There Will Be Blood: Character Similarities

This is a movie built by the characters, the main ones being Daniel and Eli. Although they are each seemingly incredibly different, they go through a lot of similar motions throughout the storyThis movie focuses on two incredibly different yet powerfully similar characters, who develop largely through each other. When the negotiations and discussions of the land and oil drilling were going on, he was presented as a respectable and well-versed man. At the end of the movie, Daniel seems to have completely left behind his earlier performance. He pushes every connection he has away in order to build his oil empire and eventually he has practically nothing left. For the most part we see Eli as this slightly awkward, devoted young man, who is very involved in his church. Sometimes though, when Eli is incredibly angry, or very involved in his preaching, he seems to somewhat lose control, it almost looks like a tantrum or fit of anger or passion. It’s a version of him that’s very different from the quiet, polite boy we’re used to.

 Both characters come a long way from who they started off as in the movie. Daniel, while presenting as a successful and composed business man, deals with people in a brute and forceful way, and by the end of the movie has almost nothing dear to him left. Eli also is viewed by many as a clam and good preacher for his church, but he does have a more passionate/angry side around some and in his church. There Will Be Blood portrays these two different characters and how they develop very interestingly.

Citizen Kane: Symbolism Through Items

At the end of the movie it’s revealed that rosebud is in fact a sled which seems to just be a meaningless artifact from his childhood. However it is actually a nostalgic item for him, from at time when he was truly happy, before he had to leave his home and family. It can be assumed that he was remembering such times when he whispered the word on his deathbed, and dropped the snow globe. The snow globe is an item he picked up after his second wife Susan left him, according to his butler. He also supposedly said rosebud then too. In this way the snow globe became another rosebud-esque item, an allusion to a happier time when he was married. Although he didn’t have the physical sled with him, he carried both items, and memories to the end, when he had nothing left from the ruin of his life. All the items in his mansion at the end, ranging from priceless to worthless, was all he had left in the end. It’s an allusion of grandeur that meant nothing. All of those items could not compare to the significance of the sled, which was destroyed along with everything else at the end. After Kane was gone it meant nothing, as delicately pointed out by reporter in the final scene.

There Will Be Blood- Relationship With HW *new*

In the movie, There Will Be Blood, Daniel's relationship with HW plays a huge part in the evolution of Daniel's world. In the beginning of the movie, HW is left alone after the death of his birth father, starting his life with an unfortunate event. Daniel decides to take HW in as his child, creating a start to his life as a family man and as an oil man. In the beginning of their relationship, Daniel and HW are very close, HW helps him with Daniel's business and they work as a team. When HW and Daniel are hunting and searching for oil, HW comes across some oil in the ground. After he shows Daniel, they walk up the hill and look out onto the view of the mountain range. That view not only represented beauty, but the overwhelming power that would follow HW's discovery. When HW and Daniel are getting along and bonding, Daniel's oil business starts to become a success. His success officially breaks when HW loses his hearing. HW's condition becomes frustrating, stressful, and too much to handle, just like his business. Daniel starts to abandon HW, causing the dedication in him to drift away. When Daniel reunites with HW and they are having dinner, Daniel promises HW that he will no longer leave HW alone, and that they are in this together. Just after he has a special moment with HW, a group of businessmen from Standard Oil come storming in, symbolizing how business will get in the way of his relationship with HW. The ending of the movie has a very odd, quick ending. It starts as a scene with HW and Mary, and then flips to the future of Mary and HW getting married. This represented how unimportant and irrelevant HW’s childhood became in the movie, and in Daniels life. Daniel and HW have a disturbing last encounter, and HW leaves forever. After HW leaves Daniel, it is clear Daniels life is over. Daniel goes mad, and even kills Eli. When Daniel is in his bowling alley, he looks exhausted, chugging water as if he is dehydrated, working in the sun, just like in the beginning of the movie. This symbolized how although he had a lot of money and power, his life has gone back to what it was in the beginning of the movie. The loss of HW resulted in the loss of Daniels life. 

