Faith in Film 3, There Will Be Blood

Ladies and gentleman, if I say "There Will Be Blood" is an oil film you'll agree, but it's so much more. Excuse the pun, but for those of you that have seen the film, you'll get the reference. And it's also true. The film is about the oil industry in the early part of the 19th Century, and yet it's so much more than that.

"There Will Be Blood" was written for the screen and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It garnered several Academy Award nominations the year it came out, winning two — Best Actor for Daniel Day Lewis and Best Cinematography. It's easily Anderson's best film, and it also garnered plenty of praise as the best or one of the best films of the decade.

Anderson adapted "There Will Be Blood" from the Upton Sinclair novel. Sinclair wrote pieces that challenged the economic and political climate in many ways. His most famous work, "The Jungle," chronicled the deficiencies in the meat packing plants in Chicago and led to legislation. Oil was a fictional take on the Teapot Dome Scandal that plagued the Harding Administration, and Anderson's script loosely adapts both that book and the historical record. So a part of what he hoped to accomplish was a look at the early oil industry and some of the dangers of that industry.

But there is another, more fascinating aspect of the film. It's really a tale of two men — Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis), an oil man, and Rev. Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), who started a Wildcat church. Both men have different vocations and goals with those vocations, but they're both driven by the same motive, greed. And that greed is destroying their souls.

For Sunday, he becomes a false prophet, blaspheming against the faith because of his impure motives. This is something that the Bible constantly speaks about us being aware of and guarding against. James 3:14-16 says, "But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such "wisdom" does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice."

For Daniel, that love of money and greed destroys every aspect of his life that doesn't concern his oil business. He is left a bitter, angry man. He even destroys his relationship with his son, H.W., which is the only person he ever really seemed to care about. One of the most painful scenes features Daniel verbally destroying his son, scorching their relationship.

In the end, fittingly, both Daniel and Eli are destroyed by their greed, and their empires are destroyed and hollow. Proverbs 29:4 says, "By justice a king gives a country stability, but those who are greedy for bribes tear it down." Both Daniel and Eli were kings in their own ways, and both tore their kingdoms down thanks to a lust for more material wealth and power.

Greed is a powerful and destructive force in our lives. If we follow it's path for too long, it's possible we will be unable to find our way back. "There Will Be Blood" is a stark, visual reminder of that truth.