Daniel Day-Lewis can dominate the screen in a way few actors can, and in ‘There Will Be Blood’ he embodies a part few actors could manage. Loosely based on socialist author Upton Sinclair’s mid 1920's novel ‘Oil!’, "Blood" is the story of Daniel Plainview, a Wisconsin born silver prospector whose life is changed when he discovers oil on a California claim. He becomes a self styled ‘oil man’, and a remarkably successful if manipulative one. He is aided in this, indirectly, by his adopted son H. W., a boy his crew found in a basket out in the desert. H.W. is the only thing besides money, and besides himself, that Daniel Plainview loves.
Daniel Plainview hates most things, most people, but what he is particularly passionate against is religion. So when one of his oil prospects gets complicated by a local church and its boy prophet, conflict ensues, and I can assure you there will be blood, you just have to wait for it. A remarkable film that reminds me of the work of Sergio Leonie if it reminds me of anyone’s. Lewis can’t not get the Oscar for this one, and it just might unseat Atonement or No Country for Old Men, to win the best picture honors.
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