History Film / ThereWillBeBlood

* AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame: [[spoiler: Daniel drains the oil from under the entire area without Eli's knowledge, then mockingly reveals it to him (years after the fact, when Eli finally caves and tries to sell him the properties he doesn't already own) 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.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Daniel Plainview, of course.

*** Eli Sunday is named after Eli, which is both the Hebrew name of God as well as a Biblical Israeli judge. There is irony in the divine interpretation of the name, because although Eli Sunday starts his own church to preach his own gospel (as if he were God) he is shown to be instead incredibly immoral and powerless, unable to heal H.W. and easily physically subdued. The Biblical judge Eli dies suddenly after learning that his power has suddenly been stripped from him, a close parallel to Eli Sunday's powerless desperation in the face of the oncoming Great Depression.

* TheAlcoholic: Daniel is constantly shown swigging whiskey. One his the first scenes is him pouring whiskey into a baby bottle and offering it to the infant H.W., having no idea how to parent. Several scenes begin with him being awoken from a drunken stupor. When the final holdout offers to lease his land to Daniel on the condition that he repent his sin, he's talking about his drinking.

* TrashTheSet: In that impressive, dramatic scene where the oil derrick burns, how do you think they made it look so real? They burned the derrick.

-->"...I'm finished."

Despite much difficulty during the drilling, [[spoiler:including H.W.'s injury and resulting deafness; Daniel's humiliating baptism at the hands of Eli; and the ''long'' process of building an oil pipeline to avoid shipping costs (which is more dramatic -- and traumatic -- than it sounds), Daniel pulls it off and makes a fortune. But by the end of the movie, it is clear that [[MoralEventHorizon his morality has completely eroded]], and has been dissolving throughout the film.]]

* BadassBoast: Daniel does an epic one while chasing a helpless, panicking Eli through the final bowling alley-scene.

--> "Did you think that your song and dance and superstition would help you, Eli!? I am the third revelation. I am who the Lord has chosen. I am smarter than you! I'm older! I am not a false prophet, you sniffling boy! III AM THE THIIIRD REVELATION! ''IIII AM THE THIRD REVELATION!'' I told you I would eat you! I told you I would eat you up!"

* BadassBoast: Daniel does an epic one while chasing a helpless, panicking Eli through the bowling alley.
--> "Did you think that your song and dance and superstition would help you, Eli!? I am the third revelation. I am who the Lord has chosen. I am smarter than you! I'm older! I am not a false prophet, you sniffling boy! I AM THE THIRD REVELATION! ''IIII AM THE THIRD REVELATION!'' I told you I would eat you! I told you I would eat you up!"

--> "I AM THE THIRD REVELATION!"

* JerkAss: Daniel, though Eli isn't much better.

* LargeHam: Who do you think? Daniel is the very ''definition'' of this trope. More memorable scenes include Daniel [[spoiler: murdering his impostor half-brother]], yelling with a napkin over his head in a posh restaurant, [[spoiler: killing Eli]], [[spoiler: "disowning" his son and taunting him for being a]] '''"bastard from a basket!"''' and of course the ''"I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE!!"'' lines, along with the visual acting out of the analogy. (''*slurrrrp!*'')

** Daniel is kind to the youngest Sunday daughter and ensures that she is no longer beaten by her father Abel for not praying. However, it's unclear whether he does this to benefit the daughter or simply to dominate the father.

** H.W. is never given a full name, because Daniel never sees him as a complete person.

* TheAlcoholic: Daniel.

** Daniel is kind to the youngest Sunday daughter and ensures that she is no longer beaten by her father for not praying. However, even this act of kindness could be a tainted act for Daniel. While asking the girl if her father still hits her, Daniel's glance at said father suggests a motive of dominance.
** 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. He may not care about H.W anymore, but this certainly suggests he ''used'' to and is upset to the point of (further) madness that he doesn't any longer.
** 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.

* PunctuatedForEmphasis: [[MemeticMutation "I! DRINK! YOUR! MILKSHAKE!"]]

* PyrrhicVillainy: Daniel, though unbelievably rich, gave up what morals he had, disowned his son, lives in isolation, is hated by most everyone, and kills a few people in the timeline of the movie.
** Of course, being rich enough to be completely alone was what he claimed to want all along, but we repeatedly see he still wanted a family and took their perceived "betrayals" with crippling pain and frustration.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: The milkshake speech is this, combined with some general EvilGloating.
** "You're just the afterbirth that ''slithered'' out on your mother's ''filth''! They should have put you in a ''glass jar'' on the mantlepiece. Stop crying you sniveling ass! Stop your nonsense!"

* SinisterMinister: Eli Sunday is obsessed with his church, and is probably just as power-hungry as Daniel. The weird part is that, even though Eli is greedy, very unforgiving, a mooch, extremely over-the-top, and clearly a wackjob, his church has many followers and grows throughout the film.

