Loosely based on 1927 novel
Oil! authored by Upton Sinclair, the movie stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview. While digging for silver, Plainview instead finds crude oil. Starting as a one man team, the movie depicts Plainview's rise to become a very rich oil man. The movie is somewhat similar to
The Aviator which stars Leonardo Dicaprio in that both of the main characters are very intense characters who seem to exhibit some signs of mental instability. The story itself is merely a depiction of one fictional person's life. The characters themselves such as Plainview and the show man preacher Eli are what make the movie interesting to watch. For example in the scene when Eli is fervently praying out the arthritis ghost out of a woman's hand, threatening to bite the ghost with his teeth...it's interesting to watch Eli as well as Plainview's reaction to it. As for the intense dislike which Plainview seems to have towards preacher Eli, not sure what this was all about or why it's in the movie but it did make it entertaining. A scene with Plainview and Eli where Eli uses a straw and milkshake as an analogy to a drill and oil is strange, ridiculous, but funny. This scene where Plainview bullies Eli with the words "Drainage!!", I for one personally found this humorous to watch. Daniel Day-Lewis' acting is intense as usual. Perhaps because of the gang leader character which Lewis played in
Gangs of New York, I was expecting parts of this movie to suddenly erupt into bloody shootouts. After all the title of this movie is There Will Be Blood. One final note of interest, the movie seems to use sound effects which are very similar to ones used in the TV series
Lost.
