There Will Be Blood

there-will-be-blood

When the movie first came out, I wanted to see it because I love Paul Thomas Anderson. The cinematography looked amazing. It was pretty while also being bleak. Then, it became known for the line, “I drink your milkshake!” which Daniel Day-Lewis’ character Daniel Plainview says to Paul Dano’s preacher character, Paul Sunday. I had no idea what the line meant, but it sounded ridiculous. I had second thoughts about seeing it since I wasn’t sure if I could take it seriously after seeing tons of parodies about that line.

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I’m glad I did. The movie is slow and there isn’t a lot of dialogue, but I never found it boring. It is really a story about good and evil, but I’m not sure which man landed on which side. Daniel Plainview was all about capitalism with mining for oil, even though he did offer to help build schools and roads for towns that happened to be over the oil he was mining. He had a small boy that wasn’t his son but he adopted when one of his miner’s fell to his death early on in his mining career. He called the boy his partner and treated him like his son, until there was an accident that left him impaired. Plainview sent his son off to a boarding school rather than deal with him since he got in the way. Oh, he was a pleasant fellow.

On the other side of good and evil, and I’m not sure which, would be Paul Sunday who didn’t trust Plainview. He knew his father was selling his land for much cheaper than it was worth to the soon-to-be oil tycoon. He got as much money as he could from Plainview for his church and it seemed all he wanted from Plainview as for him to believe in God, which Plainview refused to do. Those two in the movie didn’t interact very much, but when they did, it was explosive. They hated each other very much. They were both set in their ways but both wanted the other to believe how they believed.

By the end of the movie, Plainview was rich, but not happy. I am not sure if he really cared though since I don’t know if he was ever happy. He just seemed to be very ambitious and never enjoyed what he had. Sunday came begging for some money, but Plainview really let it out on him. He told him a secret that Sunday never knew that destroyed him. Then Plainview said the milkshake line. It fit, but it was still hilarious, which was probably not its intention. It didn’t ruin the movie though since it was at the very end. If someone watches the movie, waiting for that line, they will need to wait a really long time, or they can search for it on YouTube. I’d recommend just watching the movie, since it is good, even without the line. I do like it being in there though. It’s awesome.

Rating: A

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