Ruthless silver miner, turned oil prospector, Daniel Plainview, moves to oil-rich California. Using his son to project a trustworthy, family-man image, Plainview cons local landowners into selling him their valuable properties for a pittance. However, local preacher Eli Sunday suspects Plainview’s motives and intentions, starting a slow-burning feud that threatens both their lives.
Credits: TheMovieDb.
Film Cast:
- Daniel Plainview: Daniel Day-Lewis
- Paul Sunday / Eli Sunday: Paul Dano
- Henry: Kevin J. O’Connor
- Fletcher Hamilton: Ciarán Hinds
- H.W. Plainview: Dillon Freasier
- Elizabeth: Hope Elizabeth Reeves
- Mary Sunday: Colleen Foy
- H. B. Ailman: Barry Del Sherman
- Abel Sunday: David Willis
- Mr. Bandy: Hans Howes
- Mary Sunday (young): Sydney McCallister
- Prescott: Paul F. Tompkins
- Signal Hill Man (uncredited): Kevin Breznahan
- Signal Hill Married Man (uncredited): Jim Meskimen
- Signal Hill Woman (uncredited): Erica Sullivan
- Mr. Bankside (uncredited): Randall Carver
- Al Rose (uncredited): James Downey
- H.M. Tilford (uncredited): David Warshofsky
- J.J. Carter (uncredited): Charles Thomas Doyle
- Adult H.W. Plainview (uncredited): Russell Harvard
- Blacksmith (uncredited): Beau Smith
- Fanny Clark (uncredited): Mary Elizabeth Barrett
- Signal Hill Man (uncredited): Brad Carr
- Elizabeth’s Mother (uncredited): Rhonda Reeves
Film Crew:
- Editor: Dylan Tichenor
- Director of Photography: Robert Elswit
- Executive Producer: Scott Rudin
- Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Tom Johnson
- Producer: Paul Thomas Anderson
- Producer: Daniel Lupi
- Producer: JoAnne Sellar
- Casting: Cassandra Kulukundis
- Production Design: Jack Fisk
- Set Decoration: Jim Erickson
- Stunt Coordinator: Jeff Habberstad
- Music Supervisor: Linda Cohen
- Thanks: Jose Ludlow
- Costume Design: Mark Bridges
- Novel: Upton Sinclair
- Executive Producer: Eric Schlosser
- Music Editor: Paul Rabjohns
- Supervising Sound Editor: Matthew Wood
- Original Music Composer: Jonny Greenwood
- Thanks: Mark Graziano
- Art Direction: David Crank
- Assistant Director: Adam Somner
- Production Supervisor: Will Weiske
- Still Photographer: François Duhamel
- Still Photographer: Melinda Sue Gordon
- Makeup Department Head: John Blake
- Post Production Supervisor: Erica Frauman
- Costume Supervisor: Eden Clark Coblenz
- Script Supervisor: Anna Rane
- Visual Effects Producer: Christina Graff
- Visual Effects Supervisor: Paul Graff
- Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Michael Semanick
- Sound Effects Editor: Tim Nielsen
- Lighting Technician: Robby Baumgartner
- Sound Designer: Christopher Scarabosio
- Visual Effects Supervisor: Grady Cofer
- Hair Department Head: Linda D. Flowers
- Sound Effects Editor: J.R. Grubbs
- Sound Effects Editor: Jeff Sawyer
- Set Designer: Carl J. Stensel
- Color Timer: Kenny Becker
- Assistant Director: Eric Richard Lasko
- Rigging Gaffer: Mark Manthey
- Stunt Coordinator: Myke Schwartz
- Visual Effects Producer: Susan Greenhow
- Stunts: Brian Avery
- Makeup Artist: Catherine Conrad
- Title Designer: Dan Perri
- Post Production Supervisor: Jamey Pryde
- Set Dresser: Mark Hanks
- Set Dresser: Brad Blei
- Set Dresser: Jack Colmenero
Movie Reviews:
- j4ni: Great movie, not a spaghetti western. Very good story and atmosphere 10 stars.
- Wuchak: ***Weighty, morose period drama with complex characters and Daniel Day-Lewis***
In the early 20th century, an industrious prospector in Southern California, Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), becomes a shrewd oil magnate, whose journey is paralleled with a dubious Pentecostal pastor of a remote church, Eli Sunday (Paul Dano).
“There Will Be Blood” (2007) is a one-of-a-kind period drama with Western elements. It’s arty and the furthest thing from a conventional blockbuster. You have to be in the mode for a deep, slow-moving, epic flick like this in order to appreciate it. The contemporaneous “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” and “No Country for Old Men” are good comparisons.
Whilst the story and main characters are simple on the surface, they go deep and there are many gems to mine: What good is success if you have no one to love and enjoy it with? Is Daniel a sociopath or a quality individual who acquires sociopathic tendencies because his choices put him on the road of madness? Was Eli a “false prophet”? If so, was he always a con or did he become one?
Why is Eli paralleled with Daniel? Does Daniel have the capacity for genuine love? Does he mean what he ultimately says to HW or are they words born from a sense of betrayal? Would a sane person rashly resort to murder? Is there a positive protagonist in the movie? If so, who and why? If not, why not?
The film runs 2 hours, 38 minutes, and was shot in Southern Cal and Texas (Shafter & Marfa); and Lakewood, Washington (Thornewood Castle).
GRADE: B