Choosing between a man of God and a man of Money should be a fairly easy task when considering whom to support in a tale of murder, greed, and disavowal. Yet, in There Will Be Blood, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia, Boogie Nights), convention is shot to hell, leaving the film to become a study of characters in oil-rich central California at the turn of the twentieth century.

Daniel Day-Lewis (My Left Foot, Gangs of New York) gives an astounding performance as he disappears into his character Daniel Plainview, who travels around the state with his son buying up properties to drill for oil, his chosen path to riches. As the plot unfolds, it becomes clear that Plainview will desert or destroy any person who stands in his way. When the oilman reaches the town of Little Boston, however, the plainspoken Plainview meets his greatest adversary, the young preacher Eli Sunday (played by Paul Dano), who has already been working to monopolize the townspeople’s interests in his own favor.

The two and a half hour film tracks these two insatiable characters as they scramble to reach success. Jonny Greenwood, best known as lead guitarist for Radiohead, scores the film magnificently, giving even greater height to the tension, especially throughout the verbally-silent opening sequence when the musical composition creates enough stress to tighten a viewer’s chest. By the time the film reaches its conclusion, characters have been stripped down to their basest qualities, exposing all of the figures in this tale of morality as people thirsting for the same drink. Whereas one hides under the veil of God, the other openly drowns himself in Oil.