***I would like to include that my previously deleted post had an amazing amount of 16 views***

Greenwood’s Score in There Will Be Blood

Greenwood’s Score in There Will Be Blood

            Jonny Greenwood uses music in a brilliant way in There Will Be Blood to convey emotions and instill mood. From the very first seconds of the movie, the music is powerful and sets the scene.  A black screen with an increasing shrill of an orchestra playing, is the first thing the audience sees. As the shrill turns to an even more unpleasant siren sounding noise, bare and foreboding mountains fade into the picture.  Immediately, this sound relays to the viewers that something just isn’t right.  This truly horrific sound is heard shortly after when Daniel signs the lease for his first land.  The musical notes that this sound is attributed to is an orchestra sliding into each note of a chromatic scale at a different rate, and eventually every player is playing the same note. The chromatic sliding scale followed by one note is foreshadowing of how Plainview is climbing his way to the top, but eventually is reduced to one single obsession, his material possessions.  This motif is evident when Daniel is signing the lease to earn the rights to his first property. It is the beginning of his ruthless quest for wealth, which will eventually turn him into a heartless monster of a human being.  This was just one of many motifs that Greenwood employed in the remarkable score of There Will Be Blood.

Use of Color in There Will Be Blood

Perhaps the most astounding achievement of cinematography in There Will be Blood is the deliberate use of color. Set design, lighting and color grading were used together to create certain colors for each scene. The film uses color to help establish certain emotions of the audience, reinforce certain qualities of characters, and even help the audience make judgements on the righteousness of characters' decisions.

The majority of the film occurs in the desert town in which Daniel is drilling and consists of a pallet of two contrasting colors: blue and brown-orange. The colors are typically fairly desaturated and there is low contrast among that on the ground as mid-tones are usually fairly dark and shadows bright. The only large contrast exists between the ground and the vivid blue sky.

As a result, the scenes with this color are plain and bare. The viewer is not typically expected to feel an incredible amount of emotion during these scenes, and this matches the pacing created by the editing, which is usually fairly slow. However, these muted colors form a blank slate for other colors later in the film.

Renaissance painters such as Caravaggio painted in light paint on dark paper to create strong contrast between light and dark, a style of painting called Chiaroscuro. In many Chiaroscuro paintings, the light source is a single candle or fire. The fire scene is very much in this style: the contrast between the dark soot-filled sky and bright faces and blazing fire, the only light source, is immense.

This scene has perhaps the most radically different color from the rest of the film because it is in this Chiaroscuro style. This scene has two colors used, but rather than orange and blue, they are red-orange and black. The contrast is now huge; the frame is filled with both pure black and glowing faces or fire. The formerly tranquil desert becomes a hellish landscape so dark it might be confused to be indoors; not even nighttime becomes so dark. The only remaining forms through the darkness become the overarching but decaying blazing derrick and the dark silhouettes and red lurid faces of the oil miners.

The result of this use of color is a a feeling of intensity and fear. It is unknown as to weather the problems of drilling will escalate further not only in the short run as the derrick burns to the ground but in the long run as well as Daniel continues his dangerous endeavor. The color of this scene also describes the righteousness of drilling for oil; red and black are evil colors and are symbolic of hell. The color indicates that perhaps the death of workers, the deafness of H.W., and exploiting of Eli are not justified.

After the flash forward, the color pallet stays the same compared to the desert pallet, but rather than being bright with mostly warm colors with accents of blue as in the desert, this scene is low key and has mostly cool colors coming from daylight side light from the windows with warm accents from desk lamps and sconces.

The color brings a vastly different feeling than the color of the desert. Not only are the colors dark and cold; the disposition of  Daniel is dark and cold as well, especially compared to earlier in the film. Daniel is now alone except for his servant in a huge mansion and he bitterly disowns H.W. as his son. The difference in color between this scene and the rest of the film reinforce that Daniel has changed during the flash forward.

The color of the milkshake scene is composed primarily of the white of the walls with accents of brown. The color used here is the inverse of the colors of the fire scene; the color here is almost heavenly. What's interesting is that during their conversation Eli sits in front of a dark brown background while Daniel sits in front of the blank white wall, and a merciless murder is carried out in soft even light by a tranquilly colored background. Perhaps the film is once again using color to describe righteousness. By keeping Eli with dark color and Daniel with light, the film says that Eli is the true sinner and aids in the reversal of roles as Eli is “baptized” by Daniel just as Daniel was baptized earlier in the film. By having the murder occur with such heavenly light and color, the film says that Daniel's murder may be justified this time.

