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There Will Be Blood

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There Will Be Blood
File:There will be blood.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byPaul Thomas Anderson
Written byUpton Sinclair
Paul Thomas Anderson
Produced byPaul Thomas Anderson
Scott Rudin
StarringDaniel Day-Lewis
Paul Dano
CinematographyRobert Elswit
Edited byDylan Tiechnor
Music byJonny Greenwood
Distributed byParamount Vantage
Miramax Films
Release dates
December 26, 2007
Running time
158 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$25 million

There Will Be Blood is a critically acclaimed and award-winning 2007 film inspired by Upton Sinclair's novel Oil! (1927). It stars Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano, and was written, produced, and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Shooting began in mid-May 2006 in New Mexico and Marfa, Texas, with principal photography wrapping August 24, 2006. The first public screening was on September 29, 2007 at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas. The film was released on December 26, 2007, in New York and Los Angeles, and is set to gradually open in selected markets and in a limited number of theaters. Beginning January 18, 2008 the film played in the top 75 markets and in 389 theaters.

The film received significant critical praise and numerous award nominations and wins. In addition to appearing on many critics' "top ten" lists for the year, critics' associations – such as the National Society of Film Critics and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association – recognized There Will Be Blood with awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor. Daniel Day-Lewis received a Golden Globe for his performance, and it has been nominated for numerous AMPAS and BAFTA awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film was nominated for 8 Academy Awards, including Best Actor, Best Director and Best Picture.

Plot

Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), begins as a silver prospector in 1898, when he discovers oil in one of his silver claims. He soon earns enough money to build a small drilling company. One of his workers is killed in an on-site accident, and his infant son is left an orphan. Plainview takes the child as his own, and begins a much larger enterprise, using the boy, whom he names H.W. (Dillon Freasier), as his nominal "partner" to project his status as a family man and a family businessman. By 1911, he is one of the most successful oil men in California.

Plainview is approached by a young man named Paul Sunday (Paul Dano) who sells Plainview an oil lead located on his family's property in Little Boston, California. Plainview and HW travel to Little Boston, and, pretending to be hunting quail, scout out the Sunday property and discover a good amount of seepage oil. Plainview attempts to buy the property without notifying Paul's father Abel (David Willis) of the oil, but Paul's twin brother, Eli (also Paul Dano), knows of the oil and raises the price to $10,000, the bulk of which he intends to put into the founding of his own Church. Plainview pays him $5000 up front and promises the other $5000 as a donation to the church.

In order to ensure the monopoly on the Little Boston oil, Plainview buys the "ranches" of a number of the surrounding neighbors, with the exception of one property, which the owner, a Mr. Bandy (Hans Howes), was hesitant to sell. With the money from his land, Eli founds his own church, which he calls The Church of the Third Revelation, and styles himself as a faith healer. Plainview erects a cable tool drilling rig, and the day before it is to spud, Eli asks to bless the drilling operation as a promotion for the Church. Plainview agrees, but reneges on the agreement and in the spudding ceremony, publicly snubs Eli in favor of Eli's young sister Mary (Sydney McCallister), who has befriended HW. Drilling then begins.

The hole is eventually dug deeply enough to hit a large "ocean of oil" underneath the town, but in the process,a blow-out and fire occur. HW loses his hearing in the blast, and Plainview is unable to communicate with his son. When Eli comes to the derrick to request the money Plainview owes him, Plainview suddenly and violently attacks him, screaming at him for being unable to heal his son. Humiliated, Eli returns to his father's house, where he beats the older man for allowing his brother Paul to tell Plainview about the oil that has ruined their lives.

One day, a man approaches Plainview, claiming to be his half-brother Henry Brands (Kevin J. O'Connor), from whom Daniel learns that his father is dead. Plainview unexpectedly takes Henry into his confidence and confides in him closer than he does any other associate, confessing his deep-set need to win. HW is seen studying Henry's diary, and that night, he attempts to burn down the cabin that his father and Henry are sleeping in. The next day, Plainview sends him away to a school for the deaf. Plainview has no contact from his son, receiving updates from his assistant, Fletcher Hamilton (Ciarán Hinds).

