Sinclair’s book is a thin, socialist commentary of corporate greed Blood is a mammoth character study, biblically fraught with themes of sin, fratricide and false prophecy. He credits Upton Sinclair’s novel Oil! for inspiring the plot, but the movie’s Old Testament genius is entirely Anderson’s.
With There Will Be Blood, Anderson gives us perhaps the most striking and confounding film of the decade. He strikes crude with a small crew, and before long he’s making successful, duplicitous pitches to drill all over the state.īut as his wealth and prospects swell, so too does Daniel Plainview’s lust for power, and Anderson continually reminds us that Plainview has had his Fall: a persistent limp marks his gait, a remnant of his tumble that flares up whenever he deceives people with fraudulent “plain speech,” or when he gives in to violence against those who cross him.
We see Plainview lying on the floor of an office, stretching the leg he shattered in the plummet, while surveyors certify his valuable discovery. When Plainview emerges, small chunk of silver ore in hand, Anderson shows us his changing fortunes with a few, quick brushstrokes. Only a few minutes into the film, set in late 19th and early 20th century California, the protagonist Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) loses his grip on a ladder and plunges down a shaft where he’s been excavating for silver. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood literally starts off with a thud. On these two Commandments hang all the law and the prophets.Īll-Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. Superintendent-Hear what Christ, our Savior saith: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. School-Lord, have mercy upon us, and write these laws upon our hearts. Superintendent-Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s. Superintendent-Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Superintendent-Thou shalt not commit adultery. Superintendent-Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord hath made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day: Wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it. Superintendent-Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. School-Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law. Superintendent-Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Superintendent-Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. School-Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law Superintendent-And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Church Universal, the communion of the saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried the third day He arose from the dead, He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
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