There Will Be Blood (2007)

Director:

Paul Thomas Anderson

Writers (WGA):

Paul Thomas Anderson (screenplay)
Upton Sinclair (novel)

Release Date:

11 January 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

When Ambition Meets Faith

Plot:

A story about family, greed, religion, and oil, centered around a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.

Plot Keywords:

Oil | Land | Prospector | California | Greed

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 56 wins & 52 nominations

Cast

Daniel Day-Lewis	...	Daniel Plainview
Martin Stringer	...	Silver Assay Worker
Matthew Braden Stringer	...	Silver Assay Worker
Jacob Stringer	...	Silver Assay Worker
Joseph Mussey	...	Silver Assay Worker
Barry Del Sherman	...	H.B. Ailman
Harrison Taylor	...	Baby H.W. Plainview
Stockton Taylor	...	Baby H.W. Plainview
Paul F. Tompkins	...	Prescott
Dillon Freasier	...	Young H.W. Plainview
Kevin Breznahan	...	Signal Hill Man
Jim Meskimen	...	Signal Hill Married Man
Erica Sullivan	...	Signal Hill Woman
Randall Carver	...	Mr. Bankside
Coco Leigh	...	Mrs. Bankside

Also Known As:

Oil! (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some violence.

Runtime:

158 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | American Sign Language

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Ireland:15A | Finland:K-13 | Singapore:PG | Canada:13+ (Québec) | Canada:14A (Manitoba) | Germany:12 (f) | Netherlands:16 | South Africa:16LV | USA:R (certificate #43414) | Brazil:14 | Australia:M | UK:12A (original rating) | UK:15 (re-rating on appeal) | Norway:15 | Czech Republic:15 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Philippines:R-13 (MTRCB) | New Zealand:R13 | Sweden:15 | Denmark:15 | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Ontario) | South Korea:15 | Hong Kong:IIA | Malaysia:U | Argentina:13 | Taiwan:R-12 | Greece:K-13 | France:U (with warning) | Portugal:M/12 (Qualidade) | Austria:16

Filming Locations:

El Mirage Dry Lake, California, USA

Company:

Ghoulardi Film Company

Trivia:

The town of Marfa near the Texas-Mexico border was used to simulate Bakersfield, California. A reason to support the use of the town is that there are many abandoned shafts dug out at the early 20-century. One of the shafts used in the film is a deep shaft, 60-70 feet that connects to a mechanically-dug perpendicular tunnel at the bottom. Other sets like the church where built from there.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: A fireside scene reveals Plainview's boot to have a waffle sole. The waffle sole was not invented nor used until the early-mid 70's.

Quotes:

Eli Sunday: Daniel, I'm asking if you'd like to have business with the Church of the Third Revelation in developing this lease on young Bandy's thousand acre tract. I'm offering you to drill on one of the great undeveloped fields of Little Boston!
Plainview: I'd be happy to work with you.
Eli Sunday: You would? Yes, yes, of course. Wonderful.
Plainview: But there is one condition for this work.
Eli Sunday: Alright.
Plainview: I'd like you to tell me that you are a false prophet... I'd like you to tell me that you are, and have been, a false prophet... and that God is a superstition.
Eli Sunday: ...but that's a lie... it's a lie, I cannot say it.
[long pause]
Eli Sunday: When can we begin to drill?
Plainview: Right away.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: (#7.15)" (2008)

Soundtrack:

What a Friend We Have in Jesus

Revitalizing, masterful, and utterly terrifying.

What is evil? What is hate? How low can an individual go with one's actions and still be considered human....? These, quite possibly, are the biggest questions raised in There Will Be Blood.

Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day-Lewis, the tycoons at the helm of this dig for moral oil, tell a story that takes the archetypal anti-heroes of 'Citizen Kane' and Travis Bickle of 'Taxi Driver' to a whole new, 21st-century level. The film, using Lewis's character Daniel Plainview, walks through incredibly dangerous cinematic territory that questions religion, plays with the nature of greed and hate and evil, and with it all, draws terrifying parallels to the world we live in today. The film and its main character claw so deep through the limits of humanity and the landscape of hell, that you'll be thanking the Good Lord for the silver screen that divides you from this horrible world Paul Thomas Anderson has portrayed. But despite how safe you may seem in your cushy seat, you will undoubtedly walk out of the theater with all kinds of new demons and ghosts buzzing in your head and ripping away at your subconscious. In this way, Anderson has abandoned his primary previous influence of Robert Altman to take more of a Stanley Kubrick direction, creating moral allegories that creep into your psyche and don't ever leave. You should be scared. Very Scared.