Rewind Files: Why Is There Will Be Blood Considered One of the Greatest Movies Ever?

When critics heap praise upon a movie, there can be a lot of pressure for layman viewers to like that movie too. Sometimes, it’s easy: Crowd-pleasers like John Wick or Inside Out have a populist appeal that lets us all sit back and smile and nod in harmony. We feel smart when we agree with critics; we feel confident in our own taste.

Other times, though, it’s not so easy. Movies can be abstract and slippery and rife with technique and purpose. Critics have more experience and formal training in deciphering all that, so every now and then, they seem to love movies that make the average person cock an eyebrow or throw up their hands or ask a lot of “but wait, what does that mean?”-type questions.

There Will Be Blood is just such a movie. When members of the media create lists of the greatest movies of the 21st century, or the best movies of the past 25 years, There Will Be Blood is usually at or near the top. Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune said There Will Be Blood is the best film of the last decade, stating, “The more I see it, the sadder, and stranger, and more visually astounding it grows,” and Manohla Dargis of the New York Times said it was “profound”, “deeply unsettling”, and “a masterpiece”—the best film since 2000, period. People who are paid to think about movies a lot love this movie, so when normal viewers sit and watch it, there’s a lot of hope that we think it’s just as stirring and affecting.

At a glance, There Will Be Blood is a bit unwieldy. It’s full of moments that carry a “wait, I was supposed to take something away from that, but I don’t know what, and now I feel like I’m behind and not understanding the movie, and uh oh, I better figure things out real quick or I’ll be playing catch-up for the next two hours” sensation. That’s the worst feeling to have when you watch a movie. It completely severs the relationship you’re building with the characters, action, setting, whatever, and it inspires the awful need to start looking at your watch. Just make it stop so I can find something to feel smart about.

This might happen because There Will Be Blood is more about ideas than it is about a story, though the story it has is pretty easy to summarize: A California oilman in the late 1800s builds his empire in the American west, no matter the cost to his community or his family. Okay. Not too bad. We’ve seen lots of TV shows about power-hungry men; that’s nothing crazy. The nuances of the oil business might trip you up, but we follow the gist.

Now, what complicates matters is that Paul Thomas Anderson, who wrote and directed There Will Be Blood, leaves lots of room for people to paint the movie with meaning, and these interpretations are rarely personal. Viewers like to find themselves in a movie. We can swap ourselves in for the hero, a sidekick, or even a villain if we find their motivations or goals compelling and aspirational. There Will Be Blood doesn’t let you do that, really. Instead, it seems to want you to apply its narrative, imagery, or themes to the world around you. That’s hard, and it can make the experience of watching the movie feel impenetrable and wearying.

There are snippets of There Will Be Blood that anyone can appreciate, so that’s a good place to start if we want to know why this is considered one of the greats. Most obviously, Daniel Day-Lewis submits an all-timer with his lead performance. Daniel Plainview is as memorable a character because he’s betrayed so forcefully and vividly. As soon as we see him, it seems as if he’s lived a whole life. He emerges as a figure adjacent to his time, someone we half-expect to see in a faded AP U.S. History textbook. Aside from Day-Lewis, there’s a multitude of memorable scenes. The oil derrick spouting fire has taken its place in the cinematic pantheon, but there’s also the hypnotic pair of church scenes, the 14-minute dialogue-free opening, the final confrontation between Plainview and his son, and, of course, the milkshake monologue, complete with bowling-lane kicker. Even if you can’t decipher its message, There Will Be Blood’s peaks are great enough for anyone to latch onto. You can walk away with at least something to grasp, even if it’s just a few scattered moments.

The next step might be to try and find something that connects those images in your head. It’s striking, for example, how transportive There Will Be Blood is. The cameras are often literally spattered with oil and water. The sets feel lived-in and authentic. The speech is antiquated and real. The whole effect is like time-travel, and that’s something that most modern movies, with their CGI or smashing set pieces or distracting star power, struggle to create.

Once you’re in that headspace, you can finally let There Will Be Blood wash over you, and as soon as you’re swept up in it, the movie begins to evoke feelings and comparisons in your mind. Hey, doesn’t Plainview’s speech to Little Boston sound like a political campaign rally? Ever notice how the movie’s authentic atmosphere feels as workmanlike as its main character? Isn’t it peculiar how the first church scene is black and evil-seeming, while the second is bright and full of sun? What does all this remind you about politics, or the workforce, or America as a whole? Now we’re cooking something. Now we’re on par with critics. Now it feels like we’re understanding this movie, because we’re thinking on the level of ideas that Paul Thomas Anderson, and his most sophisticated audience members, already were doing.

From that foundation, it’s possible to answer why There Will Be Blood is one of the great movies of the new century. It’s a demanding flick for sure, but through the frustration of “trying to figure it out” comes an experience that can be as full of discovery as something seamless and popcornish as, say, E.T. Sometimes, a movie is opaque and pretentious and it sucks, but other times, a movie will push you to earn its rewards, and the euphoric feeling of having a transformative time at the theater is magnified, because you did it. There Will Be Blood has many reasons for greatness, but its true success lies in how it urges you to overcome its obstacles, seize the answers, and let the revelation rush forth.