Plainview is approached by a competitor, Standard Oil, who is willing to buy him out of Little Boston, as Plainview is losing money on the transportation of his oil by train. The man makes a mistake of telling Plainview he should be taking care of his son, and Plainview violently threatens him before storming out of the meeting. Plainview decides to make a deal with Union Oil to make a pipeline leading to the coast, and he and Henry go to scout out a route to the coastline. They discover that the pipeline must go through the only property in Little Boston that Plainview does not own, Bandy's ranch.

Henry and Plainview travel to the coast and make a merging deal with Union Oil. Plainview again confides in Henry, but soon becomes suspicious that Henry is not who he says he is, which he tests by inventing a fictional dance in their home town, which Henry does not recognize as a fake. On their way back to Little Boston, Plainview wakes Henry up and puts a gun to his head, demanding information about their hometown. Henry admits being a fake: Plainview's real brother was a friend who died of tuberculosis. Plainview then shoots Henry and buries his body in a muddy ditch.

The next morning, Plainview is awakened on Bandy's property by the owner himself, who agrees to lease his property for the pipeline on one condition: that Plainview join the Church of the Third Revelation. Plainview, up to this point an atheist, agrees, and suffers a humiliating initiation sequence at the hands of Eli, where the preacher makes him kneel and loudly and repeatedly confess that he has sinned and abandoned his child. Plainview, perhaps due to his guilt, sends for HW, but is still unable to communicate with the boy, who is now learning sign language, and becomes increasingly buried in his work, turning heavily to whiskey. Eli leaves Little Boston on Missionary work, and the town becomes prosperous due to the oil.

The film jumps ahead to 1927, to the marriage ceremony of HW and Mary Sunday, a ceremony translated for the groom by the bride in sign language. Plainview lives in a large, empty mansion in an ever-drunken fog, and spends his days shooting his possessions with a shot gun. HW (now played by Russell Harvard) comes to his father to ask him (through an interpreter) to be released from their partnership so he can form his own oil company in Mexico. Plainview, by now an alcoholic, refuses until his son is able to actually speak the request himself rather than sign it. Plainview then bluntly tells his son that he is adopted, and disowns him. HW leaves for good.

Some time later, Daniel is visited by Eli in his private bowling alley in the cellar of his mansion. Eli now heads a large church and works on the radio. Eli explains that the grandson of Mr. Bandy (who has passed away) wishes to launch a film career, and Eli offers to broker a deal for the oil still untapped on Bandy's land. It is revealed in the core of the conversation that Eli is in dire financial straits, and desperately needs the money. Plainview needles him, comparing Eli to Paul and telling Eli that he is inferior to Paul and is merely the "afterbirth." Paul, according to Daniel, is now a successful oil man. Finally, Daniel agrees to the deal, on the condition that Eli say "I am a false prophet and God is a superstition". After some hesitation, he does. Plainview orders him to repeat it several times, each time louder and louder, until Eli is shouting. Plainview then informs him that all the oil on Bandy's land is gone, depleted through drainage. He mercilessly taunts Eli, and then begins to attack him, throwing bowling balls at him and chasing him around the lanes. Finally, he beats him to death with a bowling pin. He sits down next to the body, and hears his servant calling for him. Finally satisfied, he says "I'm finished."

