Episode 137 - There Will Be Blood

[00:00:00] Welcome back to Movie Mistrial, the podcast where we put the IMDb Top 250 on trial. I'm Johannes. And I'm Raji. Today we're diving into Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood, a film about ambition, greed and one of the most fascinating monsters ever put on screen. Released in 2007, the film follows Daniel Plainview, an oil prospector who transforms himself into one of the most powerful men in California while leaving a trail of broken relationships and moral compromise behind him.

[00:00:29] Anchored by Daniel Deleuys' Academy Award winning performance, There Will Be Blood is equal parts character study, American myth and psychological horror. But here's the question. Is There Will Be Blood a towering masterpiece about the corrosive nature of ambition or a beautifully crafted film that mistakes intensity for depth? Let's flip the coin because today, There Will Be Blood is on trial.

[00:00:54] Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God? What? Um... What's it gonna be? Heads for me. Heads it is today. I'm gonna do the easy one. I'm gonna go for this movie.

[00:01:24] Oh, I'm gonna go for it. All right. Well, um, I guess that means that I'm starting here. The witness will address this quote as judge or your honor. Ladies and gentlemen, there will be blood. Um... There will be yawns, more like it, I would think. But, um... The main issue I have with this film is that... I feel like there's not a clear...

[00:01:54] There's not... A narrative arc that concludes in any satisfactory manner. We just follow this... This dude played by Daniel Day-Lewis from the moment where he finds oil to the moment he... Just exists, I guess, at the end. Um... And I feel like there's not a real arc for this person. Because he's... He's pretty much...

[00:02:24] A bad guy that you don't like all the way through. There's no redemption. There's no real character change. He's just, uh... Pretty steadily an awful person that is exploiting people and their lack of knowledge. And is just greedy and is just in it to make more and more money and exploit more and more people. And... I feel it is so one-dimensional. That it is... Kind of boring. To a point.

[00:02:54] And then his counterpart, played by Paul Dano, Is also very one-dimensional. And... It's somewhat confusing because it is still... To me, it's still a question. Is this a split personality type of thing? Or is it a twin? I don't fully understand it. But... Uh... If we just look at Eli... Uh... He's so one-dimensional. Almost a caricature of... Kind of the... The spiritual megachurch kind of person. Starting out trying to also make money.

[00:03:24] And... And grift in his own sense. And kind of exploit people in his own mind. That it's just so... One-dimensional in that part. That... You know... These two singular dimensions don't make it... An interesting three-dimensional story in a way. And... Uh... It all culminates in this clash between the two at the end. And even that is just so over-the-top and weird. And not really... Concluded succinctly.

[00:03:54] So... I... I feel like this movie is a mess. It is... Uh... And... That's kind of it. It's... It's kind of uninteresting in that sense. I think the way the movie started... That...

[00:04:21] Those first 10-15 minutes... Where very little was said... Is... Is... Is a very good indication. We... We get to see him walking... Um... The mines... Trying to find... Um... Minerals that he can sell. Um... And... During the process... He... You know... Falls in the mine and breaks his leg. And he comes out... He drags himself out of that mine.

[00:04:51] And... We... The audience look up... And we see that this guy... He is in the middle of nowhere. And... For a second... We are... Empathetic to him. Because... Put in that position... We are probably going to be asking the same question. How do I... Get out of here and get help? There is a second... There is a cut. And then he is... Selling... Those minerals... To... Individuals. That means he dragged himself...

[00:05:22] Through that... Land... That massive landscape... Um... To get to the point where he is able to do it. There is a consequence to that fall. Because throughout the film... He is limping. So he never really... Ever... Gets back to normal. But... It is a reminder... Of where he started. Um... He was determined. He was... Looking for...

[00:05:52] Opportunity... In the land of opportunity. And this is a caricature... Or should I say... A representation of... What it is to be a pure capitalist. What we notice as we go through... Is that... As he gets more successful... He gets more greedy. He gets more oppressive. He gets more sociopathic. Um... What started off as a great relationship... With his adopted son... Becomes a... Um...

