There will be Blood says it all

"There Will Be Blood" is a movie of both patient art, as well as a worthy successor to Humphrey Bogart's "Treasure of Sierra Madre." Both actors, Bogart and Day Lewis, achieve what one critic called "not art, but something beyond pedestrian." Both men, in different generations, have become so filled with their characters that they become something else entirely: "a legend beyond belief."

This movie works because Day-Lewis makes it work. His Oscar win is not only justified, but he should be given a future one for his unbelievable ability to literally become Daniel Plainview. As one critic said, "There is Daniel Day-Lewis, and then there is everyone else." I wholeheartedly agree. No actor living today is as good as Day-Lewis. However, to talk just about the acting would not do the movie justice. So, I will describe the subtle things that make this movie work. First, there is the Biblical ideas/names/themes throughout the movie that make it brilliant (Eli vs. Daniel, Oil vs. Church, Money vs. Religion. Isolation vs. Family). Second, there is almost a constant inverting (twisting in and out or complete reversing) of things that makes this movie absolutely stunning—art that is worthy of our time.

For example, when Day Lewis hauntingly says "I drink your milkshake," he is not merely boasting of his overtaking of Eli and his property, but his drinking of the very man himself, just as Day Lewis is doing through his astonishing acting ability. Day-Lewis has literally become Daniel Plainview, oil tycoon. His killing of Eli is not merely murder, but a complete stomping out of Eli and the folks/city/religion that he has had to compete with throughout the movie, making his statement all the more brilliant and terrifying. The abrupt ending is very much one of Biblical proportions, as we have one living man sitting next to a corpse. Plainview says to his butler, "Well, it's finished." This, of course, is a complete inversion to Genesis, when God is pleased with what he has created. Plainview has murdered, hated, stole and created the business of oil, and he is now finished with the very thing he created, knowing full well that "There will be blood."

While I believe that "No Country for Old Men" is the better movie, in a technical sense, this one stayed with me a lot longer. It is not nearly as violent, and has an epic feel about it. Numerous times in "No Country for Old Men" I would wonder why a man would go around killing people. However, in this movie, there is purpose: Money and the depths one man will go to have as much of it as he can possibly have. Words cannot do justice to the power that is felt and seen in this movie.


Student Critic