Production

Originally, Paul Thomas Anderson had been working on a screenplay about two fighting families. He struggled with the script and soon realized it just wasn't working.[1] Homesick, he purchased a copy of Upton Sinclair's Oil! in London and was immediately drawn to the cover illustration of a California oilfield.[2] As he read, Anderson became even more fascinated with the novel and adapted the first 150 pages to a screenplay. He began to get a real sense of where his script was going after making countless trips to museums dedicated to early oilmen in Bakersfield.[3] He changed the title from Oil! to There Will Be Blood because, "at the end of the day, there [was] not enough of the book to feel like it [was] a proper adaptation."[1] He didn't want to impose any kind of accent on whoever was going to play Plainview as he wanted to keep things simple.[1] He wrote the original screenplay with Daniel Day-Lewis in mind and approached the actor when the script was nearly complete. He had heard that Daniel Day-Lewis liked Punch-Drunk Love, which gave him the confidence to hand him a copy of the incomplete script.[4] According to Day-Lewis, simply being asked to do the film was enough to convince him.[5] In an interview with the New York Observer, the actor elaborated on what drew him to the project. It was "the understanding that [he] had already entered into that world. [He] wasn't observing it - [he'd] entered into it - and indeed [he'd] populated it with characters who [he] felt had lives of their own."[6]

According to Joanne Sellar, one of the film's producers, it was a hard film to finance because, "the studios didn't think it had the scope of a major picture."[2] It took two years to acquire financing for the film.[3] For the role of Plainview's son, Anderson looked at people in Los Angeles and New York City but he realized that they needed someone from Texas who knew how to shoot shotguns and "live in that world."[1] The filmmakers asked around at a school and the principal recommended Dillon Freasier. They did not have him read any scenes and instead talked to him, realizing that he was the perfect person for the role.[1]

To start building his character, Day-Lewis started with the voice. Anderson sent him recordings from the late 19th century to 1927 and a copy of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, including documentaries on its director, John Huston, an important influence on Anderson's film.[2] According to Anderson, he was inspired by the fact that Sierra Madre is "about greed and ambition and paranoia and looking at the worst parts of yourself."[3] While writing the script, he would put the film on before he went to bed at night. To research for the role, Day-Lewis read letters from laborers and studied photographs from the time period. He also read up on oil tycoon Edward Doheny upon whom Sinclair's book is loosely based.[7]

Filming started in June 2006 on a ranch in Marfa, Texas[3] and took three months to shoot.[2] Anderson tried to shoot the script in sequence with most of the sets on the ranch.[3] Halfway into the 60-day shoot, Anderson replaced the actor playing Eli Sunday with Paul Dano. A New York Times Magazine profile on Day-Lewis suggested that the original actor had been intimidated by Day-Lewis's intensity and habit of staying in character on and off the set.[7][3] Both Anderson and Day-Lewis deny this claim,[citation needed] and Day-Lewis stated, "I absolutely don't believe that it was because he was intimidated by me. I happen to believe that — and I hope I'm right."[8] Anderson first saw Dano in The Ballad of Jack and Rose and thought that he would be perfect to play Eli Sunday, a role he originally envisioned to be a 12 or 13-year-old boy. To prepare for the role, Dano researched the time period that the film is set in as well as evangelical preachers.[1] Three weeks of scenes with Sunday and Plainview had to be re-shot with Dano.[3] The interior mansion scenes were filmed at the Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills, California, the former real-life home of Edward Doheny Jr., a gift from his father Edward Doheny. Scenes filmed at Greystone involved the careful renovation of the basement's two lane bowling alley.[9]

Anderson dedicated the film to Robert Altman, who died while Anderson was editing it.[1]

Cast

Critical reception

The film received very positive reviews from critics. As of January 18, 2008 on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 132 reviews.[10] On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 92 out of 100, based on 33 reviews.[11]

Andrew Sarris called the film "an impressive achievement in its confident expertness in rendering the simulated realities of a bygone time and place, largely with an inspired use of regional amateur actors and extras with all the right moves and sounds."[12] In Premiere magazine, Glenn Kenny praised Day-Lewis's performance: "Once his Plainview takes wing, the relentless focus of the performance makes the character unique."[13] Manohla Dargis wrote, in her review for the New York Times, "the film is above all a consummate work of art, one that transcends the historically fraught context of its making, and its pleasures are unapologetically aesthetic."[14] Esquire magazine also praised Day-Lewis's performance: "what’s most fun, albeit in a frightening way, is watching this greedmeister become more and more unhinged as he locks horns with Eli Sunday...both Anderson and Day-Lewis go for broke. But it’s a pleasure to be reminded, if only once every four years, that subtlety can be overrated."[15] Richard Schickel in Time magazine praised There Will Be Blood as "one of the most wholly original American movies ever made."[16] Critic Tom Charity, writing about CNN's ten-best films list, calls the film the only "flat-out masterpiece" of 2007.[17]

