Daniel Day-Lewis doesn't just act. He haunts. If you've been putting it off, or maybe you just caught a clip of the famous "milkshake" scene on social media, you really need to sit down and watch movie There Will Be Blood from start to finish. It’s not just a period piece about oil. It is a loud, messy, grease-stained autopsy of the American Dream. Honestly, it’s probably the most important film of the 21st century so far.
Paul Thomas Anderson released this beast in 2007. That was a weirdly good year for movies—No Country for Old Men came out around the same time—but this one feels different. It feels older. It feels like it was unearthed from the ground rather than filmed on a set.
What People Get Wrong About Daniel Plainview
Most people think this is a movie about a villain. It’s actually more of a movie about a man who has decided that other people simply don't matter. Daniel Plainview, played by Day-Lewis in a performance that won him an Oscar and probably terrified everyone on set, is an oil prospector. But "prospector" is too light a word. He’s a predator.
When you watch movie There Will Be Blood, you aren't watching a traditional character arc. Plainview doesn't learn a lesson. He doesn't find redemption. He just gets more... himself. He tells his business associate, "I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed." He means it. He hates people. He says it out loud. Most villains in movies have some secret soft spot, but Plainview’s only soft spot is his adopted son, H.W., and even that relationship is poisoned by his own greed and pride.
The film is loosely based on Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel Oil!, but Anderson threw most of the book away. He kept the setting and the grease. He focused on the friction between two types of power: the power of the earth (oil) and the power of the spirit (religion).
The Eli Sunday Conflict
Paul Dano plays Eli Sunday, a young, charismatic preacher who is just as hungry as Plainview, though he hides it behind a Bible. Their rivalry is the spine of the film. It’s a battle of two different brands of snake oil. Plainview sells wealth through the ground; Eli sells salvation through the air.
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Neither one is particularly "good."
If you pay close attention when you watch movie There Will Be Blood, you’ll notice that Eli is the only person who can actually get under Plainview’s skin. Why? Because they are the same person. They both use performance to control people. They both want to build empires in the middle of nowhere.
The Technical Mastery You’ll Notice Immediately
Let’s talk about the sound. Most movies use music to tell you how to feel. If it’s sad, there are violins. If it’s scary, there’s a jump scare. Jonny Greenwood, the lead guitarist for Radiohead, did the score for this, and it is uncomfortable.
It’s dissonant. It scratches. It sounds like machinery grinding against rock.
When the oil derrick first catches fire—a sequence that is absolutely legendary in cinema history—the music isn't heroic. It’s chaotic. You feel the heat. You feel the vibration of the ground. The cinematography by Robert Elswit is equally stunning. He used a lot of natural light, giving the California desert a dusty, scorched-earth look that makes you want to reach for a glass of water.
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Why the "Milkshake" Scene Still Dominates the Internet
"I drink your milkshake!"
It’s a meme now. You’ve seen it. But seeing it in context is a totally different experience. It happens at the very end of the movie, in a sprawling mansion that feels more like a tomb. By this point, Plainview has won. He’s rich. He’s successful. He’s also completely alone and probably losing his mind.
When he screams those words at Eli Sunday, he isn't just talking about drainage. He’s explaining how he has won the game of life. He has reached under Eli’s land and taken what was his. It’s a brutal metaphor for capitalism, but it’s also just a terrifying look at a man who has finally lost his last shred of humanity.
Day-Lewis spent a year preparing for this role. He reportedly listened to recordings of John Huston to get the voice right. It’s a deep, booming, theatrical voice that sounds like it’s coming from the bottom of a well. When you finally watch movie There Will Be Blood, notice how his voice changes. It gets more gravelly, more serrated as the years go by.
Is it a Boring Movie?
Honestly? No. But it is slow.
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If you’re used to Marvel movies or fast-paced thrillers, the first fifteen minutes might shock you. There is almost no dialogue. It’s just Daniel Plainview in a hole in the ground, breaking his leg and crawling across the dirt to claim his find.
It’s pure visual storytelling.
It demands your attention. You can’t scroll on your phone while you watch movie There Will Be Blood. If you do, you’ll miss the subtle shifts in Plainview’s face when he realizes his son can no longer hear him. You’ll miss the way the landscape slowly changes from a barren wasteland into an industrial nightmare.
Key Themes to Keep in Mind
- Isolation: Plainview builds a massive house but lives in one room. He wants power, but power makes him untouchable and, therefore, unreachable.
- The Cost of Progress: The oil brings money to the town of Little Boston, but it also brings death and corruption.
- Family vs. Business: Plainview uses H.W. as a "prop" to look like a family man. It’s a marketing tactic.
Many critics, including Roger Ebert, gave this film a perfect score. Ebert noted that it’s the kind of movie that feels like it has always existed. It’s a "great" film in the way that Citizen Kane or The Godfather are great. It doesn't care if you like the characters. It only cares that you can't look away from them.
Actionable Insights for Your First Viewing
If you're ready to dive in, don't just put it on in the background. This is an "event" movie.
- Check the sound system: Greenwood’s score is half the experience. If you have good headphones or a soundbar, use them. The low-frequency rumbles of the oil machinery are vital.
- Watch the eyes: Daniel Day-Lewis does more with a squint than most actors do with a five-minute monologue.
- Research the era: If you're interested, look up the history of the California oil boom in the early 1900s. It makes the struggle for land rights in the film feel much more grounded in reality.
- Compare it to the book: If you're a reader, pick up Oil! by Upton Sinclair. It’s fascinating to see what Paul Thomas Anderson kept and what he threw away to make the story more personal and visceral.
The best way to watch movie There Will Be Blood is to treat it like a historical document that happens to be fictional. It’s a study of ambition. It’s a warning. It’s a masterpiece. By the time the credits roll and you hear Brahms' Violin Concerto in D Major, you’ll feel like you’ve been through a physical ordeal. That’s the sign of a film that actually matters.
Go find the largest screen possible. Turn off the lights. Pay attention to the silence.