It's been almost 15 years since it hit theaters, and I am still thinking about There Will Be Blood.
This Paul Thomas Anderson masterpiece is as revelatory now as it was then. I remember sitting in the theater wondering how violent the movie would get but finding myself watching something restrained and confounding. It was a meditation on money, family, and America.
Today, I wanted to take the opportunity to look deeper into the title of the movie and look at the four ways PTA left blood all over the screen, fulfilling his title's promise.
Let's go.
4 Ways There Will Be Blood Lives Up to Its Title
1. Blood of my blood
Let's start with one of the central themes of the movie, family. Some of the blood on screen is family blood.
When we meet him, Daniel Plainview is a gold prospector who comes across oil instead. He quickly becomes a self-described oilman. But he realizes the way to acquire oil is to attract people to let him drill on their land. After a tragic mining accident leaves the father of a boy dead, Daniel adopts the baby as his own, traveling as a "family business." He and his son, HW, make a name for themselves, fighting with Standard Oil.
'There Will Be Blood'Credit: Paramount Pictures
That picture of a family allows him to gather trust from people. But it's also his downfall. Later, Daniel meets a supposed half-brother. Someone claiming to be related to him. We see how that blood betrays him and uses him. It didn't matter that he was lying about who he was. Daniel let blood be part of his downfall.
Later, when he chases his son away from the mansion, we see that he's lost all sense of blood, and he's back to where he started.
2. Blood, sweat, and tears
Another instance of titular blood comes from hard work. Daniel literally bleeds for his cause to become rich. He digs the original mine, drops down when there are problems, and works himself non-stop to become one of the richest men in America.
This one-track mind also keeps him busy all the time. It's a burning desire in him. It courses through his veins.
3. Christ's redeeming blood
By the time Daniel moves to town and meets Eli Sunday, he's really only concerned with money. Eli tries to exploit that using religion or the redeeming blood of Christ. Daniel sees past this as a plot for more money. He tries to buy Eli off unsuccessfully and then has to thwart him in other ways, drinking his milkshake by buying all the other farms and draining them dry.
While Eli promises redemption and forgiveness, he actually drives Daniel away... and there's real blood to pay for that.
'There Will Be Blood'Credit: Paramount Pictures
4. Bloody violence
At the end of the movie, we see Daniel and Eli pitted against one another in a final showdown. Daniel chases Eli with a bowling pin and beats his head in, delivering the blood we were promised.
But this violence is not as simple as that. It's the amalgamation of all the blood we've come to see before. The frustrating loss of his son, the end of his career, and the rejection of Eli's redemption and blackmail.
In killing Eli, Daniel shouts that he has become the Lord, therefore being what Eli needs to live. Instead, Daniel spills his blood, crucifying him for the crimes Daniel has been guilty of all this time.
Do you like this analysis, or do you disagree? Let us know in the comments!