[00:06:22] A... PSing... One-sided relationship... Based on the fact that... You know... His son decided to open his own oil field... Um... At the end of the film. Um... Daniel Day-Lewis... Mentioned when he was talking to his fake brother... In the middle of the film... That... Any... He sees anybody... Who competes with him... As somebody who is...

[00:06:51] Is attacking him... And he wants to destroy the person. At the end of the movie... He has been... Engulfed by this greed... Um... And this sense of... Uh... Insatiability. He can't be satisfied... That... He turns his ire at his son. Uh... Somebody who... From the very beginning... He cared for...

[00:07:20] Cared for his son at the beginning of the movie. He cared... Even though he wasn't his son, per se. Um... He cared for him at the beginning. He showed... After the accident his son had... He still showed empathy to it. Uh... Willing to send him to schools. Willing to... To... Try to help him... In a sense. But at the end of the movie...

[00:07:49] He has become so paranoid... And so... Um... So greedy... That he cannot see beyond... The... Um... The... The initial phase... Where somebody's like... Look... I'm just trying to get out of your shadow... Uh... And try to do something for myself. He sees that as an affront... To him. And... This movie captures all of that... In the performance of Daniel Day-Lewis.

[00:08:18] Um... And... You cannot... This movie is a Daniel Day-Lewis... Masterclass in performance. And... You cannot... Isolate this film... From... The acting that he does. He captures the screen... From the very beginning... Till the very end... Intensity... Um... Loud voices... Tonal changes... He is oppressive...

[00:08:49] He... He... He is disgusting... He is uncomfortable to watch... Um... And as he... Takes his straw... From the corner of the room... Puts it in this... Your... Cup... And sips it all up... You know that there's something... Entirely menacing about him. Um... And I think that the movie... Lives and dies... On the strength of... His performance.

[00:09:18] And I have to say... His performance was remarkable. Okay. Uh... You say that he has love for... His... Uh... Basically grandson... Turned son. And I would argue... That is not... True. His son... Or his... Let's just say... For the sake of argument... It's his son. Right? Because he... He takes him on... Uh... Because his real son... Dies in an accident. And... Um...

[00:09:47] I see... Uh... The Daniel Day-Lewis character as... Fundamentally... Fundamentally... An opportunist. And trying to exploit everything that he can. So... Same goes with... With... This little baby that is there. All of a sudden... This is a family business. And we are partner. We are equal partners. Or whatever he says multiple times... To pitch... Uh... His... His company. And... Uh... That it is... That there's nothing there...

[00:10:17] That really puts him there... Is... As soon as his son is not able to... Play the role anymore... Because he cannot hear anymore... Uh... Due to an accident... Uh... He's kind of worthless... And he sends him off... Um... Sure... He's giving him education... But it is... Ultimately... Pretty... Pretty heartless in a way... Because... Like... Not that he sends him off... But the way he does it... Like it's... He's just not...

[00:10:45] Capable of dealing with... With this person... Who's difficult all of a sudden... Uh... And then at the... At the end... When... His son in... In older form is... Having a pretty reasonable request... I think... And... One would argue... It's also... You know... Potentially a good... Just kind of thing to have... Uh... Not necessarily competing... But you know... Diversify the business a little bit... Um... He completely flips out on it... And then... On... On him... And then... Uh... Goes nuclear... Saying that...

[00:11:15] That he's a bastard... Child... Basically... A bastard from a bastard... And... Uh... I feel like there... There has nothing... Shown in this film... That shows him as a loving... Father... The only person that he probably loved... Was his real son... But then... He died... So... There's just not a lot of redeeming qualities... To this guy... And I think the... The problem is that... Um... Like I said... It's from the beginning to the end... Right?

