There Will Be Blood - Revised

So, I am going to talk about There Will Be Blood from a more visual standpoint. I watched it again this weekend, and it was even better the second time! Why am I so obsessed with this movie?! I think I'm just a sucker for Daniel-Day and his freakishness.

For about the first 15 min. of the movie, there is little or no dialog. No words are needed. Words would have detracted from the main focus of the film: Daniel Plainview and Oil. The greed and detrimental hunger for oil is made evident from the very beginning. For Daniel, oil (and the struggle to make money) is his life. It's how he makes a living, it's what he does all day, and it's all he thinks about after his work is done; it consumes his being. These opening scenes also kind of show Daniel's progression from a plain and naive oil worker to the fierce entrepreneur and later monster that he becomes.

The darkness of the scenes also give the film an eerie feeling. Most notably for me is the scene where Daniel's son H.W. tells him that he wants to move to Mexico to start his own oil drilling business. The dark intense lighting reflected and enhanced the scene. The only thing keeping Daniel sane (his boy H.W. who he loved regardless of what he said) is gone. This was his final breaking point for him and one of the darkest moments in the movie.