There Will Be Blood 2007 May 2026

Anderson’s thesis is brutal: The competition in me will win. And when it does, I will be alone. There will be blood. But there will be no redemption. Only the sucking sound of a milkshake, drained to the dregs.

1. Executive Summary There Will Be Blood is not merely a film about the oil boom of early 20th-century California; it is a searing, mythic exploration of the roots of American power. Directed and written by Paul Thomas Anderson (loosely adapted from Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel Oil! ), the film dissects the twin, intertwined pillars of the American identity: aggressive, unbridled capitalism (embodied by Daniel Plainview) and performative, morally compromised religion (embodied by Eli Sunday). The film argues that these forces are not opposed but symbiotic, born from the same well of greed, performance, and a hunger for dominance. Through its austere visual language, avant-garde score, and a career-defining performance by Daniel Day-Lewis, the film stands as a 21st-century cinematic landmark—a bleak, brilliant treatise on the corruption inherent in the pursuit of a "primitive" American dream. 2. Historical & Literary Context From Sinclair to Anderson: Upton Sinclair’s Oil! is a didactic, socialist critique of the Teapot Dome scandal and the exploitation of labor. Anderson strips away the political proselytizing, retains the ruthless father-son dynamic, and reframes the narrative as a character study. He replaces Sinclair’s focus on systemic reform with a focus on individual pathology. There Will Be Blood 2007