there will be blood (anderson 2007) (there will be vagueness)

based on upton sinclair's oil, there will be blood chronicles the actions of daniel plainview, an entrepreneur who discovers gold out west in the early 1900s. the 'message' is familiar: greed corrupts. the execution is special.

from the very beginning, there is darkness and noise. the entirety of the film, actually, is extremely noisy. because of the constant presence of oil-drilling, rhythmic banging forms the bassline of much of there will be blood's soundtrack. hints to the current tone are concealed under the crashing sound of hydraulics, metal, and bubbling oil.

the visuals are dramatic and suitably so. in the style of classic westerns, the epic desert dominates any outdoor scene. there will be blood cuts harshly between the blackened, sordid pits of the oil wells and the blinding sand of california. every character is dark and flawed, and the costuming shows it. half the time characters on screen have their faces smothered in black oil. daniel day-lewis, whenever presenting a public image, is shot as having impossibly shiny, smooth hair and skin, as if his flesh and blood are made of oil.

and man, the shots it takes are just great. the oil itself is the most disgusting thing you've ever seen. in one scene, it explodes out of the ground and forms a geyser. a hundred-foot geyser that catches fire. it is a very, very cool sight.

of course the greatness of the film is in the acting. daniel day-lewis is, well, just as good as everyone has been saying he is. theatrical when pitching his sales, nervy when discussing the past, and throughly unhinged when mentally unquiet. the degradation of his character is remarkable, and, in what i found to be an incredibly bizarre twist, the film's tone becomes more comical as day-lewis really loses it. the drama and tension of the first two hours of the movie slowly dissolve into an equally tense but strangely humorous epilogue. the final scene in particular is a blend of pure slapstick and evil.

it's quite a long movie, and you'll start to feel it at around an hour and a half into it. it'll feel like an epic tale, which it rightfully is. but if you persist, you'll find that there is a ton of entertainment to be found here, too. and damn, it is good.