There Will Be Blood

Paul Thomas Anderson | 2007

There Will Be Blood, released in 2007, is a pivotal work by Paul Thomas Anderson, who both wrote and directed the film.

It is a pure Nietzschean, and nihilistic film that stands as one of Anderson’s great cinematic achievements. The film forms the crucial first chapter of his American Trilogy, capturing the very beginning of the 20th century, charting the emergence of the oil industry in the United States.

#### Plot

The film's opening is notably stark, with no dialogue for the first seven to fifteen minutes. Instead, the audience is immersed in visual storytelling, showcasing vast expanses of dust, raw landscapes, primordial rocks, and oozing oil. This initial silence immediately sets a tone of primal struggle and highlights the raw, uncivilised physicality of man battling the elements.

The narrative traces the epic rise and eventual decline of its central figure, Daniel Plainview. He begins as a silver miner, adept at self-sufficiency, but every gain he makes comes at a significant cost. An early success in discovering silver is immediately followed by a severe leg injury. Later, as he shifts to oil prospecting, a worker dies, leaving a baby boy, HW, whom Plainview adopts and even gives whiskey.

Plainview's journey is propelled by Paul Sunday, one of two twin brothers (both portrayed by Paul Dano), who provides him with information about an oil-rich tract of land, the Bandy tract, for ten thousand dollars.

Plainview shrewdly uses his adopted son, HW, to charmingly gain favour with the Bandy family. Presenting himself as a "simple man," Plainview systematically acquires the land rights surrounding the Bandy tract.

His ultimate aim is to construct a pipeline extending all the way to the ocean, facilitating large-scale oil transport and marking the genesis of the American oil boom.

Plainview’s ambition is met by his formidable nemesis, Eli Sunday, Paul’s twin brother. Eli is presented as a false prophet, using his church, "The Church of the Third Revelation," to demand funds from Plainview for his ministry and schools. Both Plainview and Eli are depicted as villainous figures, operating beyond conventional notions of good and evil, with their actions driven by self-interest.

A significant turning point occurs when an oil derrick catches fire, and HW is tragically rendered deaf. Plainview, deeming HW no longer useful for his schemes, abandons him on a train, sending him away to a special school. Later, a man claiming to be Plainview’s brother appears, but Plainview soon discovers his deception and brutally murders him, burying the body in the Bandy tract.

The conflict between Plainview and Eli escalates through several confrontations. In one instance, Plainview shoves Eli into a muck pit in a "mud anti-baptism," reducing the preacher to a screaming, helpless figure.

Later, Plainview submits to a ritual humiliation, agreeing to be baptised in Eli’s church. During this scene, Plainview is slapped and forced to confess his abandonment of his son. Following the baptism, a chilling silent exchange hints at Plainview’s vow of vengeance, implied to be the film’s title, "There Will Be Blood indeed".

The film culminates years later, with Plainview living in isolation in a grand Tudor mansion in California, a solitary and beastly figure, relentlessly consuming steak like an animal. HW, now a teenager, confronts Plainview, seeking release from his past.

Plainview cruelly dismisses him as "a baby in a basket". The final confrontation sees Eli, now outwardly successful, confront Plainview, admitting his own identity as a false prophet driven by money. Plainview then delivers his iconic retort, revealing he has drained all the oil from Eli's land via a hidden pipeline, proclaiming, "I drink your milkshake".

The film ends with Plainview brutally bashing Eli's brains in with a bowling pin, an act of sheer, conquering violence reminiscent of the primal ape in 2001 A Space Odyssey.

#### Characters and Performances

• Daniel Plainview (portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis) is a profoundly complex and unsettling character. He is a singular, self-sufficient man and an almost pure Nietzschean man of will – a complete sociopath driven by an unyielding will, living entirely within his senses, with no interest in conventional wealth.

Plainview possesses a relentless ability to shock off any kind of criticism with a verbal violence, mirroring the domineering nature of Lancaster Dodd in The Master.

His eventual physical state, depicted as a "twisted ghoul" or "beast man" with a hobbling gait and a wiry strength, vividly externalises his internal, beastly hunger.

Day-Lewis’s portrayal, delivered with a distinctive John Huston accent, earned him an Academy Award. Plainview, emerging from the literal depths of the earth, embodies an evolution of man, surviving through adaptation and overcoming adversity, reflecting a Nietzschean ideal of productive, life-affirming energy. He acts with no moral guilt.

