There Will Be Blood

Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Kevin J. O'Connor, Ciaran Hinds, Rus... Review: The first time I saw this beautiful beast of a movie from director-writer Paul Thomas Anderson, I felt gut-punched. Some people winced during the first fifteen minutes of wordless darkness as Daniel Day-Lewis, deep in a mine shaft in the choking heat of New Mexico, painstakingly digs silver ore out of stubborn rock. Such is the relentless intensity of his character, Daniel Plainview. An ankle-snapping fall down the shaft leaves a lifelong limp but no change in his ramrod ambition, even as oil replaces silver as his unholy grail. As the film bores through the first three decades of the twentieth century, Plainview becomes a California oil tycoon of unparalleled ruthlessness. His enemies are man and God. And in the film's final section, a rush of scorching brutality, Plainview ta... Rating: 4 Stars (link)