In this three-part series I will be reviewing movies, but not just any movies
but movies where I have felt the presence of oil is somehow significant to the
plot. I will kickstart this series with the classic "There Will Be Blood"
written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. I will try to do justice to this
excellent film in my review like Donald Trump did to the American Election.
Sounds like a segue, because United States is where this film takes place.
The film that has received accolades deserves to be praised with huge words,
best words, the amazing words that are of course my words because I have the
best words, not to mention a dictionary and even Pictionary, but I have never
played that because to play Pictionary you need to draw and if you're
destined to draw, you cannot win. That's just common sense, although one may
argue that common sense is not as common as it used to be.

Now that I have shown you that I can be as verbal as the crippled guy from the
Usual Suspects, I think we can go forward discussing this movie, or I will
discuss it to be more accurate, since not many of you have the power to
control what says on these lines. Like often happens in the 1800s, or at
least once when people lived during that period of time, people harboured
romantic ideas about get-rich-quick-schemes and back then it meant a lot of
hard work rather than answering correspondence sent to you by rich Nigerians
who are tackling with bureaucracy in their homeland, and by the way Mr.
Olaseni if you are reading this review, I'm still desperately waiting to
hear back from you. The Gold Rush is in the past, but a prospector looking
a lot like Daniel Day-Lewis still wants a piece of the American Dream. The
imagery in the beginning scenes is raw. Not much dialogue is uttered and
Daniel's hardworking principles, unforgiving attitude and a hint of luck
starts his journey towards wealth. At this point I should point out that his
character's name is Daniel also (I suppose it is cheaper that way, I don't
know how movie business really works).

During the era of Romanticism writers such as Alexandre Dumas entertained
noble ideas such as "All for one and one for all." in his musketeer novels
but the credo of Daniel Plainview is based on more plain view; he must
have it and not even bad puns shall stand on his way. The landscape is
barren and it's a primeval rat race who will make it in this harsh new
world that is opening business opportunities for those who are ready to push
aside the meek. Work is brutal, the days are long and occasional casualties
are to be accepted. For Daniel Plainview these business opportunities come
in the form of gold, but in this case it is the black gold. Now a self-titled
oilman he looks to expand his oil empire by using his shrewdness and
ruthlessness. It becomes quickly apparent that when you gain money, you will
gain enemies and friends who try to take your proverbial cookie jar. One of
those adversarial characters is Eli Sunday, played by Paul Dano (I suppose
they had budget for his name). He plays a deeply religious nutcase preacher
or if you're reading this review from Alabama, Mississippi or Tennessee
he's the handsome straight young man who had his heart in the right place.
His goal is to spread his gospel and support his church and Daniel's money
wouldn't hurt his efforts.

They stand at the brink of a new world where fossil fuels will ubiquitously
be used to leave their mark not only to the ozone layer, but to the economy
everywhere. The industrial civilization will have then forever transformed
the world for good, and in some ways for the worse.

I give this movie full 5 gallons out of 5.