Script Analysis Of The Film "there Will Be Blood"

Fall 2018Ryan SweetingScript AnalysisMoral Cinema: “There Will Be Blood”The film, There Will Be Blood, is a powerful and raw account of one man’s gritty and ambitious rise, followed by his spiraling downfall as a major oil tycoon during the industrial revolution in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. From a symbolic perspective, the journey and progression of protagonist, Daniel Plainview, is engulfed in what Christianity identifies as ‘sin’. The most readily apparent of these are greed and pride. Daniel views the world as a “zero-sum” game, i.e. for me to win, you have to lose. He admits to “having a competition in him”, desiring nobody around him to experience success. By establishing Christianity as a significant plot point, Paul Thomas Anderson, brilliantly inserts a plethora of symbolic Biblical references, alluding to and drawing controversial parallels between Daniel and God, in addition to Daniel’s conflict with the antagonist, Eli Sunday painted as the anti-Christ. Anderson effectively and bluntly renders to the viewer the Hellish and twisted effects and consequences of pride, greed and gluttonous consumption. There Will Be Blood reflects and intuitively portrays the controversial criteria for us to observe and ponder the conflict