My Favorite Scene: There Will Be Blood

When I was in journalism school, I had to take an entire course about how to own a conversation. I was taught how to provoke an interviewee – entice them with questions, amuse them with facts, flatter them with confidence – all in an effort to keep the conversation in my favor. If I wanted the interviewee to be more open, I learned how to shift my body language to become more presentable. Tone, cadence, choice of words, it’s all part of the game. Even if I wasn’t interested in what the interviewee was saying, I learned how to make them the most important person in the room. After all, journalism is a business, and I was taught how to sell myself effectively.

I mention all this because it is exactly the skill Daniel Plainview possesses so effortlessly. No matter who he is talking to or what he is talking about, Daniel completely controls the conversation, and always gets what he wants. Now, whether he does this through flattery or intimidation, the fact is that Daniel Plainview is one hell of a salesman.

To back up slightly. Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood is a masterpiece of filmmaking. In all honestly, my favorite scene from the film is its nearly dialogue-free introduction, followed very closely by its bombastic conclusion. Both of those sequences have been discussed and dissected to death, so I’m choosing to highlight a far less scrutinized moment from the film.

After oilman Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) is visited by the cautious Paul Sunday, who informs Daniel where an ocean of oil lay untapped, Daniel and his son, H.W., trek to California in search of fortune. Soon into their journey, Daniel and H.W. happen upon the Sunday Ranch, where ranch owner, Abel, soon greets them.

Abel is very courteous to Daniel, offering him shelter, goat’s milk, and water, all of which Daniel accepts with great appreciation. Now, pay attention as the camera slowly pushes in on the two. Watch as Daniel inches closer and closer to Abel, leaning into him in a most welcome and warm way. And then comes the most important part of their exchange:

“Do you have bread?” a clearly exhausted Daniel asks.

“We have potatoes,” Abel quickly responds.

“Potatoes would be nice, thank you,” Daniel says.

Notice how Abel didn’t offer Daniel potatoes, and Daniel didn’t ask for them. Instead, in a brilliant effort to keep the conversation in his control, Daniel assumes the potatoes are his. It may be easy to view this conversation as insignificant, given that not much is gained beyond camping ground and food. But keep in mind that this is the first time Daniel and Abel ever speak. Daniel owns this conversation from sentence one, and he’ll own every conversation with Abel for the rest of his life.

From a technical standpoint, this scene is as subtly thrilling as anything else in the movie. How many recent, American movies can you think of in which a conversation between two people occurs in just two extended shots? Factor in that those shots are captured from very far away. Now factor in that the characters on screen are conversing mostly with their backs to us. Now notice that four other characters are on the screen at the same time. Most any other movie would cut in for close-ups of Daniel and Abel, or show H.W. retrieving water from the well, or show the timid reactions of the female Sundays. Not Paul Thomas Anderson. He’s far more interested in putting two people together and letting us take in the scene without the manipulation of camera trickery or editing.   

This brief scene can act as more than a case of superb writing and technical audacity. If studied closely, it could be shown to business students across the country as an effective way to control a conversation. It’s all about the money, right? So here’s how you get it.

Listen to my podcast on Paul Thomas Anderson!