BY
VICKI GILHULA
There Will Be Blood, one of the films nominated for numerous
Academy Awards including best picture, is being hailed as
another Citizen Kane. Critics have said the movie is so ahead
of its time, it may take generations for it to be truly
appreciated.
The film opens with a simple black and white title. For the
next 15 minutes, not a word is spoken as the story unfolds.
Main character Daniel Plainview, (Daniel Day-Lewis) is
prospecting for silver in California in 1898 when he
accidentally finds oil.
The movie is "inspired" by the 1927 novel Oil! by American
novelist Upton Sinclair, and the script has been written by the
movie's director Paul Thomas Anderson. Anderson is also the guy
who gave audiences the frog-raining scene in the movie
Magnolia.
There Will Be Blood has a message about capitalism and greed,
but it isn't the story Sinclair intended.
Upton's book has been re-released to take advantage of the
interest this movie will generate, and it is worth a read by a
21st century audience.
Sinclair, a socialist and activist, wrote more than 90 books
before his death in 1968. His 1906 novel, The Jungle, dealt
with working conditions in the Chicago meat packing industry,
and led to inspection legislation.
Sinclair's main character is the oil tycoon's son who
sympathizes with the oilfield workers. The father and son
debate socialist ideas. His moral hero, a "Communist" who tries
to unionize the workers, is totally left out of the movie.
Instead, for better or worse, Anderson's story is about the
American dream. Plainview is a rag-to-riches self-made man. He
is ruthless, he is competitive, and he doesn't like other
people.
The religion of capitalism and American evangelism are key
themes that lead to the movie's climax.
Plainview sells his soul to the devil when he fakes a
conversion to Jesus in order to get a lease on a property held
by a religious landowner.
He is at odds throughout the film with Rev. Eli Sunday, who he
meets when he buys the oil-rich Sunday family farm at a bargain
price.
Sunday, by the end of the movie is a radio evangelist in
Hollywood, confesses to his own sins, including an addiction to
money.
There is a good supporting cast in There Will Be Blood, but
they are only background to Day-Lewis.
The British actor, who lives outside of Dublin, copied the
voice and manner of American film director and actor John
Huston for this role.
To use a cliche, Day-Lewis eats up the screen. He is the movie.
If he doesn't win the Oscar for best actor, it may be because
he isn't acting. In this film, he is Daniel Plainview.
Day-Lewis is known for staying in character when the cameras
aren't rolling. When he played Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New
York, he relaxed by chopping meat.
Only time will tell whether There Will Be Blood will have the
staying power that Orson Welles' poor man-to-heartless tycoon
story has had, but the films do share something in common. Both
can be seen and enjoyed over and over again.
Vicki Gilhula is the managing editor of Laurentian Media's magazine division.
