There Will Be Blood (2007)

Director:

Paul Thomas Anderson

Writers (WGA):

Paul Thomas Anderson (screenplay)
Upton Sinclair (novel)

Release Date:

11 January 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

When Ambition Meets Faith

Plot:

A story about family, greed, religion, and oil, centered around a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.

Plot Keywords:

Oil | Land | Prospector | California | Greed

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 56 wins & 52 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sun. Dec. 6

11:15 PM

TMC

Cast

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 H.W. Plainview
Stockton Taylor	...	Baby H.W. Plainview
Paul F. Tompkins	...	Prescott
Dillon Freasier	...	Young H.W. Plainview
Kevin Breznahan	...	Signal Hill Man
Jim Meskimen	...	Signal Hill Married Man
Erica Sullivan	...	Signal Hill Woman
Randall Carver	...	Mr. Bankside
Coco Leigh	...	Mrs. Bankside

Also Known As:

Oil! (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some violence.

Runtime:

158 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | American Sign Language

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Ireland:15A | Finland:K-13 | Singapore:PG | Canada:13+ (Québec) | Canada:14A (Manitoba) | Germany:12 (f) | Netherlands:16 | South Africa:16LV | USA:R (certificate #43414) | Brazil:14 | Australia:M | UK:12A (original rating) | UK:15 (re-rating on appeal) | Norway:15 | Czech Republic:15 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Philippines:R-13 (MTRCB) | New Zealand:R13 | Sweden:15 | Denmark:15 | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Ontario) | South Korea:15 | Hong Kong:IIA | Malaysia:U | Argentina:13 | Taiwan:R-12 | Greece:K-13 | France:U (with warning) | Portugal:M/12 (Qualidade) | Austria:16

Filming Locations:

El Mirage Dry Lake, California, USA

Company:

Ghoulardi Film Company

Trivia:

In the summer of '06, during filming, a photographer snapped an onset photo of a person they believed to be Daniel Day-Lewis, albeit with a great deal of physical alterations. The photo appeared used on various film websites and in magazines as an example of how drastically Day-Lewis had changed himself for the role. Upon viewing the film and applying common sense, it turns out, this person was NOT, in fact, Daniel Day-Lewis; it was instead actor Vince Froio, who portrayed Plainview's "closest associate" at the end of the film.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In the early scenes where the two miners are hauling buckets up the wells, a modern day "bow" shackle is used to hold the bucket to the rope.

Quotes:

Eli Sunday: Oh, Daniel, please... I'm in desperate times. I need a friend... I feel the walls closing in. I've sinned! I need help! I'm a sinner! I've let the Devil grab hold of me in ways I never imagined! I'm so full of sin.
Plainview: The Lord sometimes challenges us, doesn't he?
Eli Sunday: Oh yes he does! Yes he does! Oh! He's completely failed to alert me to the recent panic in our economy and this! I must have this! I've invested... my investments have... Oh, Daniel, I won't bore you, but I... If I could grab the Lord's hands for help I would, but he does these things all the time, these mysteries that he presents and while we wait, while we wait... wait for his word...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Henry Rollins Show: Paul Thomas Anderson/Aimee Mann (#1.7)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

Violin Concerto in D Major Op.77:3. Vivace Non Troppo

Stunning

This film raises the game for everyone out there. I have loved all of Paul Thomas Anderson's work, including his greatly underrated Punch-Drunk Love, but this is a huge leap from any of the previous movies into a realm, as others have said, inhabited by classics such as Treasure of the Sierra Madre - and then some. Every element of this film is astonishing, from the opening twenty minutes, which feature virtually no dialog, to Jonny Greenwood's score, which I have heard criticized as too imposing but which seems just about perfect to me (and brings to mind the non-Blue Danube elements of 2001 at its most experimental). Daniel Day-Lewis' performance is in a league of its own: his voice, his mannerisms, his physical movement, his stunted emotions, are flesh and blood, and hauntingly so, in a way that even Tommy Lee Jones in In The Valley of Elah (which I thought was a pretty staggering performance) can't quite attain. I will watch this film again and again simply to see something so raw and so moving and so gut-wrenching. This is why I love movies; this is what made me want to make movies when I was fourteen years old.