An Evil Genius in the Person of Daniel Plainview - Movie Review Example

Movie Review - There will be Blood There will be Blood was produced in 2007 by the trio of Paul Thomas Anderson, Joanne Sellar and Daniel Lupo. The film was directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and based on the novel written by Upton Sinclair. It is the story of a silver miner that had plans to be an oil worker as he embarked on his quest to become a wealthy man and ultimately hurt the people that stood in the path of fulfilling his wealth-seeking mission. Evil is a common theme in the movie as this was evident throughout the whole film. Director Paul Anderson did a great job in bringing the evil that was committed by an evil genius in the person of Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis). Daniel Plainview is even proud to let people know that his life revolves around the crimes he committed as this was evident in his charismatic lifestyle. Every man must reap what they sow and this was the case of Daniel as the evil that he did lived after him. It all started in 1902, when Daniel Plainview, a miner discovered oil and sets up his own oil drilling company and after some period, he lost one of his workers, whose son, H.W (Dillon Freasier) he later adopted. Events began to unfold as Plainview was intimated by Paul Sunday of the presence of oil in his family land in Little Boston, California (Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Kevin J. O’Connor, Ciaran Hinds & Dillon Freasier). Plainview saw the oil site in Paul Sunday’s (Paul Dano) Little Boston as a good way to make money and he took a trip to the city. He met the disapproval of Paul Sunday’s twin brother, Eli Sunday, whose role was also played by Paul Dano and he had to seek the consent of their father in obtaining the land. After procuring the land, oil exploration started and it was no sooner that evil started manifesting in the land and it makes one think that the land must have been a cursed land. One of the workers on the land was accidently killed in the course of the oil exploration and this was one of the many evil that was in the film. An explosion later happened, that made Plainview’s adopted son, H.W somewhat deaf (Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Kevin J. O’Connor, Ciaran Hinds & Dillon Freasier). Daniel Plainview’s evil started manifesting when he and his son travelled to New Boston, California to meet a preacher named, Eli Sunday and tells him of his ambition of drilling the oil in their family land, something that Eli Sunday accepted reluctantly not knowing that Daniel had some evil in him. Eli Sunday accepted Daniel’s proposal based on the condition that he would help fund his church, The Church of the Third Revelation. After Daniel Plainview’s plans began to materialize as the schemes he planned began to work out, he soon started having problems with Paul Sunday. It was Paul Sunday that introduced Daniel to his brother, Eli Sunday and his grouse with Daniel Plainview made Daniel to be all the more ruthless. On a particular day, a man (Kevin J. OConnor) arrived at the doorstep of Plainview and claimed that he was Plainview’s unknown brother, Henry and Plainview took this hook, line and sinker only to learn that the man was not who he claimed he was. The man later confessed that he was an impersonator and a friend of the real Henry, who had died of tuberculosis. Plainview angry by this confession killed the man in cold blood and concealed the body. Plainview’s true reason for killing the man was due to the fact that he feared that the man had other hidden agenda. Evil cut across all ages in the movie as the adopted son of Plainview tried to kill the fake Henry and the murder of the fake Henry by Plainview is clear evidence of evil that the movie was trying to portray. The fact that Plainview killed this man for fear that he would unleash terror on him one day, showed that Plainview saw every other men of having evil in them as he compared them to himself. Daniel Plainview was a personification of evil as he had the full traits of an evil genius and he demonstrated a high level of confidence anytime he planned and perpetrated his evil deeds. His character was played by Daniel Day-Lewis and in carrying out his role as a cruel man; he showed that he is a master in the scene and one of the best actors of all time. Plainview had the selfish ambition to not only control the land, but also to dominate his fellow human being. Plainview looked more like an innocent man in the beginning of the movie, but it was soon clear that he was a sheep in wolves’ clothing as he devised some evil schemes in his quest for wealth. The wealth of Plainview actually increased causing him to have more evil plans and hatred for people around him and the wealth he acquired did not give him happiness and this shows the vanity of wealth, for the acquisition of wealth without happiness is meaningless. Daniel Plainview ended up destroying himself and this marked the end of the evil man, called Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Kevin J. O’Connor, Ciaran Hinds & Dillon Freasier). Eli Sunday was very brilliant as he combined his unyielding composure with his deep spirituality. He gave some jaw-breaking and heart-penetrating sermon on the