[00:11:44] You... You can... You can argue that... Okay... They allude to that he's in the middle of nowhere... And he crawled back all the way to... Wherever he needed to go to... Be able to sell... Uh... What he found... And to be able to... To get help for his leg... Okay... So he's determined... But... He's determined in... In all the awful ways... And that never changed... Right? So even if family is coming to him... And saying... Hey... I wanted to... To do my own thing... Then he's determined to crush that... And I think it's just so...

[00:12:17] Um... One-dimensional... Yeah... I keep saying that... But it is... It is just so one-dimensional... That it... Really starts to be boring... Because it's like... There's no nuance... There's no... Interest in... Um... Okay... What's he gonna do now? Because it's always gonna be like... Well of course... He's only looking out for himself... Because that is all that matters... Right? And... Uh... Fundamentally... I kind of started... Feeling disinterested in that... Because it's just...

[00:12:47] There's not a chance of... Of... Kind of surprise... Because it is just so... One-dimensional... So... I think that... We should... Clarify a couple of things... Um... HW... Was not... The son of his son... HW... Was the son... Of one of the... Oil rig workers... At his... Um... Oil rig... His first oil rig... Um... And... He...

[00:13:15] He tragically passed away... In the... While they were trying to... Dig for oil... Um... HW... Was... I think because of... Sense of application... To this man that died... He takes... HW... As his own son... Um... And... What do you call it? He... Starts to purport... That this was a family business... That he and his son... Used to...

[00:13:45] Use this... To try to... Help the people... Uh... Pure capitalistic terms... But I want to say that... Even in those moments... There were... There was a sense of trust... That existed between HW... And... The Plainview... Played by... Um... Daniel Day-Lewis... That existed throughout the film... Especially the first third of the film... They went... They went... Um... Hunting together...

[00:14:14] The boy was the one who found the oil... Um... After... Um... Paul told them where it was... The boy... Um... Showed a lot of... Respect to his dad... And... He showed a lot of respect to the boy... Because, you know... He listened to him... He paid attention... Where their relationship went sour... Was... When the boy became less useful to him... In a sense... Um...

[00:14:44] And it's also a testament... To how much of the greed... Was slowly... Um... Capturing him... When the oil rig blew up... And... The... The... It... Ruptured his eardrums... He ran to the boy... To... Pick him up from the... From the building... Um... That was where he ran to first... He didn't run to the oil rig... It wasn't a situation where... He didn't care for the kid...

[00:15:12] He did care for the kid... What happened... In my perspective... Was that... He felt like the kid... Was holding him back... After he lost his hearing... Um... There's a possibility that... Uh... There was a possibility that... You know... The kid would have eventually... Done that... He could have eventually... Lost... Uh... All... Interest in the kid... But I'm...

[00:15:41] I think at the beginning of the movie... Especially as the kid was growing up... I think he did genuinely care for this boy... Even when he told him those things... When he called him a bastard of a bastard... There is a moment where... The movie shows a scene... Right before that incident... Where he was playing with... The boy was playing with his hat... And I think that that was kind of... Trying to cue the audience in... To that moment...

[00:16:10] Right before the incident occurred... That their relationship was very, very strong... At that point... Once he became deaf... Um... And he couldn't... Partake... We start to see... His devolving... Devolving... Because... In my opinion... The boy was an anchor for him too... Um... And... Once the boy couldn't play the role... We start to see him devolving...

[00:16:39] And get... And he starts to get eaten up... By... Uh... All of that... His brother was supposed to be his next anchor... And you could see... That when his brother showed up... And I'm using brother in quotes here... He took to the brother... And he acted as a replacement... To the son... Um... But... I think once he found out... That the brother was... A false brother... He...

[00:17:09] Couldn't trust anybody anymore... Uh... And... You know... The fates happened to his brother... I don't... I don't agree with the argument that... I mean... All of this is our opinions... Um... And anybody can interpret the film... However they please... But I do think that there is... There are moments in this movie where... You know... Plainview showed... Remarkable... At least... Not necessarily love...

