Movie Review: "There Will Be Blood" (2007)

This a very long overdue review. I had only recently acquired the DVD for Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood, the movie that earned Daniel-Day Lewis his 2007 Oscar.

There Will be Blood is based on an Upton Sinclair novel entitled Oil! And is a story about Daniel Plainview (Day Lewis), an oil prospector and his descent to greed and isolation. The movie has an all throughout dark and grim atmosphere that is not very unusual to a PT Anderson movie (Punch Drunk Love, Magnolia, Boogie Nights), however this one almost has a sense of Biblical ancientness. It takes place in a desert village called New Boston where Plainview leases the land for drilling. It almost feels like the Israelites wandering in the desert after fleeing Egypt. The themes of God and miracles are very sparsely tackled in the film, but are central to the film’s plot. The finale will be remembered in film history and will be a pop culture reference for many years to come.



Rocketboy’s Rating:(*****) 5 out of 5 stars
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