There Will Be Blood Score

Camilla Broccolo

The way the movie There Will Be Blood started, set the tone for the rest of the movie. Starting without dialogue, and only the background sounds of a oil production site, you could understand the emotion of the scene, which was intense and dramatic.  In most movies, actors portray the emotion in a scene through their voices, actions or acting. Conversely, in There Will Be Blood, the emotion was communicated through the score in the background. The emotion in the first oil production scene was set by the sounds of the machinery and then the baby crying in the background.  Most scenes in the movie had a escalating score in the background which lead up to the final scene which included the violent death of Eli.  This technique was in a way misleading because throughout most of the movie I was expecting something big to happen  because of the music, but then it never did.  On the other hand, after HW loses his hearing, the music is used to show that he is deaf.  I thought was well done because in most scenes focusing on HW, even in the middle of the explosion which was meant to be loud and scary, you could not hear anything that was going around HW, but only the score in the background. I was immediately able to understand that he lost his hearing in the explosion because of this technique that was used.  Overall I think that the score of this movie fit well to communicate the emotion in the film.

There Will Be Blood: In Relation to Daniel Plainview

There Will Be Blood: In Relation to Daniel Plainview

There are a lot of elements in Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood that make it special. It is excellently approached aesthetically (receiving the Academy Award for Best Cinematography), has a very intriguing setting, and is scored masterfully. However, what makes this film so rich and interesting to watch is more a study in its characters and the relationships between them. Daniel Plainview, the protagonist of the film, is an antihero. He is not a likeable character. He is so corrupted by greed and by power that his almost crazed obsessions (with a couple catalysts) drive him totally over the edge by the end of the film. Furthermore, each relationship between Daniel and the other main characters in the film tends to be very revealing about Daniel as a character. The relationship perhaps the most stationary throughout the film is his with his son, H.W. Although the relationship evolves throughout the story, H.W. is always going to affect his father in some way. In the beginning and through most of the film, Daniel Plainview evidently loves his son. Some may argue with me on this, especially after their relationship descends into Daniel screaming, “Bastard in a basket,” after his son and telling H.W. that the only reason he was kept around was for a cute face with which to buy land. However, I feel that this is more out of hurt than anything else after his son played such a pivotal role in his life. For example, during his baptism Daniel is visibly upset when he is forced to exclaim repeatedly how he has abandoned his child. But when H.W. is shipped off to school, Daniel turns to the man that he thinks is his half brother, Henry. Henry seems to fill a void that H.W. has left, and Daniel opens up to him about his general dislike about most people and his competitiveness. The feelings are seemingly not reciprocated, however, which sets off Daniel’s growing suspicion about his “brother” and leads to him murdering his false relative. Perhaps it’s not Henry’s betrayal itself but rather the nature of it; his deception cuts so deep into Daniel at this point in time–having just exposed his innermost thoughts and feelings–that it sets off this rash reaction. Both of these relationships are hugely important, but the antagonist to Daniel’s antihero is Eli Sunday, son of the Sunday ranch’s owner and manipulative teenage preacher. On the surface, Eli is well demeanored and educated, but has his own vices and concerns that are in conflict with Daniel’s. Their relationship builds on mutual disrespect (much of the active disrespect on Daniel’s part), becoming less passive aggressive and more just aggressive until it explodes and Daniel bashes Eli’s head in with a bowling pin in a fit of rage in the final moments of the film. The relationship between Daniel and Eli is particularly interesting as ultimately, both of them are willing to do whatever they need to to get what they want, but approach it in very different ways. However, in the crazed final scene, Daniel still emerges our hero and Eli our villain, and as an audience you find yourself once again cheering for someone, when you think about it, you don’t know if you should be.

There Will Be Blood: Baptism Scene

Paul Anderson’s 2007 film There Will Be Blood starring Daniel Day-Lewis is filled with complex and intriguing moments.  One scene in particular showcases Day-Lewis’ masterful performance and the film’s quality as a whole.  When the protagonist Daniel Plainview is forced to be baptized by his nemesis Eli, the many different dimensions of this character are brought to light.  At the start of the baptism, the camera shifts to a close up on Plainview and focuses in on his face.  Anderson’s use of this technique allows the audience to see the emotions running high in Daniel as the scene progresses.  At first, Plainview looks only annoyed that he has to put up with this inconvenience in order to build his oil pipeline.  However, after Eli mentions Plainview abandoning his child, Day-Lewis’ smug expression shifts to one of anger and guilt.  The close-up holds on Plainview as he follows Eli’s instructions on what to say.  His hesitance only when he is asked to admit that he has abandoned his child brings out how terrible he really feels about sending H.W away.  Additionally, he only follows Eli’s prompts until he starts furiously screaming out “I’ve abandoned my child!” The close-up during this moment allows Day-Lewis to show his fury, tensing up his face and enlarging a vain on his forehead. This scene adds depth to the character of Plainview who was previously shown as just a ruthless business man, doing whatever he must in order to succeed.  The combination of Anderson’s camera work and Daniel Day-Lewis’ acting create a truly unforgettable scene that is vital for the characterization of Daniel Plainview.