pulpit. Though, Eli looked more like a corrupt preacher but the fact remains that it was Plainview that made him do what he did. Eli could also be viewed as a preacher that favored his selfish ambition than his spirituality and one could blame Plainview for changing the mindset of this preacher to an evil one. Eli Sunday was so broke that he had to agree to Plainview’s proposal. Plainview was so evil that he told Eli Sunday to profess that he was a false prophet and that God does not exist in the true world. Plainview did this to get back at Eli Sunday after the humiliation he had put him through over the years. Plainview later carried out his evil act by beating Eli Sunday to death (Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Kevin J. O’Connor, Ciaran Hinds & Dillon Freasier). H.W Plainview was a man that grew up to take another man as his father and the fact that he went deaf did not mean that he did not know what life was all about. H.W Plainview was not only like a son to Plainview, but also his business partner. His desire to marry and control his own world made him to request his own share from his father and business partner, Daniel Plainview and this was what made Plainview reveal his real identity. Plainview later mocked H.W of being deaf and this shows that Plainview was also mean and cruel to someone he took as his own son. The kind of sound and music that was heard in the film was representative of the evil that existed in the film. There were signs of chaos and tension in the soundtrack of the film and this shows the evil that was overly present in the film. The film’s score evokes sadness and it is closely related to the one that was sung in Dracula and this shows that the film was truly a tragic film. The theme music was composed by Guitarist, Jonny Greenwood and he showed that he was gifted in crafting out sounds that echoed traces of tragedy. The music composed by Greenwood was more like traditional orchestral sounds and they were songs that unsettled the mind and have some sort of sinister feeling. For instance, the song that was heard during the explosion that took place at the oil site would definitely give viewers feelings of evil. Jonny Greenwood’s beautiful music performance showed us what have been lacking in most films of its kind. The scenes of the movie were rather barbaric as there were different scenes of blood in the movie. The movie tried to show the presence of evil in the film through the depiction of red images that were traces of blood gushing out of the bodies of the people whom Daniel Plainview perpetrated his evil on. The scenes were actually very impressive as there was a lush display of desert scenes and a close caption of the wonderful characters. The expressions on the faces of the characters were clearly shown as it made the viewers to know what each of them was capable of doing. For instance, Daniel Plainview always had this nonchalant, no-care attitude anytime he planned and executed his evil plots and through the depiction of Daniel’s face, viewers would easily suspect what he was up to, each time he perpetrated his evil act. The complex lifestyle of Americans and the people that lived in it was clearly depicted in the film with some tragic scenery. There were signs of unbearable tension in the scenes of the film. Most of the events in the film took place in Los Angeles and a ranch in Marfa, Texas. The beautiful images and tragic scenes were captured by Robert Elswit, who created visual poetry from the novel, Oil with a dazzling artistic flair. The derrick fire was also clearly shown by Elswit as he performed greatly in this regard. There was a stunning display of human corruption and greed as this was clear from the pictures that were displayed for all to see. There Will Be Blood exposed the ills and evil in the American society and it lets viewers know the manner at which greed could drive one to committing heinous crimes and perpetrating evil. It exposes the many evils of capitalism as Plainview tried to dominate other people in the movie. The film also tried show a relationship between religion and capitalism as Eli, a preacher was part of Plainview’s capitalistic dreams and in the film, religion was seen as a tool in helping Plainview fulfill his evil desires. There is an evidence of corruption and greed in the film which is quite synonymous to what takes place in our modern day world. In Plainview’s search for wealth, he had to kill the people that he felt stood in his path and this shows that he was nothing short of an evil genius. Viewers would not have any choice to dislike Plainview for his many evil deeds and would feel no pity for him, even at his destruction. The self-destruction of Plainview shows that no evil would go unpunished, if one does not face the wrath of the law, these evil would end up catching up with them, even if it means a self-destruct. Plainview’s inability to deal with his evil imaginations and thoughts are really what brought about his destruction. Viewers could reason that, things might not have turned out that way, had Plainview suppressed the evil plan of his. Work Cited There Will Be Blood. Dir. Anderson, Paul Thomas. Perf. Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Kevin J. O’Connor, Ciaran Hinds & Dillon Freasier. 2007. Read More