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A coincidence? It's doubtful. Huston's Noah Cross is a corporate American villain obsessed with stealing water in dry 1930's Southern California. Day-Lewis is Daniel Plainview, a selfmade monster madly in love with oil in turn-ofthe century Southern California. While Cross may have ice water in his veins and Plainview's arteries flow with oil, both have hearts of stone. Based on Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel, "Oil!," "There Will Be Blood" is writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson's epic saga of one man's obsession with what became the essence that now fuels the world. But back in 1898, when the story begins, mass production of the automobile was yet to happen. Aprospector searching for oil may have appeared eccentric. However, that is what we see Plainview doing in the extended near-silent opening of the film. He is digging deep in the dry, rocky California terrain like an insane earthworm. He knows what he is doing, though no one else does.
Anderson tells his story slowly, punctuating the often nonsensical narrative with explosions of emotion stemming from Plainview's strange aggressive temperament. In fact, he is much like oil itself…ready to erupt, gush and blow up into flames at any minute. He has no love for anyone, not even H.W, only for oil. Women play no role in his life. This is a long, long movie (2 hours and 40 minutes), which is solely sustained by Day-Lewis's smoldering, but bombastic performance. Plainview is meaner than his Bill, the "Butcher," character in Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York." It is hard to believe that the sensitive soul who selflessly dedicated his Screen Actors Guild Best Actor Award to the recently deceased Heath Ledger is the same person. Now, that's acting.
Go see "There Will be Blood" and see a great actor play a great American villain.
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