Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood (2007) is a towering, operatic examination of greed, ambition, and the corrupting force of American capitalism—an uncompromising modern masterpiece anchored by Daniel Day-Lewis’s thunderous, career-defining performance. Loosely inspired by Upton Sinclair’s novel Oil!, the film strips away the politics and leaves behind a primal battle for wealth and power, set against the unforgiving backdrop of America’s oil boom at the turn of the 20th century.
Day-Lewis plays Daniel Plainview, a self-made oilman whose relentless drive for success is matched only by his boundless mistrust of others. From the moment we first see him clawing at the earth alone in a dark, silent mineshaft, Plainview emerges as a figure of almost mythic intensity—a man who will stop at nothing to seize whatever the land can give him, even if it poisons his soul in the process.
When Plainview strikes oil in California, his wealth and influence swell, but so too does his paranoia and misanthropy. He adopts H.W., a young boy who becomes both his business prop and, in his own flawed way, a surrogate son. Their complicated relationship is the only flicker of warmth in Plainview’s increasingly scorched emotional landscape.
Opposite him stands Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), a young, charismatic preacher who sees the oil rush as an opportunity to expand his own influence. Their clash becomes the film’s core conflict—a ruthless dance between faith and capitalism, each manipulating the other in a bid for control. Their scenes together crackle with tension, culminating in the now-iconic final act that delivers one of the most chilling, quotable closing lines in modern cinema: “I drink your milkshake!”
Anderson’s direction is patient and unflinching, giving scenes room to breathe as he exposes the vast loneliness at the heart of Plainview’s conquest. Robert Elswit’s stark, sweeping cinematography captures both the brutal beauty and the desolation of the American West, while Jonny Greenwood’s unsettling, avant-garde score pulses beneath the surface like a simmering threat—perfectly mirroring Plainview’s seething rage and ambition.
There Will Be Blood isn’t just about oil; it’s about the deep cost of the American Dream when stripped of ideals and morality. Plainview embodies a uniquely American archetype: the self-made man whose empire is built on exploitation and whose success leaves him isolated, empty, and snarling in the darkness of his own making.
Seventeen years on, There Will Be Blood remains an essential, haunting portrait of a man—and a nation—driven to madness by the insatiable hunger for more. It is, in every sense, a film that seeps into your bones: beautiful, brutal, and utterly unforgettable.
