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Review & Trailer: There Will Be Blood, 2-Disc Collector’s Edition

by Jane Boursaw on April 8th, 2008

Movie: There Will Be Blood / Amazon In Theaters: Jan. 11, 2008
Runtime: 158 minutes On DVD April 8, 2008
MPAA Rating: R for some violence Gecko Rating:

Based on the Upton Sinclair novel, “Oil!,” There Will Be Blood takes place at the turn of the 20th century and revolves around an oil man named Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis, who won an Oscar for the role). In spite of his impressive skills as a smooth-talking salesman, he doesn’t like people very much. In fact, not at all. Even his son, H.W. (Dillon Freasier), whom he takes in after his father dies in an oil-rig accident, is used to help sell people on the notion that Plainview runs a “family business.”

When Daniel determines that there’s oil under a particular piece of land, he goes to talk to the owner, under the guise of taking H.W. camping. The owner’s son is Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), an equally smooth-talking leader of the Church of the Third Revelation — an evangelical church rife with chanting and healing rituals and lots of fist-pumping “Ye shall be saved!” moments.

But here’s the thing: Both men are in it for power. For Plainview, it’s sheer evil lust for power to control other men and his own destiny. For Eli Sunday, that oil is his chance to gain control over the flock of poor innocents who live nearby — all in the name of God. Plainview can have his oil, says Eli, but first he has to build a church on the land. A church where Eli will rule with his evangelical fist.

The two men hate each other from the moment they meet. Each in their own way are hard, unflinching businessmen who will do whatever it takes to achieve their goals — even if it means spiraling into an abyss of madness.

Directed and written by Paul Thomas Anderson, this movie is both bleak and beautiful. Or maybe a better way to put it is “beautifully bleak.” The sepia-toned colors of the film, the so-intense-he-makes-you-ache acting of Day-Lewis, and the stark, hard-driving musical score by Jonny Greenwood make this one of 2007’s best films.

It’s not pretty, but this movie definitely sticks with you and makes you think about the horrors that some people are capable of, under the guise of business, power, and religion.

DVD Extras: While there aren’t a ton of extras, this 2-disc set still contains some interesting stuff, including a “making of” featurette with 15 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage; two deleted scenes lasting nearly 10 minutes; “Dailies Gone Wild,” an alternate take of the restaurant scene involving Daniel, his son, and employees of Standard Oil; a teaser for the film and the original theatrical trailer (both of which are well-crafted examples of how to pull in an audience without giving too much away); and “The Story of Petroleum,” a black-and-white silent film chronicling the oil business in the 1920s.

Theatrical Trailer:

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Images: There Will Be Blood, Paramount Vantage, 2007

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