[00:17:36] But at least empathy towards the boy... Um... And I don't think that it was... Just pure... Capitalism... And him just using him... For that... Um... I think he cared enough for it... Uh... And the fact that he couldn't... Deal with any criticism about it... Is a sign... That... This is something that hurt him... Personally... Uh... And he would rather not deal with that kind of thing... Uh...

[00:18:05] He showed that many times throughout the film... Um... So yeah... That's my perspective on it... Uh... I mean... Interesting that... You know... I completely read that... Uh... That baby was... The baby of his son... So... It's... Somewhat of a revelation that it's... Uh... Some random person... Which even makes my argument stronger... Because it's just... He's such an opportunist... That it's like... Oh... Okay... I can exploit this random child now... Uh... For my... For my benefit... And be like... Oh...

[00:18:35] This is a family business... Right? Um... Which makes it even worse... Because before that... It was technically already a family business... But... But he's just exploiting... You know... The little baby... But... But now it's... A random... Okay... That's... That's wild... Um... Yeah... I mean... Like I said... It's... It's just so flat... You know... And then on the other side... Let's talk about Paul Dano a little bit... Um... The way how...

[00:19:05] Uh... He is shown... And... And the twin situation is shown... Is so bizarre to me... Like why would you... Why would you tell the story in such a... Confusing manner? Um... Where you have two completely different people... Kind of... But then... You know... The nicer of the two... Is... I guess... Showing up once... Maybe twice... Um... And then... The rest is... Uh...

[00:19:35] Super religious... Eli... And... And we never see... The other guy... Anymore... It's just so needlessly complicated... In a way... Um... Because I think you... You can... You can make an argument that Eli could just show up... And be like... Hey... I know this is the thing... I want money for my church... Um... You know... Let's... Let's do a business here... I don't understand why we need to have a... Uh... Completely separate brother that never shows up again... Um...

[00:20:04] And then... When we see Paul Dano... It's so... In his true... Uh... Spiritual... Form... Uh... It's so over the top and comical... That it's just... So distracting... And in... In many ways... We have two actors that are... Good at what they do... Um... Subjectively... But... But they're so extreme in... In their choices... Uh... In their own regard... That it's just so... It feels over the top for the people...

[00:20:34] Period... And just for... What's going on... So... Like I said... It's... Yeah... This film is very frustrating to me... Because it's just so... One note... And then that note... Oftentimes is very over the top... And just... Kind of... Comical... In unintentional ways... So... Yeah... I don't know... I don't really... Really vibe... With this thing... I think the Paul Dano's situation... Is very interesting...

[00:21:04] Because... Paul Dano was originally supposed to play... You know... The Paul character... Um... And somebody... Another actor was supposed to play Eli... Um... But what happened was... They got... The other actor got fired... And... You know... Paul Dano played both characters... Um... In a sense... Well... I did think that it was compelling in a way... Um... I do agree with the fact that... It is confusing... Um...

[00:21:33] It feels like a double cross... If you are not paying attention... But if you pay attention... Especially at the end... They spelt it out... They spelt it out twice in the film... Uh... Three times... The very beginning... Where... You know... The deal was happening... Um... The time when... Eli attacked his dad... And said... You know... Paul... Uh... Told him about this... And he jumped on it... And at the end of the film... When...

[00:22:02] Uh... Daniel Plainview... Tells Eli directly... Like... Hey... You're the loser in the family... Um... And that Paul... Got a cash check of $10,000... And is leaving happily... Building Wells on his own... So... I do see... How that can be confusing... If you're not paying attention... At the very beginning... Uh... And I do see... How unclear it is... That those two...

[00:22:31] Were actually twins... Um... But... I still think that it works... Because... One of the things that... Eli portrays very well... Is if... He plays a sniveling... Untrustworthy pastor... Who... Want attention... Uh... For himself... Um... And he will... He was very self-centered... Just like Daniel Plainview... Um...

