Last weekend I saw There Will be Blood directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Overall this movie was very depressing, the story was filled with the darkness of human natures. I could feel the anger and loneliness for Daniel Day Lewis's character, Daniel Plainview. The story was about an oil man during the early twentieth century.
Daniel Plainview was a hard worker and early on appears to be a good man. He wants to lease land for oil, bringing education, jobs, and irrigation with his oil drilling. He as well as the landowners will benefit financially from his drilling. All seems to go well until a young preacher, Eli Sunday, continues to push his religious beliefs and church onto Daniel. Eli seems to be a greedy minister that believes he is a prophet, he has many followers and claims to be a healer. It should be mentioned, that Eli is self centered and only wished to have more followers. Daniel and Eli seem to be in competition, they are just men that do not get along. There Will Be blood was directed very well. The actors were very convincing, the whole movie felt very authentic. Close ups of the actor's faces as portrayed their emotions. Lighting was well done in this film, one scene that used lighting very well was when the oil sprayed up out of the ground. During this sequence, the day transitioned into darkness as the oil spewed up into the air, foreshadowing the dark turn of events that would continue in the film. The lighting during the oil well fire made it look like hell burning. This hell like lighting symbolized Daniel's obsession of oil that eventually would consume him.
This movie made me feel just depressed, there was nothing really pleasing about the story. Things just got worse as time went on. Even though Daniel Plainview was a bad man, I truly felt sorry for him, he just allowed himself to fill with hate. All Daniel needed was one person to love, and anyone he ever got close to ended up making him hate people even more. There Will be Blood was a genuinely great piece of film. It had everything, acting, scenery, and lighting. The story showed what would happen if you let greed run your life. Although this movie is dark and depressing, I would recommend it, just don't expect to feel good after watching it.
