There Will Be Blood

I like a movie that tells you up front what to expect, especially when it comes to bodily fluids. Like, if The Exorcist had been named, or at least subtitled, There Will Be Satanically Green Puke, I might have managed to cover my eyes in time. The title of PT Anderson's film may have several meanings, but since the topic here is oil, it seems appropriately titled in any case. After all, how much blood has been spilled in quest of that dark commodity?

The main character, Daniel Plainview, will certainly earn a spot in the pantheon of capitalist villains, right beside Lionel Barrymore's Mr. Potter and Orson Welles's Charles Foster Kane. With his hunched posture, John Huston voice, and pitch perfect intonation of lines like “I don’t like explaining myself,” Daniel Day-Lewis has created one of the most striking personifications of American-style free enterprise in film history. That this characterization serves large and timeless themes elevates the film (based on the novel Oil, by Upton Sinclair) to the level of near-masterpiece. It's the kind of work that will be discussed in film schools, bandied about for inclusion on Best of lists, and scrutinized on DVDs (or whatever format replaces them) for decades to come.

Day-Lewis's Plainview embodies capitalism at its most soulless. In the film's opening sequence, Plainview, in the first in a series of accidents during attempts to extract wealth from the earth, slips and falls into his dig, nearly breaking his back. His eye, however, catches a telltale cluster of sparkles, and his excitement trumps his physical pain. It's a perfect illustration of capitalist monomania – a fiendish yen for treasure superseding all other concerns. Later, Plainview’s adopted son loses his hearing when one of his wells gushes oil, causing a rig to ignite and collapse. Amidst the fiery devastation, Plainview celebrates his jackpot covered head to toe in oil and looking for all the world like a petroleum-based demon who has just successfully plumbed the depths of hell for his heart's desire. It’s not that he isn't concerned about his son’s horrific injury, it’s only that on balance, it’s been a good day. Here, drilling for oil serves as a metaphor for capitalism at its most elemental: a penetrative, invasive process leaving a byproduct of palpable devastation.

Plainview’s rival demon is Eli, a young, self-styled preacher whose family Plainview has paid for drilling rights on their land. Through Eli we see the interwining but shifting relationship of religion and money-making in American life. Eli and Plainview engage in a dynamic of mutual exploitation. Plainview detests Eli’s religious charlatanism and self righteousness, yet he knows how to make use of them for his own ends. At one point, Plainview makes a show of accepting Jesus in front of Eli’s congregation in order to strike a deal. In the film’s final sequence, Plainview extracts his revenge for this humiliation by demanding that Eli, in desperate need of cash, pronounce himself a sham and declare the non-existence of God in exchange for financial help. Of course, Eli complies, because religion here is shown to ultimately be just as concerned with acquisition (Eli wants a bigger church) as drilling for oil. And no humiliation is too great to suffer in its pursuit. Plainview (and here the character's name comes into play) detests Eli because Eli has the same insatiable lust for wealth, yet dissembles it behind a veneer of righteousness.

In an indication of the depth of Day-Lewis’s characterization and PT Anderson’s direction, after the film I and my companions debated the purity of Plainview’s evil. For he does have moments of seemingly genuine tenderness toward his son (who is not really his son, but was a fellow prospector 's infant offspring when that man met his fate on a dig), and he even intervenes on behalf of a young girl when he hears of her beatings at the hand of her father. And when a long-lost half brother shows up, his craving for connection is obvious. (The title of the film, perhaps, can also be seen as a reference to the two family members whom he is not actually related to.) Yet, in a fit of pique, he throws the truth of their relationship at his son, averring that he cared for him only because he enabled the marketing of the Plainview operation as a “family business.” And we have seen this, to be sure. But was all feeling for the boy merely mercenary? One viewer argued that even if Plainview's sentiment was genuine, it was still just another form of selfishness due to his complete lack of connection to anyone else. Perhaps! What's clear is that his singular obsession with money has become his only purpose; when he has a chance to sell out to Standard Oil for a huge windfall, he declines, blurting out, "What would I do with myself?” Making money has become its own end, the answer to every existential question.

The last 20 minutes or so depict a period some years later, when we see the festering consequences of a life spent in such a manner. The film ends, I think, on the wrong note, but that doesn't detract from the overall impact. Some brilliant cinematography and a propulsive music score accenting the industrial processes at the visual heart of the film fill out the experience. It's rare to see an American film this serious about critiquing the fundamental organizing principal of our society . “There is a competition in me,” Plainview says. “I want no one else to succeed.” While this burning to come out on top isolates him from humanity, it also perfectly suits him to rise to the top in a system that treats such cupidity as a prized trait.

Linkateria:

• More Blood reviews
• cigarettes and red vines - PT Anderson resource
• Upton Sinclair made his mark as a California muckraker (SF Chronicle)
• Upton Sinclair's Oil - first five pages
• The enigma of Day-Lewis (Guardian)

Comments

[patrick]

finally got to see the infamous There Will Be Blood... Daniel-Day Lewis' performance was top-notch. He takes well to the overbearing, violent father-figure role -- he also did this in Gangs of New York.