History Film / ThereWillBeBlood

A controversial but critically acclaimed 2007 film starring Creator/DanielDayLewis, for which he won the AcademyAward for Best Actor. Written, directed, and co-produced by Creator/PaulThomasAnderson, '''''There Will Be Blood''''' was nominated for seven other {{Academy Award}}s including Best Picture. It also won Best Cinematography for Robert Elswit. Loosely based on the first half of the novel ''Oil!'' by Upton Sinclair.

* TragicMistake: It could be argued that sending H.W. off to boarding school was the real tipping point for Daniel. The reason he does it is simply because H.W. is in the way and Daniel doesn't have the patience to properly care for him while working. He doesn't even give him a proper goodbye, he simply leaves him on a train and sneaks away as it departs. H.W. seems to be the only person Daniel may actually like, so carelessly sending him away effectively stripped him of his last shred of humanity.

* StrawNihilist : Guess who?

* TragicMistake

* MindRape: Daniel lays a truly savage one on Eli in the climax, reducing the man to tears. For bonus points, we only have Daniel's word on [[spoiler: Paul's success and the drainage of Eli's land]], but his delivery is strong enough that the victim doesn't question it. [[spoiler: and then he bashes Eli's brains out with an old-timey wood bowling pin.]]

A controversial but critically acclaimed 2007 film starring Creator/DanielDayLewis, for which he won the AcademyAward for Best Actor. Written, directed, and co-produced by Creator/PaulThomasAnderson, ''There Will Be Blood'' was nominated for seven other {{Academy Award}}s including Best Picture. It also won Best Cinematography for Robert Elswit. Loosely based on the first half of the novel ''Oil!'' by Upton Sinclair.

* * Discussed. Daniel Plainview famously uses the analogy of using a long straw to drink someone else's milkshake as an analogy for [[spoiler:how he rendered his bitter rival's land worthless by drilling all the oil out of it from his own property.]]

* AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame: [[spoiler: Daniel drains the oil from under Eli's farm without his knowledge, then mockingly reveals it to Eli (years after the fact, when Eli finally caves and tries to sell him the farm) by likening it to drinking a milkshake with a giant straw.]] Though that speech is the only thing about the film that many people know, it's actually a big revelation that comes out in the very last scene.

** If Daniel's words are to be believed, the only person to come out unscathered after dealing directly with him is [[spoiler: Paul Sunday, with the added bonus of making a small fortune himself thanks to said deal.]]

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Daniel Plainview starts out as a dirtied gold-seeker just trying to find some rare minerals without blowing himself up with his own TNT. By the end of the story he has stepped on anyone he has needed to in order to advance his own goals, exploited just about anyone with a speaking role, and killed anyone who betrayed him.

* ActingForTwo: Creator/PaulDano, originally cast as Paul Sunday, took the larger role of Eli Sunday (making the brothers twins) after Kel O'Neill departed the production.

* DisabledCharacterDisabledActor: Deaf actor Russell Harvard as an older H.W. Plainview.

* EnforcedMethodActing: Daniel Day-Lewis, naturally, went to town. He hit Paul Dano earlier than the intended mark during the scene where Daniel screams at Eli to heal his son. The look of shock when Eli tumbles to the ground is genuine. His hatred of Eli, which he continued even off-camera, led Paul Dano to confess he thought he would actually die during some points of the filming.
** During the baptism scene, Paul Dano is actually smacking Daniel Day-Lewis around, bringing it around full-circle.

->''I went to see that film,'' ThereWillBeBlood''. I mean, it's a fucking great title. Somebody says to you, "'d'ye fancy going to see a film?'" "'Oh well, I don't know, will there be blood?'" ''"'ThereWillBeBlood,'"'' right? "'I'm in, I'm in.'" I mean that is a fucking great title for a film, I mean, you couldn't have a better title. Apart from maybe'' [[{{Fanservice}} There Will Be Tits]]''. You could have a cinema that just shows'' There Will Be Blood'', and ''There Will Be Tits'', and you don't need any other films! That's the end of cinema right there...Anyway, I went to see ''There Will Be Blood'' - and [[NonIndicativeName there wasn't any fucking blood!]].''
-->'''[[ViolentGlaswegian Jamie MacDonald]]''', ''InTheLoop''

* TheDanza: Creator/DanielDayLewis as Daniel Plainview.

