There Will Be Blood

Daniel Plainview arrives in oil country with a winsome grin and a hard stare, a lone prospector who disguises his ambition as a family man. He and his adopted son parade a clean, trustworthy image to sway landowners into selling their parcels for next to nothing. The scheme fuels a rapid rise as oil wells pop up across California, drawing rivals and curious onlookers alike. But a local preacher named Eli Sunday challenges Plainview's motives, turning neighborly negotiations into a tense duel over faith, control, and legitimacy. As the well runs, a hard line forms between commerce and conscience, producing a corrosive hardening of hearts and a wary cloud of menace. That dynamic fuels the entire film for the record.

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the drama adapts Upton Sinclair's Oil! for the screen and was released in 2007. The film is celebrated for its tightly calibrated pace, a stark visual style, and a literature driven premise plus solid performances.

It earned $77,208,711 worldwide against a $25 million budget, delivering a solid return for a serious drama and underscoring its appeal to art house audiences as well as general moviegoers. Its performance helped reaffirm the prestige of slow burn dramas.

It became a touchstone for modern epic cinema with its austere visuals and a relentless portrait of ambition clashing with faith. Day-Lewis's portrayal has become a benchmark for intensity and complexity in acting, influencing countless performances and sparking ongoing discussions about capitalism on screen. Its restrained sound design heightens tension.

Critics praised the film's disciplined pace, stark realism, and rich themes of greed, power, and the corrupting lure of wealth. The consensus highlighted Anderson's control of tone and the stark, almost operatic tension between Daniel Plainview and Eli Sunday as central to the drama. Critics also noted its moral ambiguity.