• Eli Sunday (portrayed by Paul Dano) is Plainview’s primary antagonist, a cunning and manipulative false prophet. Despite his biblical name, Eli is as villainous as Plainview, shows how religion can be exploited for self-interest and rationalisation.

Initially appearing as a soft, solicitous fellow, he is ultimately unfit for survival in Plainview’s brutal world. Paul Dano’s dual performance as both Eli and his twin brother, Paul Sunday (who initiated Plainview's pursuit of oil), is fantastic.

• HW, Plainview's adopted son, is a significant character in Plainview's life, though often used as a tool. After being deafened in an oil derrick accident, HW matures into a more emotional and human figure, eventually confronting his abusive father and seeking release from his control. The theme of abandonment, seen in Plainview's treatment of HW, echoes a recurring motif in Anderson’s films.

#### Themes and Symbolism

• Nietzschean Philosophy: There Will Be Blood is deeply ingrained with Nietzschean ideas. Plainview embodies the will to power, driven by an insatiable hunger for control rather than material wealth. The film challenges simplistic moral binaries, portraying both its central figures as complex, flawed, and ultimately villainous. It suggests that injury, death, and destruction are integral, rather than antithetical, to exceptional, energetic, and productive life.
• Oil as the Earth's Blood: Oil is metaphorically presented as the "blood of the Earth". The process of its extraction is depicted with a "demonic energy," highlighting the violence and death inherent in the relentless pursuit of industry. The pipeline Plainview constructs becomes a literal vein supplying the lifeblood of an individual revolution and powering a planet towards prosperity.
• Critique of Religion and False Prophecy: Eli Sunday symbolises how religion can be used for personal gain and self-rationalisation. His "The Church of the Third Revelation" is a thinly veiled enterprise, exposing the corruption and hypocrisy within certain spiritual movements.
• Sacrifice and Cost of Ambition: Plainview’s journey is marked by a consistent pattern of sacrifice and loss for every gain. This underscores the idea that relentless ambition and unchecked will come at a tremendous personal and moral cost, including the abandonment of his adopted son.
• Physicality as Inner Reflection: The film masterfully uses the characters' physical deterioration to reflect their inner states. Plainview's beast like appearance and hobbling gait at the end symbolise his descent into a primal, animalistic existence, akin to the unsettling physicality of Joaquin Phoenix's character in The Master.
• Confronting and Accepting the Past: Unlike The Master, which focuses on confronting the past to break free from it, There Will Be Blood portrays an acceptance of one's inherent nature and past. Plainview, the "beast," lives purely in his present and future, embodying a relentless will to dominate, much like TJ Mackey from Magnolia.
• "I drink your milkshake": This iconic line encapsulates Plainview's ultimate victory and domination. It symbolises his complete eradication of Eli's resources and foundation, leaving him with nothing to stand on.
• The Ape and Violence: Plainview's final, brutal act of murder with a bowling pin is a direct visual and thematic parallel to the ape in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey, representing a primal conquest achieved through sheer violence.

#### Historical Basis

The film is based on Upton Sinclair’s novel Oil! and draws inspiration from the life of Edward Doheny, a real-life American oil magnate and prospector. Doheny’s early career as a silver miner who broke his legs mirrors Plainview's initial injury.

Doheny amassed immense wealth through his company, Pan American Petroleum Corporation, which became a major crude oil producer, though it was eventually acquired by Standard Oil.

Doheny was famously involved in the Teapot Dome scandal, where he allegedly provided a substantial "loan" of $100,000 cash to a government official, a detail that echoes Plainview's underhanded dealings. Doheny’s acquittal, despite public outcry, gave rise to the cynical observation: "you can't convict a million dollars in the United States".

The film captures the spirit of "new men" who rose through their own abilities to create major enterprises outside the established Standard Oil dominance.

It highlights the burgeoning oil industry in the early 20th century, where oil became synonymous with national power and sovereignty, foreshadowing the geopolitical oil wars that would define the rest of the century.

#### PTA's American Trilogy

There Will Be Blood is the chronological starting point of Anderson's American Trilogy. While The Master (set mid-century post-WWII) and Magnolia (set in the late 1990s) explore different facets of the American experience, There Will Be Blood is uniquely positioned to portray the raw, foundational period of American capitalism and industry.

The three films, though distinct in their narratives and styles, are unified by an overarching vision of America, exploring themes of will, geopolitics, and personal resolution. While Magnolia finds a kind of "Exodus" or release for its characters, There Will Be Blood presents a more nihilistic, unresolved vision of human nature.