Movie is a solid 10! The acting, score, everything about this movie was excellent. Only wish it was longer.

Just from early glance you can see how historical depth and accuracy has been work throughout this movie, even to the tiniest bit like accent and the character's grammatical structure. Supported by Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano's impressive acting, There Will Be Blood is a intriguing look on an oilman's life in 19th century. However I feel as a movie the director spent some scenes a bit too long and let the bridge from one scene to another unexplained (like Plainview's relationship with his son), especially with the 2,5 hours long duration. This is not to say the movie is boring--I keep being intrigued to see where it eventually ends--it's just it feels a bit disconnected sometimes.

Trying to decide what direction to take when expressing an opinion about a film that is so different and so intriguing is tough to do. Random thoughts follow. Let's get Daniel Day-Lewis's performance out of the way. He's remarkable here as Daniel Plainview. He's intelligent, ruthless, vicious, and greedy. There's literally nothing to like about him. Paul Dano is Eli Sunday, a crooked preacher who is the primary rival of Plainview. Eli is also unlikeable. He's greedy, manipulative, and naive. The story centers around these two characters and their mistrust and hatred of one another. Plainview has a son and there is an event that occurs around the halfway point of the film that builds some sympathy for Plainview, but we end up hating him even more as Plainview rejects his son because he will be unable to run Plainview's company when he's dead. It's really cruel, but it makes perfect sense. From what we know about Plainview, it's entirely consistent with his character's traits. The story starts humbly with Plainview digging for gold and growing his oil business to the point where he can have anything he wants. However, what he wants is to destroy his competition. Competition is what drives him. Some will watch this film and decide that this is a commentary on the ills of Capitalism and Religion. Those that pay less attention will believe it to be a finger-pointing parable about the evils of "Big Oil". But this is a story about a man whose competitive spirit could ultimately destroy him. The film is beautiful to look at and is appropriately slow moving. It takes it's time to build and when it does, things get very tense. The ending is sudden but appropriate and allows the viewer to finish Plainview's life story on their own.

Leaked footage of Daniel Day-Lewis announcing his retirement from acting: "I'm finished"

That's a very good movie a realistic depiction of the dangers of drilling. As an atheist, I found Eli's character a bit hard to connect with, but [spoiler] the way Daniel humiliates him, explains why his brother succeeded in life while he didn’t, and then kills him... it was just too much. Daniel is portrayed as the worst kind of human being, yet it's a brutally realistic portrayal of how greed can twist someone into something almost demonic.[/spoiler] I also really appreciated the cinematography, the landscapes and real structures made everything feel much more believable. [spoiler] Seeing other characters like Henry be just as greedy as Daniel only reinforces the idea that Daniel is truly alone and against everyone. And because he refuses to sell what he sacrificed everything for, he sinks deeper into his isolation. This time, the only thing coming out of the drilling are his own sins. [/spoiler]