Punch-Drunk Love to The Master, but arguably PTA’s finest film is There Will Be Blood, his quintessentially American saga about an oil driller’s rise to power and subsequent fall from grace.

Anchored by Daniel Day-Lewis’ blistering Oscar-winning portrayal of Daniel Plainview, There Will Be Blood is a modern cinematic masterpiece. The director is working on a new movie called Soggy Bottom, but he’ll have a tough time topping There Will Be Blood.

10 It’s A Quintessential Study Of The Corrupting Power Of Wealth

Daniel Plainview’s harrowing arc in this movie is a perfect cinematic study of the corrupting power of wealth. Anderson was heavily inspired by another masterpiece that fits this description, John Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. In There Will Be Blood, black, goopy, slippery oil serves as the perfect visual metaphor for Plainview’s greed.

The film’s prop oil was actually made from the chemical agent that goes into McDonald’s chocolate milkshakes, an interesting behind-the-scenes tie to corporate greed (and the line “I drink your milkshake”).

9 The Intimate Opening Perfectly Sets The Stage For A Large-Scale Epic

Although There Will Be Blood eventually grows into an operatic spectacle with explosive set pieces and characters prone to violent outbursts, its opening sequence is deliberately calm and slow-paced and intimate, with no dialogue or supporting characters. A young Daniel Plainview is mining an ore vein for silver alone and the audience gets a sense of how difficult silver mining is. Then, suddenly, they get an alarming sense of how dangerous it is as he falls and breaks his leg.

With a broken leg, Plainview manages to hoist himself out of the mine and crawls all the way to the nearest assay office. From that point on, the audience is fascinated by this character. They’ll be horrified by his future actions, but they’re hooked on every step of his journey.

8 Daniel Day-Lewis’ Performance Is One Of The Greatest Ever Captured On Film

There’s a big distinction between film acting and stage acting. The way that movies are made means that it’s harder for the actors to embody their roles on-camera than it is on-stage where they can run through the entire story in one go without a single interruption. But occasionally, film acting is done so well that it has as much truth and depth as stage acting, but it’s also enhanced by the magic of cinema.

Daniel Day-Lewis’ Oscar-winning performance as Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood is a definitive portrayal of personal corruption. It ranks alongside Robert De Niro’s performance in Raging Bull and Meryl Streep’s performance in Sophie’s Choice as one of the greatest dramatic performances ever captured on film.

7 The Plot Is Totally Unpredictable

Since There Will Be Blood is essentially a character study, it doesn’t have much of a traditional three-act structure to speak of. Instead, Anderson’s script follows Daniel Plainview’s life and allows him to dictate where the story will go and the result is totally unpredictable.

Anderson’s script sometimes feels kind of episodic, taking detours like the appearance of Daniel’s fake brother, but it works beautifully because it all contributes to Daniel’s character arc. The story takes wild, unexpected turns, like Daniel abandoning his son on a train, to keep the audience on their feet.

6 Jonny Greenwood’s Orchestral Score Is Beautifully Unnerving

Music has always been a crucial component of Paul Thomas Anderson’s filmmaking, from the Goodfellas-esque hodgepodge of licensed pop hits in Boogie Nights to Jon Brion’s cerebral scores for Hard Eight, Magnolia, and Punch-Drunk Love.

But arguably the greatest pairing of imagery and music in the PTA oeuvre is the corruption of Daniel Plainview set against the unsettling orchestral sounds of Jonny Greenwood’s score. It should’ve been a shoo-in for Best Original Score, but it was disqualified from the Oscars for using pre-existing material.

5 The Oil Derrick Fire Is A Spectacular Set Piece

Midway through There Will Be Blood, after Daniel Plainview begins drilling for oil around the Sunday property, one of his derricks catches fire. Anderson and his crew basically just set an oil derrick on fire and then rolled the cameras as the fire was dealt with. The result is one of the most spectacular, cinematic set pieces ever shot.

H.W. is deafened in a blowout and Daniel has to leave him alone and afraid to tend to the fire, giving this explosive metaphor for Daniel’s greed a heartwrenching undercurrent.

4 As Plainview’s Empire Grows, His Humanity Fades

The tragic trade-off at the heart of There Will Be Blood is power in exchange for humanity. At the beginning of the movie, when Plainview is an ambitious young silver miner, he’s truly human.

As his oil business grows into an empire and becomes wealthier and more powerful, that humanity slowly fades away. Anderson’s razor-sharp direction keeps the movie focused on the loss of Plainview’s humanity and it resonates in a haunting way.

3 The Supporting Players Give Incredible Performances

While Daniel Day-Lewis certainly steals the show as the character who anchors this character study, the supporting players around him give incredible performances to back him up.

Paul Dano makes two distinctive characters out of his dual roles as Paul and Eli Sunday, while Ciarán Hinds brings his usual degree of nuance to Fletcher Hamilton. Even Dillon Freasier, the young actor who played Plainview’s son H.W., gives a revelatory turn opposite Day-Lewis.

2 Robert Elswit’s Cinematography Has A Hauntingly Naturalistic Quality

Using mostly natural light, there’s a startling realism in Robert Elswit’s Oscar-winning cinematography. Historical movies have a tendency to keep their audiences at arm’s length because they’re set in a world that’s completely unfamiliar.

But thanks to Elswit’s gorgeous visuals, There Will Be Blood draws viewers in with a tangible reality that puts them in the shoes of the oil drillers at the center of the story.

1 It Explores The Dark Side Of The American Dream

The saga of Daniel Plainview is a scathing indictment of capitalism. The first half of the movie explores the fun upside of the American dream: a man with few scraps of cash and a business idea sets out to make his fortune and finds massive success in the oil-drilling industry.

Then, the second half explores the dark side of the American dream. Enough is never enough. However much money Plainview has, he wants more. And along the way, he alienates everybody he cares about.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
(3459 Articles Published)

Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

More From Ben Sherlock