[00:22:59] And he was just as egotistical... But he was coming at it... From a religious perspective... The... And you can see the dynamic... Because you know... When he goes up to the guy's... Oil fields... And he gets slapped... Uh... Uh... And... And then he... Daniel goes to his church... And he gets slapped... Um... You can see like... There was a little bit of a rivalry... That was going on... Between the two of them... One was using religion to...

[00:23:30] Um... To... Uh... Push the people in his direction... The other was using his sweet words... The... Fakeness that... Uh... He had a family... Um... And... The need for money... The greed... But both of them were ultimately... Playing the same role... They were people who... They were individuals... Who were... Manipulative folks... Based on their strengths...

[00:23:57] To achieve their own gain... And I think that... Paul Dano was not on the screen... For that long throughout the movie... But I think that... His... Presence was felt throughout the film... And he was a welcome change... From... The Daniel Day-Lewis show... Um... And he proved to be a worthy rival... In a sense... Uh... Not necessarily because... He was strong enough... But... You found somebody that you...

[00:24:27] Disliked a little bit more... Uh... In this crazy world... That they lived in... A world without any... Sense of... Rules and regulations... I mean... The fact that he held... The bandy track... For so long... That was his ace in the hole... Uh... If he wanted to... Build a pipeline... That was the ace in his hole... He was not entirely... Unintelligent... Or he was not... He was smart... Uh... To have those guys...

[00:24:57] And hold that... Land for... Uh... From... Um... Daniel... Uh... For so long... And use the religion... To get into... Uh... That particular aspect of his life... To force him to come to the church... To force him to get baptized... And I think that that was... So annoying for Daniel... Uh... Plainview... Uh... In those moments that... I think he...

[00:25:27] He vowed he was gonna kill him... In those days... And that stayed in... In his mind for so long... I... I thought that the... The... The rivalry was very interesting... And I think that it kind of worked... In the scope of the movie... I mean... At the end of the day... Right... We have two people that... That are mining for different resources... In... In many ways... But both resources are connected to power... Right... Daniel... David Lewis... Uh... Is... Is... Is... Going towards... Uh... Oil and money... And... Uh... Paul Dano's...

[00:25:57] Eli is going... For people... And... And... Mines... And also money... Ostensibly... Um... So... So it is... Just kind of... You know... Two sides of the same coin... Basically... For me... Um... But yeah... That's all I had... Uh... Happy to go to the sidebar... Oh yeah... Me too... Overruled... Sidebar... Guilty... Speculation... Here... Bailiff... Briefcase... Disregard... In my chamber... Stop Beaver and the witness... Arrest... We could totally be lawyers... All right...

[00:26:27] Sidebar... We struck... I... Drink it all up! I mean... This is fine... This film is fine... But it's... It's long and drawn out... And slow... And you know... Like... Uh... I think... Sure... There's a compelling film... Somewhere in there... About resilience... And greed... And... And just kind of... Do whatever... Needs... You know... Do whatever it takes to... To... To win... It's basically showing everything... That's wrong with...

[00:26:56] Capitalism in this country... Um... And... And spiritual... In some regards... So... So there's something compelling there... For me... But it's... Yeah... Like I said... I... Like when it ended... I was like... That's it? Like... He's... He's just kind of the same dude... That is just opportunistic... And just exploitative... Um... Throughout his whole life... And that's it? There's no... Redemption... There's nothing? It's just kind of... Okay... That's it? I don't know...

[00:27:25] I'm just kind of... Disappointed in the ending of this... In a way... I... I... I thought this movie was amazing... Um... I think that it... It captures the Wild West... Nature... It captures the all-man mentality... Even how... Without Richie was... This guy was still on... Those banks every day... Trying to make sure that... He gets...

[00:27:53] As much money as he can... From those wells... Um... I... I... I... I... I loved this film... For what it was trying to do... I love Daniel Day-Lewis's characterization... I love the juxtaposition... Of religion and capitalism... Um... And I cannot fold this movie for almost anything... It's... I feel like... It's a strong movie... Which... You know... Genders debate...

