There Will Be Blood

A sprawling epic of family, faith, power and oil, THERE WILL BE BLOOD is set on the incendiary frontier of California’s turn-of-the-century petroleum boom. Paul Thomas Anderson’s brutal epic chronicles the interesecting storylines of oilman Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Bible man Eli Sunday (Paul Dano). As Plainview acquires territory around him, including a worker’s deaf son named H.W., he grows more and more isolated and controlling. And as Plainview’s oil business booms, so does the heavy competition around him.

The movie is very loosely based on OIL!, Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel about a corrupt oil family based so loosely, one can see the film, read the book and experience two different stories. Daniel Plainview character is a man who has no friends, no lovers, no real partners and an adopted son that he exploits mostly as a prop. He comes from nowhere, stays in contact with no one, and when a man appears claiming to be his half-brother, it is not surprising that they have never met before. Money becomes the ultimate motive for Plainview in this riveting and brutal epic with an ending that will leave you speechless.