Considering the way the American people are responding lately to the Oil Barons here and abroad, it comes as no surprise that a film showing the early days of the oil business did boffo box office. After all, aren’t most of us certain that the oil companies are run by vicious, sadistic, greedy, egomaniacal S.O.B.’s? Aren’t we all joined in the opinion that they will lie, cheat and steal in order to increase their profits whether by raising prices or being granted illegal tax breaks? I mean, who can forget the 1970’s where our own government went to bed with the oil companies and concocted a phony oil shortage? You know, the one where they were forced to raise prices with the promise that the price might go down after it was over. Then, when the oil shortage was miraculously over… the prices stayed high. Ahh… yes… I remember it well. But I digress… I’m not here to day to talk about today’s greedy oil barons; I’m here to discuss with you a little film that came out last year that depicted the early days of oil discovery and production.

“There Will Be Blood”, which starred Daniel Day-Lewis as oilman Daniel Plainview, became a media darling of rave reviews and numerous award nominations and wins. Though I’m a huge fan of Daniel Day-Lewis and love pretty much any film he touches (except for perhaps “The Unbearable Lightness of Boredom”), I truly had to wonder what all the hoopla was about. First off, I had yet to be impressed by any of director Paul Thomas Anderson’s earlier efforts. I thought that “Boogie Nights”, “Magnolia” and “Punch Drunk Love” were all noble attempts at great filmmaking, but none of them really hit the mark as far as I’m concerned (and I understand I am in the minority).

Still, when the DVD came available for review I thought I’d give the guy a chance, after all the combination of Day-Lewis and a period piece had to have something going for it. I purposely went in knowing nothing of the film’s actual plot and avoided reviews and stories about it so I could go in completely cold and as objective as possible. Here I will mention for you that the story is based on an Upton Sinclair novel and as it weaves the tale of Daniel Plainview’s rise to riches, Anderson does create an utter sense of reality with his choice of color palette and incredibly realized sets, props and costumes. The early part of the film, where we focus more on the realities and dangers of the oil business as it begins with very crude methods that eventually give way to those more modern (for the period).

These moments of the film are almost documentary in style and extremely interesting as it brings to life the things we see on the history channel in old photographs and newsreels. The attention to detail is nothing short of amazing and again I have to give Anderson props. Once the story really gets going and Plainview’s business begins to grow, we start to see the cracks in the layers of his sanity. His obsessions grow with each success and by the time we see him pitted against a preacher over a plot of land he has become full blown looney tunes. And make no mistake; Daniel Day-Lewis utilizes every ounce of acting talent he has to create this multi-dimensional (as well as mutli-personality) character. Every little tic hits with as much resonance as his blustery outbursts. There are those who felt the film deserved to win Best Picture, and I am not amongst those, but Day-Lewis absolutely earned his win.

Where the film is weakened is in its need to tell too many stories. At times it feels like there is too much going on and the focus meanders. But as this is a pretty long film, these diversions aren’t terrible. My biggest issue was with the film’s music. Composed by Jonny Greenwood, it is often jarring to the point of distraction. I’ll grant you, there are times that a film’s music can be used as if it were its own character, but really great film scores get lost in the film, maintaining the emotional flow of a film without drawing attention to itself. This score is pretty much in your face and the film suffers for it, tremendously. If you have the ability to, try to bring up the volume on the dialogue and lose as much of the score as you can, it really makes for a better watch.

Paramount is releasing “There Will Be Blood” in two versions, a single disc which offers nothing in the form of special features and a 2-disc edition with a few. The special features in this edition are sparse at best, though one or two are certainly worth the price of the set. You won’t find any commentary at all, which I have mixed feelings about. Most commentaries are kind of ehhhh, but I like having one there in case it happens to be interesting. What they do give us is a short feature that shows us stills from the period to give us an idea of how realistic the film was. There are also a couple of deleted scenes, but none are really all that interesting. What I did enjoy was the inclusion of the 1923 silent film “The Story of Petroleum”, which allows us a peek into the past to see what the oil business was all about… or what we were told it was all about.

“There Will Be Blood” is powerful film, and one I strongly recommend. I just cannot give it the accolades that others have.

Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Kevin J. O’Connor, Ciaran Hinds, Dillon Frasier
Extras: 15 Minutes – Pics, Research, Etc… for the Making of ‘There Will Be Blood’, Trailers, Deleted Scenes, Dailies Gone Wild, The Story of Petroleum
Studio: Paramount
Release Date: 4/8/2008
Region 1
MPAA Rating: R
Website

We'll give There Will Be Blood a B+.