[00:28:22] There are some people who... Have different perspectives... Especially on his relationship with his son... H.W. Um... But I still think that the movie captures... The essence of what it is to... Grow... And I also think that the guy transformed a lot... Um... From the very beginning of the film to the end... As he... You know... By the end of the movie... He was... Somebody who was living in a house... With a butler alone...

[00:28:51] Shooting at his furniture... Because he's bored... Um... In the middle of the film... When they were trying to buy his land... He was talking about... How he didn't want to... Have nothing to do... Just be rich... Um... And he ended up getting to that particular point... And he couldn't... Handle the boredom of it... He lives for this... He's... Is... Is not... His thirst cannot be satisfied... Um... He's addicted to the... The whole... Um...

[00:29:20] The whole capitalistic stuff... The greed of it all... Um... And I think the movie captures... A good deal... Of that transformation... Uh... Throughout the film... I thought it was an excellent film... Hmm... Yeah... Uh... I think... I... I... I'm not the best... The biggest Paul Thomas Anderson fans... To begin with... So I think it's just... One of these things where I'm like... Okay... Um... Just another one that... That is okay...

[00:29:49] I think it's shot beautifully... It looks great... Um... And like I said... Like... I feel like in the beginning... You kind of feel for... For the guy... Right? When he falls down... And breaks his leg... And then... There's accident after accident... You're kind of like... Oh... Okay... That's brutal... And rough... Um... That sucks... But it's... The more you learn about this person... The more... Where... You just don't... Feel... Like... You're more... Um...

[00:30:18] You don't like him... And then... The more you don't... Don't really care for him anymore... In a way... Because it's just like... Okay... What's he gonna do now? How is he gonna screw over... All the landowners in California... Basically... For his personal gain... Right? And it's like... Yeah... I don't know... I don't know if I can really... Just... You know... Like the guy... And like it... I can like a lot of the technicalities... Of this film... And just kind of... The technical aspects... And the way it's shot... And some of the... The... The sets...

[00:30:47] And the acting... And all that... That's all great... But it's... From a story perspective... I just... Kind of felt disconnected... In many ways... So... You know... I mean... That's fair... I think that's fair... Um... People... I think we will have... Different... Uh... Perspectives of this movie... From... From their perspective... And... You know... I've seen... I've seen... All the Paul Dovers... And the same movies... I've seen so far... I've always enjoyed... You know... I...

[00:31:17] And I think that it's... He is a little bit controversial... Because... Even... Uh... Was the last one he did... Uh... One Battle After Another... Was an amazing film for me... But... You know... I know a lot of people who... Absolutely despise this film... Uh... So... It is what it is... It is what it is... Yeah... Yeah... And one battle after another... I... I... I liked... Um... Yeah... I mean... There are a couple films... That I like of his... But it's... You know...

[00:31:46] There's also... Like... He... He just has a thing for very... Kind of drawn out... Slow... Birdie... Kind of things... In a way... And... That's not necessarily my thing... You know... And that's fine... That's just what it is... It's... It's... It's fine... Okay... Um... That's all I have... That's all I have about this movie... Cool... Yeah... That's all I have... Um... But we're not leaving family drama... Awesome... Next up is... The Father... The Father... Alright...

[00:32:16] What year was this... I'm kidding me... The Father... That's strong... The Father is a... A 2020 film... With... Uh... Anthony Hopkins... And Olivia Colman... Oh... Never... Oh... Sounds like a... Sad... Sad... Sad... Sad... Sad... Sad... Is he gonna die in the film? It looks like it's gonna be a death film... Alright... Cool... I'm excited to watch it... Uh... Says no one...

[00:32:45] Sounds good... Uh... Snap... Uh... Until then though... Where can people find us? Uh... They can find us on... Instagram... On Facebook... On X... On Blue Sky... At Movie in the Strial... You can send us an email... To... Contact at Movie Mr. Out... Dot com... Alright... Have a good one... Yep... Take it easy...