There Will Be Blood (2007)
- Despite a very rocky opening weekend, There Will Be Blood went on to gross over 5x its initial budget thanks purely to incredible audience word-of-mouth.
- If you look closely during the crowded sequence in the second act of There Will Be Blood, the original author of the source material makes a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo.
There Will Be Blood is a 2007 American epic period drama written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, loosely based on Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel Oil! Daniel Day-Lewis delivers one of the most towering performances in cinema history as Daniel Plainview, a relentless, misanthropic silver miner turned oil prospector in early 20th-century California who builds a petroleum empire through a combination of genuine business acumen, manipulative charm, and consuming hatred for virtually all human beings. When Plainview discovers oil beneath a small California community, his exploitation of the land brings him into conflict with Eli Sunday, played by Paul Dano, a charismatic young preacher whose church represents the only power in town that Plainview doesn't control.
Daniel Day-Lewis's performance was a volcanic feat of sustained intensity, creating a character of Shakespearean proportions β Plainview's "I drink your milkshake" monologue and his confession that he has "a competition in me" that wants to see everyone fail became immediately iconic. Paul Thomas Anderson's direction employed Robert Elswit's Oscar-winning widescreen cinematography and Jonny Greenwood's dissonant, Ligeti-influenced score to create an atmosphere of constant, simmering menace. There Will Be Blood won two Academy Awards and earned $76 million worldwide on a $25 million budget.