Director Paul Thomas Anderson and the rest of the creative team for this film were able to precisely pick the colors used for each scene, and these choices was not at all arbitrary. By keeping color in mind during set design, lighting, and color correction, the filmmakers are able to tell the narrative not only through dialogue and action but also through the look of the film itself.

Daniel Plainview Reflection

Daniel Plainview’s relationship with people is much different from what you would see with others. His need of a relationship is orientated around the idea of business and personal gain. Although Daniel loves his son H.W. despite not being his own, he still also sees him as a valuable asset to his business. H.W. is Daniel’s ‘cute face’ and leverage in business. He helps him secure transactions while also training him to eventually take over the business that Daniel has worked so hard to build. However, when we see the first oil pump burst and hurt H.W., Daniel rushes to his aid immediately. H.W. loss of hearing becomes a problem for Daniel soon and he gets sent of on a train because he no longer provides Daniel with an outlet for his personal and business concerns. H.W. gets treated like a tool being sent off to be repaired while Daniel seeks a replacement. Even towards the end of the film, Daniel still sees H.W. as a business partner and not much of a son. Every decision that Daniel makes has been for personal gain. He doesn’t worry over the effects it might have on other people which is the biggest thing Daniel lacks. When H.W. tells Daniel of his plans to start his own business, he feels a sense of betrayal both as a father and as a colleague. Those two shouldn’t have been put together in their relationship. Perhaps things could have turned out much more differently if Daniel kept H.W. as only his son and another person as his partner in business.

There Will Be Blood- Character progress throughout the story

One aspect that every good film has are character's that react to the plot and continue to develop throughout the story. In There Will Be Blood, there is no shortage of characters who change their natural ways because a situation in the plot had altered what lies in front of them. If you look at Daniel and Eli during the last scene, you can see both characters have reversed their roles since Vandy had made Daniel get baptized in Eli's Church. When the two meet again at Daniel's house, the power has shifted and the ball is in Daniel's court, where it was Eli who had the upper hand in command over Daniel in previous events. The characters really don't stay constant throughout the film because there are multiple events that make them react in a certain way that they are different then before. A good example of this is HW. After the giant explosion, HW becomes deaf and life working with his dad became a lot tougher. HW changed and his relationship with his father also changed, this completely added a twist to the story and made the characters react and change to accommodate the situation.

H.W. is A Bastard in a Basket

Matthew Collins

Film Analysis 4A

Mr. Bauks

3/10/14

Bastard in a Basket

        Daniel Plainview is a complex character; he has motives that are often not quite clear to the viewer of the movie. In one of the most crucial moments in the film is when Daniels tells H.W. that he meant nothing to him and was just “a sweet face to buy land”. Daniel has risked so much trying to get to the top of the oil empire the viewer cannot tell if what he is saying to his son is true or not. This scene is one of the most important parts in the whole movie. Robert Elswit the cinematographer created this moment within Daniel’s mansion where he is confined to solitude accompanied only by his alcohol. The lighting is set up to be the style of a horror movie and the quiet clap of thunder that takes place when lights his cigar creates great atmosphere in the scene itself. In the scene Daniel renounces any love he had for the son he had taken in; he does this because H.W. betrayed him and moved to Mexico with his wife. Daniel loves H.W. but the fact that he is deaf and that he left Daniel’s oil business; he sees him as competition and thats the reason he calls H.W. “A bastard in a basket”.

There Will Be Blood Character Development

There Will Be Blood Reaction

One of my favorite aspects of There Will Be Blood is the character development throughout the film. Some of the factors that contribute to a character changing for better or worse include: Money, age, power, and greed. For example, Daniel Plainview, the main character of the film, is strongly influenced by the power of money and greed. In the beginning of the film, Daniel is seen as a caring father who takes care of his son, H.W., and is trying to make a substantial income to support himself and his son. However, the money that he continuously makes throughout the film begins to change him and his personality, and makes the viewer question whether he is doing things for the right or wrong reason. For example, when Daniel’s personality changed throughout the film, I began to wonder whether he was still taking care of H.W. because he actually cared for him, or because it may look bad if he gives up on his son while he is raising him just so he can focus on making more money. H.W. also changes throughout the film because of age. In the beginning of the film, H.W. is just a baby and is riding with Daniel on the train. I found this scene memorable because later in the film when H.W. is about 10, he is also seen riding on the train with his dad just before an altercation between H.W. and a man on the train. I think that H.W.’s change in age affects Daniel negatively because raising H.W. proves to be a challenge for Daniel because he is so focused on expanding his oil company, and the multi-character development throughout the film contributes to and is eventually the reason for the downfall and destruction of Daniel Plainview in the end of the film.

