There Will Be Blood 2007

The first thing that stood out to me was the sound design. There Will Be Blood abandons dialogue and lets sound tell the story. Creaking wood, metal pulleys, deep earth groaning under weight. It’s primitive, industrial. The score slowly crawls in. Not to comfort, but to warn. Grainy shots and natural lighting fit perfectly for a period piece. It feels old, rough, and real. Paul Thomas Anderson uses wide, lingering takes and distant framing, forcing you to sit in silence with Daniel Plainview. Every wide shot feels deliberate, unbroken, letting tension breathe. Jonny Greenwood’s score is unsettling brilliance. Strings scrape like metal against bone, and those repetitive notes per score feel like a warning signal, slowly drilling into your nerves. By the 35th minute mark, the percussions pound, same heartbeat energy as the “Rolling Hills” motif in One Battle After Another. The church scene is insane. Paul Dano is menacing the way he changes his voice feels like possession. This is the real core of the film Daniel vs Eli, a constant tug of war for control. The film frames capitalism and religion as two churches competing for worship. Daniel Plainview sells oil like salvation. The fire scene is surreal. Tall, violent, beautiful. Yung pagshoot up ng flames into the sky feels like saying that capitalism has risen! Ang ganda ng kulay and effect sa film lalo na sa gabi. Gritty and ominous. The way the fire glows against the night reminds me of 1917’s burning city but 100% better. Daniel watches it, back turned to the camera, and the slow pull away shot makes it feel like he’s bowing to his new god. During the baptism, you can feel the rage bubbling under his skin. He bends, but he does not break. You can tell he’s swallowing humiliation and storing it for revenge. Because deep inside, he knows that his revenge will come. You know hinding hindi sya makakalimot, at lalo na’t hindi sya magpapatawad. He’ll wait until the scales tip back. The next scene is so emotionally deep. The confrontation isn’t just father versus son. It’s a slow, surgical burning of bridges. Daniel doesn’t see a son but he sees a traitor. Daniel wins the argument but loses the only person who ever loved him. He raised an heir but never gave him love. I kind of feel grateful din na hindi ako sa mayamang pamilya lumaki at baka ganito din ang mangyari once I want my independence. Drunk and decayed in his mansion, success gave him everything but at what cost? The final scene is pure humiliation turned into performance art. Eli enters thinking he can manipulate Daniel one last time. But Daniel is already gone. Drunk, empty, rotting from the inside. The way he speaks is predatory, slow, venomous. The moment Daniel eats cold steak not for fulfillment, but just for the taste mirrors how he plays with Eli’s emotions. He forces Eli to say, “I am a false prophet and God is a superstition.” You can literally feel Eli’s pain, because it shatters his faith and goes against everything he proclaimed in church. Daniel doesn’t want satisfaction but he only wants to taste his victory over Eli. And then the line: “I drink your milkshake!” That is Daniel’s triumph. He explains oil like a sermon, but this time, he’s the preacher. In a world driven by profit, everything can be drained even people. And honestly, every time Eli squirms, it feels satisfying kupal kasi. By the time Eli is dead, Daniel has all the oil, all the land, and all the money but no soul left to share it with. His final words, “I’m finished,” aren’t a confession, but a declaration: there’s nothing left to take. Daniel has become the leftover cold meat.