Wednesday, March 9, 2011

There Will Be Blood - Shot by Shot Analysis

The scene I decided to analyze came from the film There Will Be Blood.   This dark, stunning film won an Academy Award for Cinematography and Best Actor.  No one can deny Daniel Day-Lewis’ fantastic acting along with Robert Elswit’s visual masterpiece.  This scene starts off when the newly flowing oil rig catches on fire and the men run towards it to put it out.  It has minimal dialogue along with sparse lighting which amplifies some of themes we find in the movie.  

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This first shot I put up was the establishing shot that shows the engulfing fire coming from the well of oil.  They decided to shoot this shot around dusk which I thought was a great idea.  As the sun goes down, we will eventually see the fire being the only illuminate in the film.  The next two shots lead out to a wider shot as it captures the men rushing to the flame.  They glide through this shot instead of having a natural, shaky camera like a scene you’d see in war. In the first four shots we see Daniel Day-Lewis mainly in the center of the frame, even as the camera moves.  I never noticed while watching the film but as I break it down, I realized how important this character is and why it’s perfect they keep him in the middle.  The next three shots show him taking up the screen, still perfectly in the middle.  One theme of the movie is loneliness.  He is shown with a desolate background; nothing is really in the frame except him and his oil.  That ties into another theme within this movie, greed.

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The next four shots are of Daniel Day-Lewis’ partner doing the same thing he did in trying to maintain the well. It shows the wide shot of them running towards the spike and then ends with a close up the oil fire.  As important as the oil catching fire is, we can still sense about how the main character is obsessed with this profit.  Throughout this scene, we see the main character or the oil taking up the screen.  It sounds absurd to call the oil a character but its importance is key to Daniel Day-Lewis’ character.  It shows he’ll stop at nothing to achieve what he wants.

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This quick shot has Daniel Day-Lewis in the middle with the oil fire.  It’s gotten completely dark so the only illumination is the fire.  We can see on each side of the screen that the cinematography flaring the lens on purpose.  It shows the extreme contrast between the pitch black night and this raging fire.  The oil and the character alone in this shot fit perfectly with the movie.




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We now see Daniel Day Lewis close up on the right with his partner standing in the middle.  He is drenched in oil and with the limited lighting, you can barely see him.  Not only is the scene dark, the character is “dark”.  They could’ve easily lit this shot to show him more but I think keeping him the least lit person exemplifies another theme.  He himself is a dark character.  He’s greedy, heartless and “hates most people” as he states in the film.  

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We have kinda the same image here as we did three shots ago except now the lens flare is even more prominent.  As the sun disappears completely, the true only light is this fire.  The flare almost makes you want to squint as you watch it, making me feel as if I was there.  This once again was not an accident but a purposely film tactic used by Robert Elswit to connect the audience to this scene.  It breaks us from the illusion of film.  The other shot is an extreme wide shot showing the oil fire over the vast desert.  Completely dark and emphasizing on being the only thing worth of value in this desert.





Image and video hosting by TinyPicWe now get a closer shot of his partner and him watching this oil burn.  You can see Daniel Day-Lewis drenched in oil.  Showing them with small distance apart hints on the inevitable distance within their work relationship.  The warm colors coming off of them come from the fire but also can suggest the main character’s passion for his career.
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These two shots cutaway to the main character’s son who is also covered in oil.  He is staring at the fire from a distance but yet we get the most close up shot of this entire scene.  I think they chose to give this kid actor the closest shot because it shows his fascination with the entire thing.  He wants to be just like his father, he wants to be a part of the business.


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In the last three shots, it goes back to Daniel Day-Lewis and his partner. It gets a little closer but not by much because it’s balanced out on each side of the screen. It gets a little darker as it goes on so Daniel Day-Lewis is really dimly lit. I say this darkness about him shows the darkness within. His corruption and greed make up who he is and as he gets what he wants, he doesn’t need anybody else. Although it may not have been intentional, I believe setting these actors this far apart is important. The main character only gets close with his son and that’s about it. He distances himself from everyone because he doesn’t trust them. Seeing him drenched in oil just fits this scene perfectly.

1 comment:

  1. Yup. You got it. Every scene in this movie is meticulously thought out. Even the beginning scene, the enviroment in the pit is lit darkly making his clothes look bluish like the rest of the scene. But even when he comes out of the pit, his clothes are the sandy, yet harsh beige colour of the surrounding desert enviroment, which works even more perfectly when he breaks his leg and has to begin his crawl out of the desert for miles on end out of the bright, harsh desert like surroundings. He comes from these harsh surroundings. From his thight fighting clothes to the economical use of his voice and dress all showing the his essence that comes from the his tough surroundings (And even though, Boogie Nights is my favorite film of all time, this is better structually and themeatacially. (Boogie nights is made to give you goosebumps from beginning to end even if it has flaw - which I am the only one who thinks it doesn't.) Every scene in this movie can be analyzed to this point. Look at the first four scenes. You always hear Daniel's voice before you see him, because this is his strength, also, in the first fifteen minutes you only hear him say one word, and on the fiften minute mark you start to hear him speak. Because he has a god complex, we don't hear him speak until he is semi-successful. His word is the only words that count. That is why he speaks in the directive. And even ends the movie with a statement "that is all" And why his son losing his hearing would be the worst thing that could happen to him. From every shot chosen, to these little details, this film is best thought out film next to Citizen Kane in my opinion.

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