There WIll Be Blood: Final Scene

The most unforgettable scene in There Will Be Blood was the last, in which Daniel Day Lewis’ character Daniel Plainview was fully exposed. Eli had entered Daniels bowling alley to a disturbed but calm Daniel. Eli immediately begins pouring a drink for Daniel and himself. Interestingly enough, Daniel responds quite politely saying, “No, thank you very much”. Daniel takes a seat and the two begin to converse. It is not until Eli asks for a favor, that Daniel goes mad. Daniel had been up that night and into the morning drinking away the fact that he believes his son is leaving him to become his competition. When he is awoken, he is immediately troubled with the fact that Eli has entered his home begging for assistance. This becomes the turning point. After building up the image of a cocky but somewhat calm man, he alleviates all of his distress on Eli. After being baptized and humiliated by Eli, Daniel decided to exact his revenge in the same fashion. Daniel made Eli admit that he “is a false prophet, and god is a superstition”. Daniel then admits to the fact that what he had promised Eli, the Oil under the church, has already been drilled. Daniel then moves into his milkshake rant. This is where his character is truly exposed. While Daniel always believed he was above everyone else and that everything in life was a competition, he was never outwardly competitive. He first shows this when he tells Eli, “I drink your milkshake”, essentially educating Eli on the fact that Eli is nothing to him. Although Daniel had killed before, he had never killed in such a brutal fashion, repeatedly hitting Eli over the head with a bowling pin. Then the movie fades into darkness and ends, summing up the crash and burn of Daniel Plainview. Daniel had all that he had needed and more, and unfortunately for himself and many others, greed engulfed his life.

There Will Be Blood: Character Development

There Will Be Blood: Character Development

While Daniel Plainview is clearly not your average “good guy” protagonist, I felt that his role in the movie wasn’t done by the time the intended. Over the course of the film, we watch Plainview progressively lose his mind in what I would call the comedown from a powertrip. Plainview had a monopoly on oil, had completely dominated the surrounding area, all with his sidekick son, HW. However when the accident happened, we quickly began to see Daniel’s sanity begin to slip, as he decides to ship off his son and starts threatening to cut peoples throats before they even get the chance to question him.

As the story progresses, Daniel begins to question his own actions more and more, and continues his downward spiral to insanity. It seems to me that his sanity goes hand in hand with his interactions with HW, starting with his accident and ending with the “bastard in a basket” dialogue. Although there’s a clear change in his character over the course of the movie, Daniel didn’t reach the point that I felt he should have. For a movie called There Will Be Blood, there honestly just was not enough blood. They spent hours building up a characters insanity only to have his pinnacle “snap” be beating a man down with a bowling pin. I was waiting for an absolute bloodbath including some businessmen or HW or something to complete the full circle of craziness and end with a bang. The ending just wasn’t quite satisfying I guess, and i felt like there was just a little more room for him to grow before it was acceptable

Daniel and Eli

The relationship between Daniel and Eli only existed because it seemed mutually beneficial for the both of them.  It was no secret that Daniel was not very fond of Eli. Eli, has given Daniel trouble from the first time they encountered each other. They first spoke to each other when Daniel was trying to purchase the land that Eli has settled on. Daniel already negotiated with Eli’s father, and then Eli steps in to the arrangement and raises the price by almost double and asks for more money for his church. Daniel, knowing the possibilities had to agree. After the deal is made Eli asks for Daniel’s hand to pray, but Daniel being so incredibly angry cant even touch Eli. One more scene that was very showed the colors of their relationship was when Daniel was asked to be baptized at Eli’s church, if he wished to build a pipeline. Eli makes Daniel admit him being a bad parent leaving H.W. and starts slapping the daylights out of Daniel. Which in the end of the relationship came back to bite Eli. When Eli shows up to Daniel’s house several years later with a proposition, Daniel humiliates him, making Eli renounce his faith, and call himself a false prophet. After all of this Daniel just goes completely mental, and all the years of holding back his anger so he could make money are coming back in a flash, and Daniel then ends his relationship with Eli.

