There Will Be Blood (2007), written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and loosely based on Upton Sinclair's novel Oil!, stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview — an oil prospector who builds an empire in early 20th century California through intelligence, ruthlessness, and the systematic destruction of everyone around him.
Why It Matters
- Daniel Day-Lewis won his second Academy Award for Best Actor — widely considered one of the greatest performances in American film history
- Jonny Greenwood's dissonant, percussive score was the most acclaimed film score of its decade
- Anderson's sprawling, deliberately Kubrickian structure creates a portrait of American capitalism, religion, and self-invention of almost operatic ambition
The film's final scene — in a bowling alley, with a milkshake — is among the most viscerally satisfying conclusions in American cinema. Plainview's declaration that he is finished has become one of film's great final lines.
Reference:
TaskLoco™ — The Sticky Note GOAT
