There Will Be Blood

Some films I’ve walked away from simply loving them, others hating every moment of them. Sometimes I know I like something (or hate it), but need a few moments to figure out why. And then sometimes – a very powerful kind of film comes along that pulls me out of my head and makes me sit on my thoughts for several hours before I can even begin to try to gather an opinion. There Will Be Blood is a perfect example.

            For those of you who don’t know, this film follows an early 20^th century oil tycoon on his journey toward great wealth. Along the way he adopts a killed worker’s infant son and raises him on his own, using his “sweet face” to butter up people selling land. He also comes across the influential Reverend Eli Sunday. Here is where I want to spend most of my little time.

            You see, Daniel, our main character, is good at getting oil. At one point, he strikes it big in this little town, but during the opening of the well, his adopted son goes deaf. The frustration of raising a boy with such a disability causes Daniel to abandon his son on a train headed to a boarding school. In perhaps the most moving scene, Daniel – who recognizes that he will never get the town’s full trust and respect unless he joins “The Church of the Third Revelation” – comes to the front to ask forgiveness of his sins. Eli demands that he shouts to the people that he abandoned his child, and what started out at first as a step to getting what he wants quickly becomes a strong, quick moment of vulnerability from our greedy and powerful Daniel. “I’ve abandoned my child!” he cries, “I’ve abandoned my boy!” He quickly catches himself and “says whatever he needs to say to get out of there”. But we know – we’ve seen it, even for that brief moment. He meant it, and he was stripped bare before God.

            There is so much in this movie to talk about, but I simply don’t have the space. I’ll say this though – the scene described is so powerful, not because we see a glimmer of Salvation, no – Reverend Eli is an abuser of his power, and Daniel refuses God through the end of the film (The final scene finds him demanding Eli to cry out: “I am a false prophet, God is a superstition. Eli does it, and we truly see how week his faith is.) – but because even though we are nestled in this world of greed, this would of skewed ambition, careless deaths and murder, broken families and the abusing of Christianity, we see it – one speck of truth from our character. One morsel, however brief and faint, was there to let us know that we are all vulnerable in the eyes of God; he can strip the mightiest of men to nothing.

            This movie is far too complex to even try to discuss in this tiny space. Just think of the point mentioned, and know that this movie is strong, powerful, loud, quiet, peaceful, intense, and recommended for viewers who believe themselves strong enough to handle the heavy content.