Paul and Eli Sunday debate

Many critics and film goers have wondered whether the characters of Paul and Eli Sunday are the same person, despite numerous published accounts by director Paul Thomas Anderson and actor Paul Dano that refer to them as "twins".[18] Notably, famed critic Roger Ebert goes so far as to mention in his review that "either Eli and Paul are identical twins or the story is up to something shifty."[19] On the radio program Fresh Air, actor Paul Dano says that he had already filmed the role of Paul Sunday when Anderson asked him to also play the role of Eli Sunday. The original actor who played Eli was fired, and Anderson said that casting Dano in the role could be explained by Paul and Eli being twins.

Top ten lists

The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2007.[20][21]

Awards and nominations

80th Academy Awards

8 nominations[26] including:

Critics Associations

Austin Film Critics Association

5 wins including:[27]

  • Best Picture
  • Best Actor
  • Best Director
  • Best Cinematography
  • Best Original Score

National Society of Film Critics

4 wins including:[28]

  • Best Picture
  • Best Director
  • Best Actor
  • Best Cinematography

Los Angeles Film Critics Association

4 wins including:[29]

  • Best Picture
  • Best Director
  • Best Actor
  • Best Production Design

Broadcast Film Critics Association

Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor at the Critics' Choice Awards.[30]

Golden Globes

It was also nominated for Golden Globe Awards in the categories of "Best Motion Picture – Drama", and "Best Performance By An Actor In A Motion Picture –Drama" (Daniel Day-Lewis).[31] Daniel Day-Lewis won the Golden Globe for his performance.[32]

Guild Awards

Directors Guild of America

The Directors Guild of America nominated PT Anderson for the DGA Award.[33]

Screen Actors Guild

The Screen Actors Guild nominated Day-Lewis for "Best Actor in a Leading Role".[34]

Writers Guild of America

Anderson was also nominated by the Writer's Guild of America for "Best Adapted Screenplay".

Producers Guild of America

The film also garnered a "Producer of the Year Award" nomination from the Producers Guild of America.

British Academy of Film and Television Arts

There Will Be Blood was nominated for nine British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The American Film Institute's Top 10

The American Film Institute listed it as an AFI Movie of the Year for 2007.[35]

Soundtrack

See: There Will Be Blood (album).

