Film

There Will Be Blood

Name: There Will Be Blood
Genre: Drama
Released: 2007
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Kevin J. O'Connor, Ciarán Hinds, Dillon Freasier

A merciless character study disguised as an epic: one man's hunger for oil curdles into something biblical. Paul Thomas Anderson shoots the American frontier like scripture, and Daniel Day-Lewis's performance is less acting than possession. It's slow, punishing, magnificently controlled — for people who want cinema that lingers like a bruise, not entertainment that passes the time.

TMDb rating

8.1

If you liked this

No Country for Old Men2007

Released the same year, and just as convinced that America's violence runs bone-deep. The Coens' desert noir shares Plainview's flinty stillness and a villain who barely blinks. Same bleak country, different kind of monster.

But Colder and more clipped than Anderson's film — less operatic grandeur, more silent dread. If you wanted Plainview's fire, this is ice.

Citizen Kane1941

The original American ambition tragedy — a man builds an empire and loses himself inside it. Same arc of triumph curdling into isolation, same interest in a lie a person tells so long it becomes true.

But It's black-and-white, decades old, and its innovations are now so absorbed into cinema you may wonder what the fuss was.

The Master2012

Anderson's own follow-up, and the closer cousin: another self-invented American man, another charismatic con, this time with Joaquin Phoenix opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman doing the seducing instead of resisting it.

But Even more opaque than Blood — it refuses to resolve, and some walk away unsure what happened at all.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Greed1924

Both are studies of avarice as a slow-motion self-destruction, told with clinical distance from their monstrous men; Anderson has cited Stroheim's ruthlessness as an influence on his own filmmaking.

Erich von Stroheim's silent epic about a man consumed by money is the film Blood is quietly answering — same subject, eighty years earlier, shot with the same pitiless, unblinking eye on a soul rotting in real time.

But It's silent, missing over two hours of studio-butchered footage, and demands patience most viewers no longer bring to cinema.

Nightcrawler2014

Swap oil derricks for a video camera and you get the same predator, decades later, wearing a smile instead of a scowl. Jake Gyllenhaal's Lou Bloom is Plainview's spiritual grandson, minus any pretense of charm.

But Contemporary and lean where Blood is vast and Biblical — a sprint, not an epic.

Giant1956

Texas oil, family dynasties, and decades of accumulated grudge — this is the classic Hollywood version of the story Blood tells with more menace. James Dean's last role, and a genuine American saga.

But Three hours of old-school melodrama with none of Anderson's dread; it plays warmer and softer than you might want after Plainview.

Boogie Nights1997

Same director, same eye for a man building an identity out of ambition and self-delusion — just swap oil fields for the San Fernando Valley porn industry and the mood for something looser and sadder.

But Funnier, sleazier, and far less austere — if you wanted more of Blood's grim control, this looser ensemble piece might jar.

The Godfather Part II1974

An empire built on ruthlessness, a son who inherits his father's coldness, and a study of how power isolates a man from everyone who loved him — Plainview's inheritance in gangster form.

But It's a sequel that rewards knowing Part I, and its scale and cast are far larger than Blood's tight two-hander focus.

Lincoln2012

See what Day-Lewis does with warmth instead of menace — another towering, disappearing performance, this time in service of decency rather than damnation. A masterclass in the same actor's range.

But It's a talky political drama with none of Blood's savagery — quieter, wordier, built for patience rather than dread.

Chinatown1974

California land and water grabs, corrupt men hiding behind civic virtue, and a slow reveal of just how deep the rot goes — the same state, the same appetite, a different resource.

But It's a detective plot first, an indictment second — if you want raw psychological intensity over mystery, it might feel like a genre exercise.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God1972

Both films watch obsession metastasize into delusion in a hostile landscape, and both feature a lead performance so total it blurs actor and role — Kinski for Herzog, Day-Lewis for Anderson.

Werner Herzog's fever dream about a Spanish conquistador chasing gold into madness shares Plainview's total, terrifying self-belief — a man convinced his own will can bend the world, filmed in real jungle with real danger.

But It's in German, slower and stranger than Blood, and Klaus Kinski's performance is feral rather than controlled — less a character than a force of nature.

Deadwood2004

Both dramatize the same American origin myth — a preacher and a ruthless man of commerce sizing each other up as civilization arrives — with Deadwood widening Eli and Plainview's feud into an entire society.

This is Plainview's world stretched into a whole town: frontier capitalism, a preacher and a businessman locked in mutual suspicion, and language as beautifully filthy as anything in American drama. If Blood's conflict fascinated you, this gives it three seasons.

But Dense, profane, and slow to reward you — the dialogue takes real getting used to, and it ends abruptly, cancelled before its planned conclusion.