Not that it'd have half it's
power without an riveting performance from Daniel Day-Lewis as the
film's central - in many ways, only - character.
Daniel
Plainview (who we meet in a fifteen minute, near-wordless sequence)
single-handedly works a silver mine in the scrub of the
turn-of-the-century American south west. A chance oil strike makes his
fortune, the accidental death of a co-worker gives him an adoptive son,
and word of a farm where oil bubbles out of the ground leads him to the
Californian town of New Boston.
His operation brings
prosperity to the town even as it hands over its destiny to him - a
prosperity that local evangelical preacher Eli Sunday (Paul Dano)
figures his church deserves a slice of.
Battling Eli, nature,
fate, and his own bitter nature, Plainview is a monster and
all-too-human, given ferocious life by Day-Lewis in every scene of this
towering achievement.
An amazing, almost horror-movie soundtrack (from Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood) only adds to this film's ominous, driving tone.
While There Will Be Blood
certainly has its flaws (the focus on Plainview tends to shut out the
supporting cast, while the final scene is both completely appropriate
and a step too far), it is a truly classic work.
DVD EXTRAS with Sean Lynch
Much
like the snails pace of the film itself, or the sparce nature of the
oil fields (feel free to use whatever analogy helps you the most), the
Special Features are few and far between here - but mesmerisingly
beautiful.
Simply titled "15 Minutes" this is a beautiful
selection of photos from the set, reasearch footage and photos from the
oil fields of the early 1900s is accompanied by a taste of the haunting
score of the film.
If the film wasn't your cup of tea (it really isn't one for The Mummy 3
crowd), then this sole extra won't do much for you. However, if you
found yourself intoxicated by the world created by Anderson and Lewis,
then "15 Minutes" plays out like poetry.
Conclusion:
Movie 90% Extras: 65%
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