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"THERE WILL BE BLOOD" (R)
Daniel Day-Lewis
delivers a masterful, human performance in Anderson's There Will Be
Blood
By Josh Kirschenbaum
There Will Be Blood opens with a man in a
mine. In the darkness he strikes a wall of rock with steadfast
determination and a hint of vehemence. After wrapping up the day’s work,
he attempts to climb out but loses his footing and rapidly plummets
downward. Broken and disheveled, in no condition to move, he pulls
himself out of the mine and drags himself across the desert floor. This
is a man who cannot be stopped by broken bones. He is endlessly
competitive and will stop at nothing if it means success.
The man is Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), the protagonist
of Paul Thomas Anderson’s unrelenting new film. Daniel is an
oilman, who finds an “ocean of oil” in the small town of Little Boston
in southern California. He strikes a deal with Eli Sunday (Paul Dano),
a local religious leader whose church, the church of the third
revelation, is rapidly gaining power in the town. Eli seems to have a
one-track mind. As Daniel is describing a new road he will build for the
town Eli immediately asks if it will lead to the church. Dano
plays down his role, speaking quietly with a matter-of-fact tone for
most of the picture. The few chances he gets to showcase his talent come
when he preaches to his church. Dano shrieks about his revelation
with god as he moves through the pews, his face blood red, his hands
trembling violently. It’s a solid display, but next to Day-Lewis
it seems paltry.
A few months ago I wrote that Javier Bardem’s performance in
No Country for Old Men was reminiscent of Daniel Day-Lewis’s
in Gangs of New York. My reasoning was that Day-Lewis
never reached a certain level of depth in that film. If I implied that
Day-Lewis was a sub-par actor then I am truly sorry. In There
Will Be Blood, he reminds us why he is considered the best actor of
his generation. It’s not a role that relies on tricky accents or endless
waves of tears. Daniel Plainview is a despicable person, and
Day-Lewis doesn’t try to get around that fact. He doesn’t make you
try to like the character but he doesn’t play him as a straight villain
either. What he makes of Daniel Plainview is the most difficult thing
for actor to do: he makes him human. This is a performance that will go
down in history and cement Day-Lewis’ status as nothing less than
an acting god. If the Academy fails to honor him this month, all 5829
members will regret it for the rest of their lives.
It would be unfair to call Day-Lewis the star of the film, that
honor should certainly go to Paul Thomas Anderson. His direction
is dynamic, moving his camera masterfully across the landscape, through
the town and (most memorably) around an oil derrick. Jonny Greenwood’s
mesmerizing score is used to devastating effect. Anderson creates
an atmosphere of dread and horror that fits perfectly with Plainview’s
cutthroat nature.
What Anderson has created here is a disturbing character study of
the highest caliber, not only of Daniel Plainview but also of American
culture itself. This portrait of a man maliciously consumed with greed
and hatred becomes even greater when you realize that these are the
sorts of men who built the America we live in today. While it is easy to
condemn Plainview (and though he goes above and beyond what most people
would consider normal) remember that his disdain for others and
relentless desire for success are present today in every corporation
that ships faulty products to save money, in every person who ignores
the horrors of the world because they don’t want to spend the money to
help. There Will Be Blood strikes at the dark heart of America
with an astonishing precision that only a true master of cinema could
accomplish.
****/**** |
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