There Will Be Blood: Oil Explosion

Maddie Lavoie
Mr. Bauks
Period 4

The importance of a major scene in the film There Will Be Blood was established through the focus and filming of the shot. The scene displays Daniel's laborers working along the oil plant from a far, but also shows HW atop the woodwork watching the task. The only sound heard being of the machinery creaking as the production of oil continues. The camera begins to move forward and zoom in on the contraption that is connected to a rope streaming down under ground. As the rope is now in focus moving up and down, the rope begins to shake uncontrollably. A new shot is recorded from a forward angle including the focus of the worker guiding the rope and the rope itself. The man screams out to take cover as the explosion takes off. I found that the zoom into the rope caused suspicion of what would take place next followed by the only sound of creaking machinery. As for focus, when the man is screaming for everyone to take cover, both the worker and rope are in focus to provide the fear and concern of the man setting the mood of the scene along with the rope showing the action.

Use of "Fight" scenes in There Will be Blood

Use of "Fight" scenes in There Will be Blood

Cyrus Burris

There Will Be Blood is a film about oil. Oil really isn't anything special. Oil is simply something that comes and goes in life, and that many people can take advantage of to make a decent sum of money. So, why make a movie about it? It's not one of those "sexy" topics like war or time travel, so what can you really get out of it? There Will Be Blood uses it's own lack of spectacle to make itself more real. The key example of this is the usage of fight scenes in the movie. In most other films, those as old as George Lucas' Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and those as new as Edgar Wright's The World's End, fight scenes are long, flashy and crazy. Quite frankly, that's not how fights really go down. Real fights are slow, painful, and are rather personal. There Will Be Blood nails the fight scenes right on the head. The film's fight scenes are exactly as a real fight would be. Daniel's multiple physical standoffs with Eli are slow, painful and incredibly personal. This plays into the entire film's very real feel. Nothing in this movie is entirely out of the ordinary or probably doesn't already exist. Even Eli's crazy church and preaching aren't far from some of those in the deep south. This is a key element of what makes the film so, for lack of a better term, good. It all just seems so real, and the viewer can really feel as if it is happening right in front of them. The "fight" scenes in the film are what really drives this point home.

There Will be Blood: Beginning of movie, and ending scenes

I thought the beginning scene of the movie was a very interesting way to start. Most movies do not choose to start this way because I think most audiences would perceive it as boring. With this movie though I think it helped set the seriousness and intensity of the film and it ended up staying this way the whole movie. The film had very few funny scenes and for the most part was cold-hearted, all about money, and doing what is best for yourself. I think the beginning scene set the stage for this type of film. Another scene I thought was very interesting was the scene when Daniel and his son were fighting because his son wanted to start his own business. The movie fast forwarded a lot through the son's childhood so it was hard to see what their relationship was like before the son told Daniel about his plans for his own business. It seems as though they never had a good relationship due to his son's disability and not being able to communicate without using sign language and also Daniel's attitude as a selfish person. The close-up shots during this scene did a great job in grabbing every emotion that was coming through both of them. I also liked the use of the flash-back at the end of the movie when Daniel is remembering the good times with his son before the huge fight and before he lost his mind. This scene does a great job reminding the audience that it wasn't always this way between them and that they did care for each other earlier in their lives. Overall I thought the movie used many good camera shots and different movie techniques to make the film better.

There Will Be Blood blog post

The Paul Anderson film There Will Be Blood, consists of many different elements that help both intensify and dramatize the film as a whole. For instance, Anderson's decision to open the film with fourteen minutes of just silence, not only served as a setup of the environment Daniel Plainview was in, but it also helped bring the audience into that particular world. Most directors choose to incorporate dialogue fairly early on in their film as a means of introducing the characters to the audience right from the get-go. By introducing Daniel and the circumstances he is in all through silence, Anderson was able to set-up a clear tone of the film; that is a tone of struggle and intensity. During these first fourteen minutes of silence, the audience is able to really focus in on all that Daniel is doing and what sort of setting he is in. Anderson also used a combination of wide and close frames to show that Daniel was in an environment with nobody else around him, which allows an audience to wonder and question as to what may have happened previous to this first encounter with Daniel. Another element that plays a very important role in helping dramatize the film is the element of music. Anderson used a variety of different styles and tempos of music, perhaps as a means of helping indicate that something is going to happen in the near future or to help show the current mood of a specific character. One example of this is when Daniel is standing on a field with a group of men and he makes eye contact with Eli as he makes his way toward Daniel. Although the music isn't very loud or grand in this scene, its sudden change in tone helps portray Daniel's feelings toward Eli. Before Eli meets toe to toe with Daniel, the music is a fast-paced orchestra that sounds neither happy nor sad, but allows one to wonder what is going to happen next. However, the moment Daniel spots Eli and we get a closer shot of Daniel and two of the men behind him, the tone of the music suddenly shifts. No longer is the audience wondering what type of mood the scene is going to have, now it is clear through the angry expression on Daniel's face and the dark tone of the music that their encounter is not going to be a positive one.