There Will Be Blood (2007)

A story of family, religion, hatred, oil and madness, focusing on a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.

Director:

Paul Thomas Anderson

Writers:

Paul Thomas Anderson (written for the screen by), Upton Sinclair (novel)

Stars:

Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Ciarán Hinds

Top Rated Movies #162 | Won 2 Oscars. Another 106 wins & 136 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Daniel Day-Lewis	...	Daniel Plainview
Martin Stringer	...	Silver Assay Worker
Matthew Braden Stringer	...	Silver Assay Worker
Jacob Stringer	...	Silver Assay Worker
Joseph Mussey	...	Silver Assay Worker
Barry Del Sherman	...	H.B. Ailman
Harrison Taylor	...	Baby HW
Stockton Taylor	...	Baby HW
Paul F. Tompkins	...	Prescott
Dillon Freasier	...	HW
Kevin Breznahan	...	Signal Hill Man
Jim Meskimen	...	Signal Hill Married Man
Erica Sullivan	...	Signal Hill Woman
Randall Carver	...	Mr. Bankside
Coco Leigh	...	Mrs. Bankside

Storyline

The intersecting life stories of Daniel Plainview and Eli Sunday in early twentieth century California presents miner-turned-oilman Daniel Plainview, a driven man who will do whatever it takes to achieve his goals. He works hard but also takes advantage of those around him at their expense if need be. His business partner/son (H.W.) is, in reality, an "acquired" child whose true biological single-parent father (working on one of Daniel's rigs) died in a workplace accident. Daniel is deeply protective of H.W. if only for what H.W. brings to the partnership. Eli Sunday is one in a pair of twins whose family farm Daniel purchases for the major oil deposit located on it. Eli, a local preacher and a self-proclaimed faith healer, wants the money from the sale of the property to finance his own church. The lives of the two competitive men often clash as Daniel pumps oil off the property and tries to acquire all the surrounding land at bargain prices to be able to build a pipeline to the ...

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Plot Keywords:

oil | misanthrope | loss of hearing | false prophet | alcoholic | 

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Taglines:

There Will Be Greed. There Will Be Vengeance.

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some violence

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English American Sign Language

Release Date:

25 January 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Oil!

Filming Locations:

Shafter, Texas, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$302,845, 30 December 2007, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$40,222,514

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$77,208,711

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Vantage, Miramax, Ghoulardi Film Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

158 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The piece "Convergence" during the oil derrick fire was originally composed by Jonny Greenwood for the film Bodysong (2003), and is available on the sound-track for that film, but not 'There Will Be Blood'.

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Goofs

In the final scene, in the bowling room, Eli Sunday downs one of three drinks and sips on the second. He gets up, but in the next shot there are two empty glasses instead of one.

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Quotes

Plainview: I want you to look over there.
[points towards H.W]
H.M. Tilford: Daniel, let me introduce you...
Plainview: Look over there. You see? That's my son. You see him?
H.M. Tilford: Yes.
Plainview: You SEE?
H.M. Tilford: I see him.
Plainview: You don't tell me how to raise my family. I told you not to tell me how to raise my family.
H.M. Tilford: Daniel...
Plainview: So, what do you see?
[...]

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Crazy Credits

There are no opening credits, except for the title

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Connections

Referenced in The Limit of Sight (2014)

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Soundtracks

There Is Power in the Blood
Written by Lewis E. Jones
Performed by Church of the Third Revelation

User Reviews

Revitalizing, masterful, and utterly terrifying.

What is evil? What is hate? How low can an individual go with one's actions and still be considered human....? These, quite possibly, are the biggest questions raised in There Will Be Blood.

Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day-Lewis, the tycoons at the helm of this dig for moral oil, tell a story that takes the archetypal anti-heroes of 'Citizen Kane' and Travis Bickle of 'Taxi Driver' to a whole new, 21st-century level. The film, using Lewis's character Daniel Plainview, walks through incredibly dangerous cinematic territory that questions religion, plays with the nature of greed and hate and evil, and with it all, draws terrifying parallels to the world we live in today. The film and its main character claw so deep through the limits of humanity and the landscape of hell, that you'll be thanking the Good Lord for the silver screen that divides you from this horrible world Paul Thomas Anderson has portrayed. But despite how safe you may seem in your cushy seat, you will undoubtedly walk out of the theater with all kinds of new demons and ghosts buzzing in your head and ripping away at your subconscious. In this way, Anderson has abandoned his primary previous influence of Robert Altman to take more of a Stanley Kubrick direction, creating moral allegories that creep into your psyche and don't ever leave. You should be scared. Very Scared.