Snake Oil

"I look at people and I see nothing worth liking."

Those are words spoken by Daniel Plainview about halfway through Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood", one of the darkest, most brutal films I've seen. It is also a masterpiece.

Some people, I'm sure will find fault with the film.

"It's too long!"

"The ending doesn't make sense!"

"Why make a movie about a totally dispicable character?"

Allow me too address those complaints one by one:

It's only "too long" if you also consider "The Godfather" or "Gone With The Wind" to be too long. As Roger Ebert has said, "Good movies are never too long, bad movies are always too long." This is a GREAT movie.

The ending doesn't make sense only if you haven't been paying attention. The whole film has been driving toward this insane, violent showdown. Complete and utterly batshit madness is the only possible conclusion.

Some of the greatest films of all time have been about detestable human beings( not to mention books, songs, plays, etc. ). Bad guys are, after all, human just like the rest of us. "Citzen Kane", "The Godfather", "The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre", "Raging Bull", are all classics and are all about cruel and hateful men. Films that show the dark side of humanity and don't flinch away from those people we should avoid in our real lives have very important things to say about the world we live in. Real life doesn't always have a happy ending. Why should we always expect a happy ending from art?

The film begins with Daniel Plainview( Daniel Day-Lewis, in one of the great performances of all time...seriously...not saying that lightly, people ) alone, mining for silver. The first ten or so minutes of the film contain no dialogue. We simply see how driven and relentless this man is. A fall down his mine shaft breaks his leg and he pulls himself up, hand over hand. The next scene shows him laying on the floor of the establishment where he has cashed in his silver. He is broken, but he accomplished his goal.

Eventually, he discovers oil in one of his mines. Next, he has hired some men to help him drill. When one of those men, who has an infant son, dies in the well, Plainview decides to raise the boy as his own. He will not, however, win any "Father of the Year" awards. His first attempt to calm the crying child is to add whiskey to the little 'un's milk bottle.

Fast-forward nine years and Plainview is a slick oil man traveling with his "son", H.W.(Dillon Freasier), anywhere there is crude to be found and trying to cheat the local residents out of their land so he can drill it. His speech to a town meeting is full of fake humbleness and promises that will never be kept, because Plainview is only out for one person and that person is Plainview. H.W. is simply a prop he keeps with him, because people are more likely to trust a "family man".

The heart of the movie begins when Plainview meets Paul Sunday(Paul Dano). He tells Plainview that his family's ranch in California has oil seeping up through the ground. He will tell Plainview the location for cash. Plainview gives him the cash and he and H.W. camp on the ranch, where they meet Mr. Sunday and Paul's twin brother Eli(also played by Dano), who is an evangelist. Is Eli really Paul's twin, or are they one and the same? We're never sure. Eli and Plainview form a relationship of hatred for one another the instant they meet. It's this hatred that drives the movie to it's conclusion.

Eli will only allow Plainview to drill on the Sunday ranch if Plainview will make a $5,000 donation to his church. Plainview agrees, even though he sees that Eli is just as much a con man as himself. Here we have what is so fascinating about this story. Two men, both conning the same people, one with promises of riches, the other with promises of heaven. It is a potrait of what America has become.

Although the film is set in the early 1900's, it's message is as current ads today's paper. The focus of the film may be Plainview and Eli, but if you look closely, you'll see it's about the people destroyed by men like this. The film is about an America where the common people, the backbone of the society, are constantly preyed upon by snake oil salesmen, whether corporate or spiritual. These are men who see the masses as nothing more than sheep to be used to thier advantage. It doesn't matter if they promise money or eternal life, they'll promise anything to get your money.

Totally and completely inhabiting that selfishness and greed, Daniel Day-Lewis gives a performance that...there are no words. There exists in the English language no words to describe this performance. Monumental doesn't even come close. It is simply remarkable and will no doubt become historic.

Technically, the movie is about as perfect as movies get. Robert Elswit's cinematography?

Gorgeous. Dylan Tichenor's editing? Perfect. Jonny Greenwood's(of Radiohead) music? One of the most original and exciting scores I've ever heard for a film. Last but not least, P.T. Anderson's direction? Flawless.

Go see this movie! It is a classic. Ten or twenty years from now when it starts showing up on the all-time great movie lists, you'll be kicking yourself in the ass for not seeing it in the theatre. Go...watch...let it swallow you up. Not many of today's movies allow the the chance to get lost in them. This one does. Get lost.