Review of There Will Be Blood (2007) by Joshua D — 27 Feb 2014

A lot of people consider this movie to be P.T Anderson's masterpiece. I'm not sure I totally agree with that, I still think I like Magnolia better. However, this is by far his most iconic, and successful movie to date.

In my opinion, this is one of the greatest character studies ever made (probably 2nd to Taxi Driver). It tells the story of this oil driller who has an unhealthy and unstoppable thirst for wealth and power.

He's a man who despises all other men, he even alienates his own (not biological) son. There's even a scene in the movie where Daniel(Daniel Day Lewis) explains how much he hates people, and how he doesn't want anyone else to succeed.

I have mixed feelings about this scene, because on one hand it's brilliantly written and acted, but I feel like it explains Daniel's character too much. You slowly start to realize who this man really is as the film goes on, and I feel like Paul Thomas Anderson just added this scene to let the large percentage of the audience know what this films about, because the large percent are not insightful enough to understand what they're seeing on screen.

Another very important character in this movie is Eli Sunday(Paul Dano) who is in a battle with Daniel. To me, his character is just as much as bastard as Daniel Plainview. I think that's what P.T was going for, he definitely draws some interesting parallels with these characters.

Overall, this is a near flawless film and it definitely deserves the title of P.T's masterpiece, even though I like another film of his slighter better.