There+Will+Be+Blood

//"There are times when I look at people and I see nothing worth liking."//


 * Plot:** Daniel Plainview is a mineral prospector who wants to make it big in the oil industry.


 * Theme:** Daniel Plainview is a greedy and manipulative businessman who is willing to compromise his values in order to make it big in the oil industry. Although he never fully realizes or achieves this at any point in the film, he needs to conform to some kind of moral or religious code instead of unabashedly exploiting everyone and every piece of land at his fingertips for his own personal gain.


 * Scene:** In order to procure the Bandy ranch, Daniel Plainview agrees to Eli Sunday's request and agrees to be initiated to become part of the church. In doing so, he confesses to being a sinner, begs for forgiveness, and promises to repent from his sins.

During Eli's humiliation of Daniel before the congregation, Eli is shot from the worm's eye view perspective. This signifies the temporary shift in power from Daniel to Eli, as Eli has the upper hand over Daniel now that he has power to withhold the Bandy Ranch. Daniel's willingness to submit himself to Eli's humiliation serves as an indicator of the lengths he is willing to go in order to obtain wealth. Additionally, the unflattering portrayal of Eli in the worm's eye view perspective serves to characterize the inherently malicious nature of the supposedly forgiving and God-fearing pastor. This could contribute to the film's overall misanthropic perspective on humanity, which has been most prominently shown through Daniel's obvious misanthropic tendencies. By portraying Eli as an equally malicious and manipulative individual, the audience is led to draw comparisons between the two men despite their seemingly opposing dispositions.
 * Cinematography:**

During the baptism, the large window cut in the shape of a cross is shown very prominently as the backdrop to the scene. It is significant that when Daniel kneels, he is facing away from the alter, and his back is turned from the cross. This is an indication of his opposition to any religious or moral set of values.
 * Mise-en-scene:**

The highly similar outfits of the two men (both are wearing a black vest, black trousers, and a white dress shirt) prompt the viewer to examine the character qualities that the two men share, which leads the viewer to the conclusion that despite one of them being a "man of God" and the other being a businessman (a profession characterized by greed), the two men are, at their core, inherently evil.

The predominantly black and white attire of the congregation could once again serve as commentary on the duality of human nature. In addition to this, the fact that Eli has a twin brother serves as another reflection upon the duality of human nature, as well as the opposing definitions of good and evil.

In this scene, the dialogue between Eli and Daniel as Daniel goes through the motions of attaining salvation is gradually built upon by the actors' delivery of their lines. Specifically, the exchange between the two men builds in a crescendo that culminates in really loud yelling, and Daniel's repeated yelling of the line, "I am a sinner!" per Eli's request. The forced delivery of Daniel's confession underscores the fact that Daniel is only doing this in order to buy Bandy's ranch, and not out of any moral or religious desire for redemption.
 * Sound:**

After Daniel is slapped around some more and finally baptized, a hymn accompanied by a church organ is played as part of the diegetic score. The hymn's lyrics include the refrain: "there is power in the blood", which is repeated several times. The line, which refers to the power of salvation attributed to Christ's blood, could also be a reference to the blood that has been (and will be) spilled as a result of Daniel's unrelenting pursuit of oil and its accompanying wealth. It reminds the audience that Daniel is not really seeking the redemptive power of Christ's blood, but is willing to shed the blood of others in order to obtain what he wants.

In this scene, the camera shots frequently cut between close ups of Daniel's face to wide shots of the baptism taking place in front of the alter. This allows the viewer to focus on Daniel's facial expressions which convey his insincerity, as well as to view the baptism from the congregation's point of view. While Daniel is obviously pained by his humiliation and his unwillingness to participate in the religiosity of the whole thing, he know that he has to put up a convincing performance for the congregation, as well as a satisfying one for Eli, who has temporarily gained the upper hand over him.
 * Editing:**

There is a shift from cold lighting with heavy blue undertones in the opening shot of this scene where Daniel is sitting in the congregation, to much warmer lighting after the camera cuts to the alter where Daniel gets baptized. This shift in temperature of the overall lighting scheme serves to point out the shift in Daniel's disposition before and after getting up in front of the congregation. While he is sitting unnoticed among them, he is able to be his usual self-centered, misanthropic self. After he gets up in front of them, he is forced to put on a persona of a man who "once was lost" but now has been "found". Daniel treats his baptism as nothing more than a ritualistic ordeal he has to overcome in order to get a really nice patch of land that he can destroy to make room for a pipeline. The shift in lighting signifies his change from the Daniel Plainview who hates people, to the Daniel Plainview who has to pretend like he doesn't hate people and wants to be "saved".
 * Lighting:**