I am the Third Revelation! I am The Master!
These utterances are probably mouthed by some ostensibly gregarious, pompous or an arrogant man during the period of Christ! Maybe. They take a whole new meaning in this period thriller drama of a film THERE WILL BE BLOOD!
Paul Thomas Anderson, Director of this film, has very dramatically yet without loosing the thread of realism created a period film that not only zaps you out of a lull but attacks your sense and makes you admire the monstrosity, arrogance laced with guile and cunning of men who will stop at nothing to gain anything and everything for him. Paul has to his credit films like Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch Drunk Love. He has excelled himself here. Nominated for as many Academy Awards along with No Country for Old Men he finally got the Black Lady for his best lead actor Daniel Day Lewis.
The film has been written by Paul and is based on a novel by Upton Sinclair called Oil!
1898
Daniel Plainview(Day Lewis) is weathered, beaten but not given up on his being a precious metal prospector. Large, dry landscapes greet us and we see Daniel struggling single handedly to get his hands on the precious metals and make his money. Little does he realise that this excavation is going to lead him to a huge storage of BLACK GOLD – OIL…
He strikes gas and then the liquid begins seeping through the dig out that he is in. Quickly he gathers his men and then starts making barrels of Oil and stakes his claim on 16 wells on Coyote Hills making$5000.00 per week. He has thus set his foot from being just a prospector to being an Oilman!
He has adopted a baby boy and calls him his son and partner H W Plainview(Dillon Freasier).
In one such meeting, a sales pitch actually, when Daniel is addressing a crowd whose places he has proposed to buy for prospect of finding Oil there is mayhem and he storms out of the meeting telling the convener that, “Even if you offer this land free, I will not take it!” Such is Daniels devotion and confidence in his ability.
Paul Sunday(Paul Dano) approaches Daniel and his assistant Fletcher after reading of Daniels success and lets him in on the fact that Little Boston from where Sunday hails has most definitely a very rich reserve of Oil and for$500 he can take it. Meanwhile Standard Oils has already purchased land to the North of the Sunday ranch where Paul and his family stay. Thus begins the hunger for more in the stomach of Daniel and he sets out to strike it richer on the pastures of Little Boston.
Under the guise of hunting Quail, Daniel and HW set foot on the Sunday ranch. They not only buy it out but also with the help of a local real estate buys of most of the surrounding acres to establish his domain.
Daniel meets Eli Sunday, Paul’s brother who is a self proclaimed Faith Healer of the Third Revelation Church.
During the first sales pitch to the people from whom Daniel has bought the land, his monologue of what he intends to do is of studied calm, devious in nature and reeks of a man who will be cruel and at the same time be understanding of the needs of the people. He rightly names the first well after Eli’s daughter Miss Mary Sunday Well!
If I go on from here, I would write a 10 page story describing in detail what happens and how Daniel is successful or not in his endeavor, instead I will let you watch for yourself the way the story unfolds. Instead I will get into the skin of the characters that Paul Anderson has etched for us.
Daniel Day Lewis, is not just an accomplished actor but he has the ability to get into the skin of the character and enact it in a manner which is not just convincing but it will lead us to believe the existence if one such. Here he has magnificently essayed the role of a businessman who calls himself Oilman and uses the babyface of his adopted son HW to further his gains. He always adds in his pitch a sentence that would win hearts of the people he has purchased from by saying, “Me and my partner H W here have a company in which we find oil. He is also my son”.
He has added a streak of arrogance to his demeanor which at times reeks of his authority over how only he can get the digging started in just 10 days while others take months to put equipment together. His straight forward nature at times is deliberate and he means to hurt and kill his opponent by the sheer audacity of his knowledge of his business and people. “I don’t like people and have as such made sure that they don’t like me too”.
His performance when he strikes his first well in Little Boston and the release impact of gas and oil render his son deaf is astounding! The faith healer comes to him and the way Daniel launches himself on him is just so unexpected that it jolts you to witness such violence. His attack has the viciousness of a man out to get his victim and is brutal to the extent of making Eli eat the dirt mixed with oil!
“Where were you when my son went deaf?”
his confrontation with his son when he grows older and marries Mary Sunday is cruel even sinister with no sympathy but an understanding of how the son would eventually behave.
HW:(In sign language with his interpreter): I love you father and you know it. I have come to speak to you in private”
Daniel: You can speak with me here and in front of this parrot who always accompanies you!(Making a very lewd mouth and a bird speaking with his hands).
HW: Father I think I will go my separate way. I want to go to Mexico and start my own company. Digging oil.
Daniel: I knew you would say that. I also know that you are not my son.
HW: Please don’t say that. I love you very much and you know that.
Daniel: But you are not my son.
Stunned silence
Daniel: You are a basd from the basket. That’s the businessman whio calls himself Oilman!
Eli as the Faith Healer of the small county has done an amazing job. His mission to get people to follow him is as silent like a whisper but his actions have the punch of fighter who has rounded his prey and is going in for his kill. Calm, serene on the face Eli has projected a volcano ready burst with great skill. His monologue when Daniel makes him grovel, “I am a false prophet, God is a superstition!” said at least a dozen times at Daniels house is a scene that will jolt you out of your reverie and send you into a state of absolute shock and make you wonder if people are really capable of such rank humiliation!
The film belongs to Daniel. The script is amazingly dark and full of events that are meant to send jolt after jolt of unbelievable happenings! The music by Jonny Greenwood is marvelous. The way he has mixed a piano with at least a congregation of 50 or more violins just carries you to a level of breath taking tension. His mix of percussion instruments like the drums and the Congo, tumba is meant to heighten the tension, increase the thrill and make us savor the drama.
This is a must watch and I have it in my DVD collection!
The prospect of striking it rich is always very enticing when it comes to precious metals but when the liquid black gold seeps in it brings with it the black thoughts and the black doings that make you say, “There will be Blood!”