There Will Be Blood: Daniel Day Lewis

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.

There Will Be Blood: Milkshake Scene

The most memorable scene in Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood is the movie's final scene, sometimes referred to as the "Milkshake Scene." In this scene, Daniel Plainview exerts complete and utter dominance upon Eli, his rival throughout the film. Daniel reveals that Eli's brother Paul was the one who informed Daniel of the oil in Little Boston. Daniel takes out all of his frustration on Eli after the baptism he was forced to participate in, where Eli slapped Daniel across the face repeatedly. Daniel is harsh, and rubs in the fact that Daniel is wealthy and Eli is not. At one point in Eli's desperation, he says, "Please don't bully me Daniel." Then, Daniel makes the "milkshake analogy," where he repeats, "I drink your milkshake," and puts his hands in Eli's face. This analogy refers to the enormous power that Daniel has over Eli. At this point in the plot, Eli has no leverage in negotiations with Daniel. Daniel has control over virtually everything Eli could want. Daniel drinks Eli's milkshake. I also believe this scene is significant in regards to the movie's score. There is a loud, tense orchestra playing at many moments during the film, and this music seems to be building towards a climax or explosion of some sort. I believe that the milkshake scene is what the movie's music is building to, an absolute release of tension, and Daniel being thrown over the edge, ultimately resulting in Eli's brutal death. The combination of brilliant acting and scriptwriting make this scene my favorite scene in There Will Be Blood.

There Will Be Blood- Relationship with HW

In the movie, There Will Be Blood, Daniel's relationship with HW plays a huge part in the evolution of Daniel's world. In the beginning of the movie, HW is left alone after the death of his birth father, starting his life with an unfortunate event. Daniel decides to take HW in as his child, creating a start to his life as a family man and as an oil man. In the beginning of their relationship, Daniel and HW are very close, HW helps him with Daniel's business and they work as a team. When HW and Daniel are hunting and searching for oil, HW comes across some oil in the ground. After he shows Daniel, they walk up the hill and look out onto the view of the mountain range. That view not only represented beauty, but the overwhelming power that would follow HW's discovery. When HW and Daniel are getting along and bonding, Daniel's oil business starts to become a success. His success officially breaks when HW loses his hearing. HW's condition becomes frustrating, stressful, and too much to handle, just like his business. Daniel starts to abandon HW, causing the dedication in him to drift away. When Daniel reunites with HW and they are having dinner, Daniel promises HW that he will no longer leave HW alone, and that they are in this together. Just after he has a special moment with HW, a group of businessmen from Standard Oil come storming in, symbolizing how business will get in the way of his relationship with HW. The ending of the movie has a very odd, quick ending. It starts as a scene with HW and Mary, and then flips to the future of Mary and HW getting married. This represented how unimportant and irrelevant HW’s childhood became in the movie, and in Daniels life. Daniel and HW have a disturbing last encounter, and HW leaves forever. After HW leaves Daniel, it is clear Daniels life is over. Daniel goes mad, and even kills Eli. When Daniel is in his bowling alley, he looks exhausted, chugging water as if he is dehydrated, working in the sun, just like in the beginning of the movie. This symbolized how although he had a lot of money and power, his life has gone back to what it was in the beginning of the movie. The loss of HW resulted in the loss of Daniels life. 

There Will Be Blood Response: Joey Schulman

The film begins with a wide shot of a vast and open terrain. This signifies the emptiness of our setting. We meet the character of Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis) deep below the ground in a mining shaft. Plainview is working in absolute darkness, which was also a very interesting lighting method in this film. This could be symbolic of Plainview’s current economic or social position. However, his loneliness and labor is a product of his ambition and lust for power. This ambition is visually revealed to us when Plainview climbs out of his mine and makes his way into town to sell his silver. All of this is done with a broken leg. This ascension out of the darkness of the shaft is visually symbolic of Plainview’s path to power. Plainview begins drilling for oil and becomes a more powerful figure. In this film, they captured the setting before an action scene takes place to enhance the importance of the setting itself for the viewer. Also another common theme in this film was that Daniel Day Lewis, aka: God, is always mouthing on something in every scene it seems like. Even when he beat the crap out of Eli at his house, he was mouthing on some chicken. One of the coolest things about this movie I thought was that the movie started out with about 15 minutes of silence, but then we jumped into a monologue by Daniel Day Lewis.