* ActingForTwo: Paul Dano, originally cast as Paul Sunday, took the larger role of Eli Sunday (making the brothers twins) after Kel O'Neill departed the production.

A controversial but critically acclaimed 2007 film starring Creator/DanielDayLewis, for which he won the AcademyAward for Best Actor. Written, directed, and co-produced by PaulThomasAnderson, ''There Will Be Blood'' was nominated for seven other {{Academy Award}}s including Best Picture. It also won Best Cinematography for Robert Elswit. Loosely based on the first half of the novel ''Oil!'' by Upton Sinclair.

* DeniedParody: While the film is about the dual corrupting powers of capitalism (specifically oil-related capitalism) and religion, Paul Thomas Anderson maintains that it had nothing to do with the presidency of George W. Bush.

** "One night I'm going to come to you, inside of your house, wherever you're sleeping, and I'm going to cut your throat."

** '''I AM THE THIRD REVELATION! I AM HE WHO THE LORD HAS CHOSEN! BECAUSE I'M''' '''''SMARTER''''' '''THAN YOU! I'M OLDER, AND BECAUSE I'M NOT A FALSE PROPHET, YOU SNIVELLING BOY! I AM THE THIRD REVELATION! I AM THE THIRD REVELATION! I TOLD YOU I WOULD EAT YOU! I TOLD YOU I WOULD EAT YOU UP!'''
** '''DRAAAAAAAAAINAGE! DRAINAGE, ELI, YOU ''BOY!!!'''''

* MeaningfulName: Daniel ''Plainview''. Just in case you don't quite get it, it's referring to the saying "Devil in plain view."

* NietzscheWannabe: Guess who?
* OlderThanTheyLook: Despite the 16 year TimeSkip, no makeup is used to make Paul Dano look any older in the final scene, for... some reason.
** An odd case, but plausible for the jump between late teens and early thirties, especially for somebody as dedicatedly clean-living as Eli.
** In the 16 year TimeSkip, Eli and Daniel seem relatively unchanged in appearance. Then you remember that [[MeaningfulName both characters represent God and the Devil respectively.]]

* ParallelPornTitles: There exists one called ''There Will Be Cum''.

*** Also, when H.W loses his hearing, Daniel's frantic questions of where he got hurt, and that he has to tell them if his head got damaged, his fear looks genuine. While it's true that he then seems more concerned with the oil than H.W's health (calmly replying "No, he isn't" when someone asks if H.W is OK), that moment suggests that he does care to the fullest extent that someone like him is able to.

* PsychoStrings: That's pretty much the whole soundtrack.
** With the occasional DroneOfDread to enforce the point.

*** Also, when H.W loses his hearing, Daniel's frantic questions of where he got hurt, and that he has to tell them if his head got damaged, his fear looks genuine. While it's true that he then seems more concerned with the oil than H.W's health (calmly replying "No, he isn't" when someone asks if H.W is OK,) that moment suggests that he does care to some extent.

** One of the main points of the movie is just how much H.W. is or is not a PetTheDog / MoralityPet for Plainview. In their final confrontation Plainview tells H.W. that he was exactly this: Daniel adopted H.W. because he believed posing as a family man would help him talk people into selling their oil rights to him. Yet the movie seems to suggest that Daniel did in fact love his son as much as he could love anything. Note the embrace when H.W. comes back from school, or Daniel's rage when his parenting skills are questioned, or Daniel's anguished "I abandoned my boy" when Eli makes him confess in front of the congregation. Most poignant is the quick flashback at the end, after Daniel has disowned H.W., when we see affectionate moments between father and son, followed by Daniel drinking heavily.

