It is hard to focus on anything but Daniel Day Lewis both before and after watching There Will Be Blood. His methods used when transforming into a character, essentially becoming Daniel Plainview, are far beyond my comprehension. However, the director Paul Anderson knew exactly how to direct and work with an actor such as Daniel Day Lewis. Only in films with strong lead actors can a director afford to allow the character to lead the camera, rather than the other way around. There were many parts throughout There Will Be Blood when the director, sometimes using only one angle to film an entire scene, allowed Daniel Day Lewis to take on minutes upon minutes of dialogue; giving the audience a captivating performance, making them feel connected to his character and to the film.
A perfect example would be the scene famously referred to as, the “Milkshake Scene”. In this scene Eli and Daniel are having what is to be their final confrontation, where Eli’s false prophecies and hypocrisies finally come to center stage, and Daniel reveals his true intentions. This scene takes place inside Daniel’s home bowling alley, Daniel and Eli speaking opposite to each other. In most scenes nowadays, directors try to have as much “coverage” as possible; looking for the best angles to shoot and capture a scene from. What I loved and was struck by the most in this scene is that the director chose to film from a typically mundane angle. The two characters were set on either side of the screen with the camera placed somewhat in the center; nothing fancy by modern standards. Though the framing is nothing to be applauded, the performances given by Daniel Day Lewis, and Paul Dano through their strong chemistry and understanding of their characters carry the whole scene through and through. For nearly two minutes the camera does not cut away at any point, and despite it’s length, Daniel’s brash tirade about Eli’s “Milkshake” only captivates viewers more and more as it goes on. Any actor that doesn’t have to rely on the camera to work for him, will be and always is the centerpiece for any film.
I feel as if this is some form of overwhelming theme to the entire film. There are many different scenes and parts of the film in which exciting moments are filmed in mundane ways, while not so exciting scenes are filmed oddly and interestingly with intense forms of music. In my own reflections, I wrote about the slowness of the fight scenes and how normal they seem. A fight scene, which in other films is usually filmed to be exciting and fast, is made out to be slow and drawn out.
ReplyDeleteI feel these varied types of film techniques make an overwhelming point about the realism of the plot.