Anderson had been a fan of Radiohead's music and was impressed with Jonny Greenwood's scoring of the film Bodysong. While writing the script for There Will Be Blood, Anderson heard Greenwood's orchestral piece Popcorn Superhet Receiver, which prompted him to ask Greenwood to work with him. After initially agreeing to score the film, Greenwood had doubts and thought about backing out, but Anderson's reassurance and enthusiasm for the film convinced the musician to stick with the project.[36][37] Anderson gave Greenwood a copy of the film and three weeks later he came back with two hours of music recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Stern, Marlow (December 10, 2007). "There Will Be Blood Press Conference". Manhattan Movie Magazine. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ a b c d Goodwin, Christopher (November 25, 2007). "Daniel Day-Lewis Gives Blood, Sweat and Tears". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 2007-12-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Hirschberg, Lynn (December 11, 2007). "The New Frontier's Man". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-31. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  4. ^ "Prospectors Anderson and Day-Lewis Strike Black Gold", Los Angeles Times, December 19, 2007, retrieved 2007-12-31 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  5. ^ Freydkin, Donna (December 10, 2007). "Daniel Day-Lewis has recognition in his Blood". USA Today. Retrieved 2007-12-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  6. ^ Vilkomerson, Sarah (December 18, 2007). "P.S. I Love You Daniel Day-Lewis". New York Observer. Retrieved 2007-12-31. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  7. ^ a b Lewis, Judith (December 19 2007). "Daniel Day-Lewis: The Way He Lives Now". L.A. Weekly. Retrieved 2007-12-31. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  8. ^ Longsdorf, Amy (2008-01-03), "In 'Blood,' Day-Lewis unearths an oil tycoon's complexities", The Morning Call, retrieved 2007-12-31 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ Hobart, Christy (2007-12-27), "At Greystone, there will be Blood -- and bowling", Los Angeles Times, pp. F1, F4, retrieved 2007-12-31 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  10. ^ "There Will Be Blood - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
  11. ^ "There Will Be Blood (2007): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-01-07.
  12. ^ Sarris, Andrew (December 17, 2007). "Oil, Oil Everywhere!". New York Observer. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  13. ^ Kenny, Glenn (December 13, 2007). "There Will Be Blood". Premiere. Retrieved 2007-12-31. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  14. ^ Dargis, Manohla (December 26, 2007). "An American Primitive, Forged in a Crucible of Blood and Oil". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-31. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  15. ^ D'Angelo, Mike (December 26, 2007). "One Fine Ham". Esquire. Retrieved 2007-12-31. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  16. ^ Schickel, Richard (December 24, 2007). "There Will Be Blood: An American Tragedy". Time. Retrieved 2007-12-31. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  17. ^ a b Tom Charity (December 29, 2007). "Review: The best (and worst) films of 2007". CNN. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
  18. ^ Brigid Brown (unknown). "Movie News: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Thomas Anderson and Paul Dano Mix Oil n' 'Blood'". New York Post. Retrieved 2008-01-07. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ Roger Ebert (January 4, 2008). "Review: There will be Blood". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
  20. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z "Metacritic: 2007 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  21. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Movie City News: 2007 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Movie City News. Retrieved 2008-01-08.
  22. ^ "MCN Top Ten". MCN. Retrieved 2008-01-18.
  23. ^ "2007 Year in Review - MSN". MSN. Retrieved 2008-01-09.
  24. ^ David Germain (2007-12-27). "'No Country for Old Men' earns nod from AP critics". Associated Press, via Columbia Daily Tribune. Retrieved 2007-12-31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  25. ^ Devin Faraci (2007-12-31). "'Devin Faraci's Top 15 of 2007". Retrieved 2008-01-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  26. ^ "Nominees - 80th Annual Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2008-01-22.
  27. ^ "Austin Film Critics draw 'Blood'". Variety. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
  28. ^ Hernandez, Eugene (2008-01-05). ""There Will Be Blood" Leads National Society of Film Critics Awards: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Cinematography". indieWIRE. Retrieved 2008-01-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  29. ^ Giles, Jeff (2007-12-10). "There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old Men Top Critics' Awards: New York, LA, Boston and D.C. scribes honor the best of 2007". Rotten Tomatoes / IGN Entertainment, Inc. Retrieved 2007-12-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  30. ^ "Coens land Critics' Choice Awards". BBC News. 2008-01-08. Retrieved 2008-01-08. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  31. ^ "Hollywood Foreign Press Association 2008 Golden Globe Awards For The Year Ended December 31, 2007". goldenglobes.org. 2007-12-13. Retrieved 2007-12-31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  32. ^ "65th Golden Globe Awards Nominations & Winners". goldenglobes.org. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
  33. ^ "Directors Guild announces nominations". Rope of Silicon. 2007-12-20. Retrieved 2007-12-31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  34. ^ [cnn.com "'Into the Wild' leads SAG nominations"]. Cable News Network. 2007-12-20. Retrieved 2007-12-31. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  35. ^ "No Country for Old Men, Juno named to AFI's Top 10 of year". CBC. 2007-12-17. Retrieved 2007-12-31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  36. ^ Willman, Chris (December 2007). "There Will Be Music". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2007-12-21. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  37. ^ Ponto, Arya (2007-09-07). "Jonny Greenwood scoring PTA's new film". Just Press Play. Retrieved 2007-12-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
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