Rating: 4.5 Pulses
Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Rated R
With so many outstanding westerns in theaters the past year, There Will Be Blood stands proudly apart from its contemporaries, though it’s in good company with the likes of 3:10 to Yuma and No Country for Old Men.
Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson’s interpretation of the Upton Sinclair novel “Oil!” is far more ambitious, evoking the feel of classic cinema while staying loyal to its literary elements, if not the story itself.
The visionary director never wavers in his attempt to capture the gritty reality of the world of oilman Daniel Plainview, played by Day-Lewis with a stoic resolve. He delivers one of the finest performances of his career as the stern and unyielding businessman who lands in the small oil-soaked town of Little Boston, Calif., with his young son, determined to buy up most of the land with the hopes of securing a comfortable future for the two of them.
The people are united by the son of a goat farmer (Dano), a zealous preacher whose drama in the pulpit overshadows his position in the community, at least with Plainview, who doesn’t hide his distaste for the man. The two develop a sparring alliance, creating a yin and yang that negates the simplicity of good and evil and delves deep into the psyche of man.
The story spans nearly thirty years, though only occasionally it feels that way. Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood’s mellow score is ghostly and beautiful and it is through his explicative music that we witness the oilman’s decent into madness, but at times it slows the pace of an otherwise fluid film.
PTA’s longtime collaborator Robert Elswith contributes his unique visual style as director of photography, creating incredible shots of the vast and dusty terrain that fill the screen with gold and grime that remain unpolished, capturing the rough essence of the American West that’s been unseen in film since the epic wonders of John Huston and John Ford.
