"There Will be Blood" is
the film of the decade. It is nothing less than the story of America’s darkest side of its greatest gifts to the world: Capitalism and religious freedom. Unfettered, unchecked and in the hands of the corrupt, they can bring about unlimited evil. Blood – and oil – flowing uncontrolled.
“Blood” is based on a book by Upton Sinclair, but plays more like the greatest John Steinbeck epic not written by John Steinbeck. The master of this darkest of dark West of Eden tales, though, is Paul Thomas Anderson ("Magnolia" and “Boogie Nights”). Whatever he gives us next, this is his greatest film.
For the first 20-odd minutes we see only Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview, etching out, chunk by chunk, dynamite blast by dynamite blast, silver from a California mine. He is obsessed. Muttering to himself. He wants that silver, and not an ill-timed explosion and shattered leg will stop him. The silver, though, is a means to an end: Oil. Nothing can stop this man, who can’t abide other people, nor stand for others to succeed. No amount of power or money can quench his thirst. Plainview will suck California dry if he so desires. Not even his young adopted son, who he uses as a friendly face marketing tool, is spared.
Planview’s match, his warped mirror image, is the young preacher Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) who spreads a fanatical form of Christianity, with him as God for all intent and purposes, like an evil oil slick. Plainview hates religion for it detracts from his worker’s loyalty to him, and likewise Sunday hates Plainview. For quite the same reason. On their own level: How can you suck up unlimited money if you’re worshipping God, and how can you worship God if you’re busy sucking unlimited money? The Nine Inch Nails lyric “Bow down before the one you serves” comes to mind.
Much of the film focuses on these men ripping each other apart, and – at the climax -- out-performing each other in a scene that crashes and burns beautifully. For each man knows the other is an actor, of sorts, and nothing else matters except the performance. It is amazing to watch. Equally amazing are the scenes in which, despite himself, Plainview shows kindness toward others and love toward his adopted son. The displays are brief. The man buries these acts deep below his black-liquid soul. Likewise, Sunday shows massive violence, attacking his earthly father, and hissing out the words, “God does not forgive stupidity.” He ticks with this violence. These men destroy all those around them. Without a care.
The punch in the mouth: “There Will be Blood” is not a warning tale. It is a condemnation against a nation that often sees itself as not just blessed by God and the best in the world, not to be questioned, but the only country worthy of being blessed by God. The movie is only more timely now, today, as I drive in South Carolina and see billboards that proclaim “America Bless God” (He doesn’t need our blessing, folks, He’s God), and politicians and right-wing TV and radio pinheads who declare Christianity the only religion protected by the Constitution, that immigrants are vile, that businesses should remain unregulated and allowed to reign free, and others that America never apologizes. That America is right, always and forever.
Our greed for money, power and oil and our own religious fanaticism – with us out godding God, and damning those who disagree as evil and against us and Him – will lead to destruction. As with Plainview and Sunday. But there’s hope too: See the kindness and openness of the grown son.
Anderson’s world is flawless, and his clean landscapes of California rough brush beautiful. The score by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood is its own character, never more so when an oil rig explodes, the son loses his hearing, and Plainview watches his oil and his soul burn up. Day-Lewis is so crazy, seething brilliant, it’s beyond comprehension. Dana the actor survives this nuclear blast, a miracle, for sure.
For an extra helping of look-into-your-soul darkness, the Coen’s dark thriller “No Country for Old Men” is a helluva companion piece. By itself, or paired, though, Anderson has created the epic of our times. Unshakable. Unforgettable. A new classic forever.
A+
