There will be blood, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

Welcome to the week of 9/11. I wanted to do a special movie review of the film Flight 93, directed by Peter Markle, to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of the fall of the twin towers, but unfortunately I have yet to see this film and it isn't available on Netflix's instant streaming. It tells the story of the courageous passengers of the 4th plane that was hijacked on 9/11 and how they overcame their terrorist captors and prevented the plane from ever reaching it's destination.

Instead I have another truly amazing film to talk about...this week's movie is:

There will be blood, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

This movie is really quite amazing. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, it tells the story of a country oil tycoon and his rise to power during the turn of the century. With his son as his business partner, the prospector slowly looses his mind as his greed and craving for vengeance grow along with his profits, eventually consuming him in his later days.

Released in 2007, There will be blood didn't do great opening weekend, making only about $300,000 (IMDb) but slowly rose to fame and ended up winning two Oscars; Best Achievement in Cinematography and Best Performance by and Actor in a Leading Role. 

But enough boring stuff, here's what I think. I was absolutely blown away by the movie. This was the first Daniel Day-Lewis movie that I have ever seen, and I was really impressed with his performance. He did a great job of slowly transitioning from a caring father simply trying to make a living into a power hungry and conniving business man.

As for film making goes, I was also impressed. The first 20 minutes or so are filmed in pure cinema (story telling through film without dialogue), which is pretty rare for a movie these days (my favorite example is the beginning of Wall-E). This movie also does a great job of telling the story from the very beginning, with Daniel silently mining the Earth in search for oil before he had established himself and when is son was only a baby.

Even with all of this going for it, what really made the movie for me was Paul Dano's performance as Eli Sunday, an extremely righteous young pastor who dedication to God is all but loving. It is partly Eli constantly trying to break Daniel and force him into Christianity that drives Daniel over the edge, and they quickly become enemies pitted to destroy each other.

I would give this movie a solid 9.4 on my movie scale, which is pretty good. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone who asks, Daniel Day and Paul Dano definitely deliver.