* TheSociopath: As has been mentioned, the film is less about the events that happen, and more about the character of Daniel Plainview, and realizing that this is what he is. At first, Daniel seems to simply not like social interactions because many of the people he deals with are quite petty, but in a discussion with his previously estranged brother, he has this rather revealing conversation with him:
--> '''Daniel''': "Are you an angry man, Henry?"
--> '''Henry''': "About what?"
--> '''Daniel''': "Are you envious? Do you get envious?"
--> '''Henry''': "I don't think so. No."
--> '''Daniel''': "I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people."
--> '''Henry''': "That part of me is gone... working and not succeeding- all my failures has left me... I just don't... care."
--> '''Daniel''': "Well, if it's in me, it's in you. There are times when I look at people and I see nothing worth liking. I want to earn enough money that I can get away from everyone."
** It's more likely from that conversation that Daniel is not a standard textbook sociopath (one who is simply born with a defective brain), but more a man so let down by others he feels nothing but contempt, and years of misanthropy has made him into a sociopath.

* SoundtrackDissonance: In the end, the movie lives up to its title. Civilized men return to their animal selves, brutality reigns, blood is had--blackout to credits with a rollicking performance of a Brahms Violin Concerto so you can dance your way out of the theater.

* StrawNihilist: Guess who?

* VillainousBreakdown: The second half of the movie is essentially a very long breakdown for Daniel, as he becomes more and more unstable as time goes on. He has a few moments which definitely count by themselves, though, in particular, him slapping the hell out of Eli because Eli couldn't [[spoiler: cure H.W. of his deafness]], his telling H.W. [[spoiler: that he's not his son]], and finally, his TheReasonYouSuckSpeech given to Eli at the end of the film, culminating in [[spoiler:him brutally murdering Eli]].

* ZigZaggingTrope: Good vs. Evil... which is which?

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

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Milkshakes aren't a random, unexpected example of AnachronismStew: Milkshakes (at least whiskey and whiskey cream-based ones) have been around by that name since the early-to-mid 1880s, and are appropriate for a metaphor by an alcoholic oil baron.
** PTA also based that line off of an actual quote from U.S. Senator Albert Fall during an oil-related Congressional hearing in the 1920s; it amused Anderson that a term such as "milkshake" would be used as an analogy in a senator's testimony.

* EnemyEatsYourLunch: 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.]]

* GenreSavvy: When he comes to Daniel to tell him about the oil on his family's land in return for money, Daniel does subtly attempt to find out where the land is so he can investigate himself without having to pay any money at all. Paul firmly deflects all the questions ("Where are you from? What town is nearby? What crops does your family grow?). He even lampshades it by pointedly telling Daniel that he'd like it better if Daniel didn't think he was stupid.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Daniel ensures that Mary Sunday is no longer hit by her father for not saying her prayers (for whatever motive, see PetTheDog below,) but when one of his competitors makes a suggestion about spending more time with H.W Daniel furiously demands "[[BerserkButton Did you just tell me how to run my family?]]" and tells him he'll cut his throat. He reminds the man of this moment when he humiliates him in the restaurant later, pointing out how he ''is'' spending time with H.W (who has just that day come back from being sent away to boarding school for ages).
** Daniel actually has a lot of moments of this, as he manipulates and bullies people into doing what he wants by faking care. For one example, there's the way he gets the townsfolk to sell them his land; he makes an impassioned speech about how "it is an abomination to [him], that in this great country of ours, any child should look upon a loaf of bread as a luxury" while promising to bring them wealth. His oil ''does'' bring them wealth, but Daniel couldn't care less about any of them, and holds them in total contempt.
** A more subtle one, but when Eli and Daniel have a conversation about the workers (a conversation is a polite way of putting it) one of the things Eli mentions is how his workers shouldn't be drinking. Guess what he offers Daniel in the final scene?

----
->''I went to see that film,'' There Will Be Blood''. 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?'" ''"'There Will Be Blood,'"'' 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]]''', ''Film/InTheLoop''

* CameraAbuse: When Plainview attacks Eli at the climax, he knocks over a bucket of water, some of which gets on the lens.

*** Eli Sunday is named after Eli, which is both the Hebrew name of God as well as a Biblical Israeli judge. There is irony in the divine interpretation of the name, because although Eli Sunday starts his own church to preach his own gospel (as if he were God) he is shown to be instead incredibly immoral and powerless, unable to heal H.W. and easily physically subdued. The Biblical judge Eli dies suddenly after learning that his power has suddenly been stripped from him, a close parallel to Eli Sunday's powerless desperation after the Great Depression.

Despite much difficulty during the drilling, including H.W.'s injury and resulting deafness; Daniel's humiliating baptism at the hands of Eli; and the ''long'' process of building an oil pipeline to avoid shipping costs (which is more dramatic -- and traumatic -- than it sounds), Daniel pulls it off and makes a fortune. But by the end of the movie, it is clear that [[MoralEventHorizon his morality has completely eroded]], and has been dissolving throughout the film.

* 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 a few people, 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.

A controversial but critically acclaimed 2007 film starring Creator/DanielDayLewis, for which he won the UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for Best Actor. Written, directed, and co-produced by Creator/PaulThomasAnderson, '''''There Will Be Blood''''' was nominated for seven other UsefulNotes/{{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.

* OlderThanTheyLook: Despite the 16 year TimeSkip, no makeup is used to make Paul Dano look any older in the final scene.

A controversial but critically acclaimed 2007 film starring Creator/DanielDayLewis, for which he won the UsefulNotes/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.