There Will Be Blood
Short description
Set in the American West around the turn of the twentieth century, There Will Be Blood follows Daniel Plainview, a prospector who shifts from silver mining to oil drilling and builds a fortune by buying up land from people who do not know what lies beneath it. He presents himself as a family man, raising the orphaned son of a dead partner as his own, and the boy becomes part of the image he sells to suspicious landowners. In a small California community, his plans bring him into conflict with Eli Sunday, a young preacher whose influence over the locals complicates Plainview's dealings. What begins as a business rivalry hardens into a personal feud, while Plainview's suspicion of other people and his appetite for wealth isolate him further, including from his son.
Paul Thomas Anderson wrote, directed and produced the film. It was his sixth feature as director, following Punch-Drunk Love and preceding The Master. Daniel Day-Lewis plays Plainview, with Paul Dano as Paul and Eli Sunday, Dillon Freasier as H.W. Plainview, and supporting turns from Kevin J. O'Connor, Ciarán Hinds and Hope Elizabeth Reeves. The production, made for about 25 million dollars, returned roughly 76 million worldwide.
On IMDb the film holds 8.2 out of 10 from around 704,000 votes, and on TMDB 8.1 from more than 7,700. A critics' rating of 8.8 from 244 reviews places it above both audience scores. The film runs 158 minutes.
What's left behind the scenes
- Paul Thomas Anderson stated that he watched the film 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre' (1948) every night before filming 'There Will Be Blood'.
- The film was shot from June 5 to August 25, 2006, in California, Texas, and New Mexico.
- In one interview, Paul Dano admitted that he was initially chosen for only a small role, that of Eli's brother, Sandy Paul. Another actor was playing the role of Eli. After filming began, and Dano filmed the only scene of Paul Sandy, Paul Thomas Anderson decided to replace the actor playing the role of Eli with Paul Dano. Thus, the director had to make the brothers twins. Paul Dano had only four days to prepare for filming in the role of Eli. In comparison, Daniel Day-Lewis had a whole year to prepare for the role of Daniel Plainview.
- To create the necessary intonation in Daniel Plainview's voice, Daniel Day-Lewis listened to old audio recordings of director, screenwriter, and actor John Huston. Paul Thomas Anderson even sent old documentaries about Huston to Day-Lewis while he was preparing for the role.
- The son of Daniel Plainview was played by an ordinary Texan schoolboy, Dillon Freasier. After Paul Thomas Anderson's team asked Dillon's mother to allow her son to participate in the filming, the woman decided to watch "Gangs of New York," where Daniel Day-Lewis played one of the roles, the future screen father of her child. But after watching it, she panicked at the thought of her child being near a man who had played such a treacherous killer and gang leader nicknamed "The Butcher." The film crew had to urgently send the caring mother a disc with "The Age of Innocence," where Day-Lewis plays a decent man.
- Daniel Day-Lewis agreed to the role of Daniel Plainview because he very much loves Paul Thomas Anderson's previous film, "Punch-Drunk Love." According to producer JoAnne Sellar, "There Will Be Blood" might not have happened if the actor had refused the role.
- The town of Marfa, located near the border with Mexico, was used as a stand-in for Bakersfield (California). The main reason was the presence of a large number of abandoned mines from the early 20th century. According to consultants, it was much cheaper to use early 20th-century sets than to build everything "from scratch".
- Initially, Paul Thomas Anderson wanted to film the final scene in a bowling alley located in Graystone Mansion, and to paint the entire bowling hall white. He wanted to add a threatening atmosphere in the style of Kubrick (a nod to "A Clockwork Orange" (1971)). However, the bowling alley had to be restored to its historical colors, as it was reverting to the ownership of its owners after filming.
- Daniel Day-Lewis's emotional speech about building schools and providing the town with bread, which he delivered to the residents of Little Boston, was his personal improvisation.
- During filming in the summer of 2006, one enterprising reporter took an unexpected photo of what he then suspected was Daniel Day-Lewis, who had drastically changed his appearance for his role. This photo appeared on numerous film websites and in magazines, demonstrating the great sacrifices Day-Lewis was willing to make for his role. When everyone saw the picture, common sense prevailed, and it became clear that the photo was not of Day-Lewis at all, but of actor Vince Froehlich, who played the role of one of Plainview's assistants.
- According to Paul Thomas Anderson, he and his team were free to choose the location for any given scene. In practice, this meant that many scenes were filmed 3-4 times in different locations, and then the best option was chosen.
- Paul Thomas Anderson dedicated his work to the memory of director Robert Altman, who died a year before the premiere of "There Will Be Blood".
- The length of the soundtrack composed by Jonny Greenwood is only 37 minutes.
- During filming in Texas, the Coen brothers were shooting their new film "No Country for Old Men" (2007) nearby. On the day of the oil rig fire filming, Paul Thomas Anderson and his crew became so engrossed in the process that a giant cloud of smoke reached the territory of Joel and Ethan. This forced the brothers to interrupt filming until the next day, until all the smoke cleared. Shortly thereafter, "There Will Be Blood" and "No Country for Old Men" became favorites in the Oscar race.
- The scene in which Paul Dano's character slaps Daniel Day-Lewis's character was filmed the day after the scene in which Daniel Day-Lewis's character slaps Paul Dano's character.
- Dillon Freasier received the role of Daniel Plainview's young son without an audition or reading lines, only after a simple conversation. The filmmakers initially searched for a young actor in Los Angeles and New York, but decided to find someone familiar with life in the American South. A local school principal recommended Dillon.
- The film is based on Upton Sinclair's novel 'Oil' (1927).
- The film's music was composed by Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead. This is his first experience with feature films.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
