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There Will Be Blood (2007)
  • Caption: There Will Be Blood (2007)
  • Description: Director Paul Thomas Anderson�s THERE WILL BE BLOOD is a masterly, unflinching examination of a consummately evil man. Daniel Plainview (via a transcendent performance by the great Daniel Day-Lewis) is, as he likes to remind those around him, an oil man: he finds it, he drills for it, and he makes money from it. Following a tip from a visitor named Paul Sunday, whose family sits atop a veritable ocean of oil, Plainview travels to the town of New Boston, California, with his young son. Sunday�s preacher brother Eli (both roles are played by the excellent Paul Dano) grudgingly accepts Plainview�s ambitions under the condition that he help fund the town church. As Plainview�s plans come to fruition, a series of events begin to fracture the insular world he has constructed for himself, pitting Plainview against Sunday and forcing him to become even more vindictive and ruthless. Anderson proved with BOOGIE NIGHTS and MAGNOLIA that he was adept at handling expansive storylines and layered plots; however, he stakes out a claim here as a new master of the cinematic epic. The film is visually stunning, and alternates between lush widescreen shots of the desert and meticulously composed, darkly lit close-up of his actors, presenting complex images of the American landscape and the souls that dot it. As a narrative, THERE WILL BE BLOOD is told with a sense of economy, yet never at the expense of the film�s inherently grand scope. It�s difficult to determine precisely what Anderson wants his viewers to take from the experience: the film is, in the end, appropriately complex and ambiguous. THERE WILL BE BLOOD forces us to confront Plainville, who seems to be a larger-than-life personification of evil; that we don�t entirely understand him at the film�s conclusion is not a shortcoming, but rather a tribute to the depths of this most vile creature and this most brilliant film.

    Directed by
    Paul Thomas Anderson

    Writing credits
    (WGA)
    Paul Thomas Anderson (screenplay)


    Upton Sinclair (novel "Oil!")



    Cast (in credits order)

    Daniel Day-Lewis ... Daniel Plainview
    Martin Stringer ... Silver Assay Worker #1
    Kevin J. O'Connor ... Henry Brands
    Jacob Stringer ... Silver Assay Worker #3
    Matthew Braden Stringer ... Silver Assay Worker #2

    Ciarán Hinds ... Fletcher Hamilton
    Dillon Freasier ... H.W. Plainview
    Joseph Mussey ... Silver Assay Worker #4

    Barry Del Sherman ... H.B. Ailman

    Russell Harvard ... H.W. Plainview - Older
    Harrison Taylor ... Baby HW
    Stockton Taylor ... Baby HW

    Paul F. Tompkins ... Prescott

    Kevin Breznahan ... Signal Hill Man

    Jim Meskimen ... Signal Hill Married Man
    Erica Sullivan ... Signal Hill Woman

    Randall Carver ... Mr. Bankside
    Coco Leigh ... Mrs. Bankside

    Paul Dano ... Paul Sunday / Eli Sunday
    Sydney McCallister ... Mary Sunday

    David Willis ... Abel Sunday
    Christine Olejniczak ... Mother Sunday
    Kellie Hill ... Ruth Sunday
    James Downey ... Al Rose
    Dan Swallow ... Gene Blaize
    Robert Arber ... Charlie Wrightsman
    Bob Bell ... Geologist
    David Williams ... Ben Blaut
    Joy Rawls ... Eli Follower #1
    Louise Gregg ... Eli Follower #2
    Amber Roberts ... Eli Follower #3
    Robert Caroline ... Oil Worker #2
    John W. Watts ... Oil Worker #1
    Barry Bruce ... Oil Worker #3
    Irene G. Hunter ... Mrs. Hunter

    Hope Elizabeth Reeves ... Elizabeth
    John Chitwood ... Little Boston Doctor

    David Warshofsky ... H.M. Tilford

    Tom Doyle ... J.J. Carter
    Colton Woodward ... William Bandy
    John Burton ... L.P. Clair

    Hans Howes ... Bandy
    Robert Barge ... Bartender
    Ronald Krut ... Standard Oil Man #1
    Huey Rhudy ... Standard Oil Man #2
    Steven Barr ... Standard Oil Man #3
    Robert Hills ... HW's Interpreter

    Colleen Foy ... Adult Mary Sunday
    Rev. Bob Bock ... Priest

    Vince Froio ... Plainview Servant #1
    Phil Shelly ... Plainview Servant #2
  • Actor/Actress/Director:
  • Movie: There Will Be Blood
  • Id: 10891959
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