Its title could almost be a BBFC warning about There Will Be Blood's content, but what courses through the veins of this challenging 2007 epic from director Paul Thomas Anderson is liquid of a much darker hue. Loosely based on Upton Sinclair's novel Oil!, the film's intense tone is established immediately as we're unceremoniously deposited into the world of silver prospector Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis). It's 1898 and Plainview is waging a solitary war with the very ground beneath his feet, battling to extract riches from the Southern Californian soil. During this remarkable 15-minute sequence, the sheer determination of his character is revealed without the use of dialogue. Instead, the stark, foreboding score by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood is the only accompaniment to scenes of gruelling labour, straining sinew, triumph and tragedy (Anderson's fully aware that the American Dream is partly constructed from other people's nightmares).

Plainview's reward for his labours is greater than he could ever have imagined. He discovers a well of crude oil and this launches the main section of the film, which sees him seek to extend his empire throughout the Golden State. When he's alerted to the existence of an undiscovered ocean of oil in the small town of Little Boston, he visits with his young son HW (Dillon Freasier) and uses the boy's innocent demeanour to warm the hearts of the god-fearing townsfolk. Plainview succeeds in buying up most of the land and gigantic flames from oil fires are soon licking the night sky in this once peaceful backwater. The locals are buoyed by promises of wealth and therefore offer little opposition to the oil baron's steamroller ambitions and personality, but Plainview's nemesis eventually emerges in the form of a healer-preacher called Eli Sunday (Paul Dano).

Day-Lewis has already been a huge presence during the physicality of the early part of the film and now he more than earns his Best Actor Oscar by taking us on a fascinating journey into the mind of his character. He's demonstrated that he can weather anything the world throws at him, but how will such a man cope when he encounters dilemmas rooted in the personal? Will blood prove to be thicker than water - or, indeed, oil? The answers come during an extraordinary final act, which is quite unlike anything that's been attempted in a Hollywood film since the 70s heyday of groundbreaking cinema. Everything about There Will Be Blood is big - the landscape, Day-Lewis's performance, the 158-minute running time - but these are dwarfed by the enormity of the themes. Greed, the elusive nature of family, humanity, the birth of the modern age and even the Iraq War (expansionism vs. religious zealotry) are all lurking in this powerful work.

Because of its difficult nature, There Will be Blood may not be an easy film to embrace - but it's one that any lover of cinema has to admire and own.

Life is Tweet

Don't forget to follow us on Twitter. You'll find links to some of the things we've discussed here on the blog, including various versions of the song Popcorn Double Feature. For what it's worth, our favourite is by The Fall.

Colin Houlson