Which is not to suggest that not much happens. Plenty happens. And [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin there "is" blood]]. [[Website/{{Cracked}} (But very, very little.)]]

** It's more likely from that conversation that Daniel is not a standard textbook sociopath, but more a man so let down by others he feels nothing but contempt.

* {{Parody}}: There will be ''Bud'', a Youtube trailer for a film about a man's rise to power among the hippies of Southern California.
** ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HflLVEWbigI Darth Vader vs. Daniel Plainview]]''. Guess who comes across as more sinister?
-->'''Darth Plainview:''' I've ''broken'' you and I've ''beaten'' you. You are '''''not''''' my son. ('''Luke:''' No...)
-->'''Darth Plainview:''' It's true. You're not my son. You're an-- ORPHAN from a ''basket'' in the middle of the '''''desert.'''''
-->'''Luke:''' That's not true! That's ''impossible!'' NOOOO!
-->'''Darth Plainview:''' Stop crying, you snivelling ''ass''. Stop your nonsense. Whoo-hoo... ''Look at'' me! You're lower than a bastard. You're nothing but an... afterbirth that crawled out on its mother's filth. ''([[GlovedFistOfDoom grasps fist]])''

* ShownTheirWork: As it turns out, the milkshake-drinking-as-oilfield-drainage metaphor is actually paraphrased from the 1924 testimony of Sen. Albert Fall, who was convicted of bribery for selling off oil-drilling rights in what became known as the Teapot Dome scandal. One of them men who bribed him was Edward Doheny, the real-life inspiration for both Plainview and his fictional precursor in ''Oil!'', James Arnold Ross.

* EvilVersusEvil: Let's see, in the left corner we have an (in the beginning) indifferent to life, determined miner who just wants to earn a living. In span of two hours he cheats folks in California to basically work for him like oxes and give him oil to sell, personally kills few people (they had it coming, through), abandons his son because he.. failed him, takes pleasure from dominating everybody and generally perceives the world as much more evil than he is. In the right corner, we have a cowardly, hypocritical preacher who bullies his father and manipulates members of his church. Also, he ultimately sells his soul to Daniel in the end, complete with swift one-way ticket to Hell. Gentlemen, place your bets.
** "they had it coming, through" No they really didn't. Lying doesn't justify murder, neither does slapping people (which is what Daniel did first anyway, therefore is unjustified)
*** YMMV: The first lied about [[spoiler: being Daniel's dead brother and trying to take advantage of his business profits without any intention of revealing the truth until matters forced him to.]] The other insistently tried to take advantage of Daniel's business and interfered with him all for the sake of aiding his Church and his own selfish ends. Even if they didn't exactly deserve to die, I think it's very clear that they were aware of the risks involved when getting in the way of Daniel and his oil industry, and when push comes to shove...
* FauxAffablyEvil: While he can have some genuine moments of humanity, namely with his [[spoiler:fake]] brother and son, Plainview is this, hiding his sociopathic and greedy nature under a civilized demeanor.

A controversial but critically acclaimed 2007 film starring [[DanielDayLewis Daniel Day-Lewis]], for which he won the AcademyAward for Best Actor. Written, directed, and co-produced by PaulThomasAnderson, ''There Will Be Blood'' was nominated for seven other {{Academy Award}}s including Best Picture. It also won Best Cinematography for Robert Elswit. Loosely based on the first half of the novel ''Oil!'' by Upton Sinclair.

* TheDanza: DanielDayLewis as Daniel Plainview.

* EnforcedMethodActing: Daniel Day-Lewis, naturally, went to town. He hit Paul Dano earlier than the intended mark during the scene where Daniel screams at Eli to heal his son. The look of shock when Eli tumbles to the ground is genuine. His hatred of Eli, which he continued even off-camera, led Paul Dano to confess he thought he was actually die during some points of the filming.

** What did Eli do to deserve what he got?