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There Will Be Blood
Movie

There Will Be Blood

2007 • Unknown

Woke Score
5
out of 10

Plot

Ruthless silver miner, turned oil prospector, Daniel Plainview, moves to oil-rich California. Using his son to project a trustworthy, family-man image, Plainview cons local landowners into selling him their valuable properties for a pittance. However, local preacher Eli Sunday suspects Plainview's motives and intentions, starting a slow-burning feud that threatens both their lives.

Overall Series Review

There Will Be Blood is a brutal, decades-spanning epic chronicling the moral decay of an oil prospector in early 20th-century California. The story is a deep dive into the corrosive power of greed and ambition, pitting ruthless oilman Daniel Plainview against a young, equally ambitious Christian preacher, Eli Sunday. The narrative is essentially a philosophical and violent confrontation between unfettered American capitalism and fundamentalist religion, illustrating how both institutions can be exploited for personal power and wealth. The film portrays the origin of American success not as a virtuous endeavor but as a descent into misanthropy and madness. The themes are predominantly masculine and focus on the internal character flaws of two sociopathic men vying for control of a small town, with minimal presence of women or modern identity politics.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics2/10

The narrative focuses on the moral character and unchecked ambition of its white male protagonists, Daniel Plainview and Eli Sunday. Characters are judged solely by their actions and sociopathic tendencies, with no mention of race, immutable characteristics, or systemic oppression. The casting is historically authentic to the time and setting, operating on universal meritocracy of evil and ambition.

Oikophobia8/10

The movie is a strong indictment of the foundational elements of American culture: predatory capitalism and its intertwined relationship with evangelical religion. Daniel Plainview, the archetypal American industrialist, is portrayed as a sociopath whose rise to success is a descent into madness and isolation. The American Dream and the pursuit of oil wealth are framed as a force that corrupts, leads to violence, and leaves the successful man bitter and 'finished.' The film suggests that the country's economic and spiritual pillars are fundamentally corrupted.

Feminism3/10

Women are mostly absent from the screen, making the film a story of men in a man's world. Female characters hold only minor, traditional roles. There is no presence of a 'Girl Boss' or 'Mary Sue' trope. However, the core relationship between Plainview and his adopted son ends in the destruction of the family unit, presenting a central anti-natal/anti-family message, though it is executed through the failures of the male father figure.

LGBTQ+1/10

The story is a historical period piece focused entirely on the conflict between an oil magnate and a preacher in the early 1900s. There is zero presence of alternative sexual ideologies, gender theory, or the deconstruction of the nuclear family through a queer theory lens. The structure adheres to the normative male-female pairing and nuclear family as the cultural standard of the time, even though the central family unit is tragically destroyed.

Anti-Theism9/10

The conflict between the capitalist Daniel Plainview and the preacher Eli Sunday is the dramatic core of the film, presenting a clear condemnation of institutionalized Christianity. Eli Sunday is depicted as a greedy, fraudulent, and power-hungry hypocrite who uses his faith as a transactional business for wealth and control. The film portrays Christian characters as either villains, bigots, or naive followers who are easily manipulated, suggesting that traditional religion is the root of evil or a tool for evil men.