There will be Blood is an epic film in every sense of the word. At almost three hours long, spanning almost 30 years and featuring several unforgettable scenes, it is the kind of film that has dominated the Academy Awards since they began. However, in our culture of immediacy, as audience concentration spans wane, such films are becoming increasingly rare.

If there is one film that is guaranteed to win a major award on Sunday, it is There will be Blood. This is simply because it features by far and away the best performance by an actor of any film released in the last 12 months. The ever-political George Clooney recently likened himself to Hilary Clinton to Daniel Day-Lewis’ Barack Obama. However, the truth is, that the gap between Day-Lewis’ performance and that of his nearest rival is actually far greater than currently exists between the two democrat presidential candidates. Such is the intensity with which Day-Lewis imbues Daniel Plainview that it is almost impossible to cast your eyes from the screen while he is on it – which the majority of the film’s 158 minute duration.

There Will Be Blood’s problem, if it has one, is that it is almost exclusively occupied by the successes, failures and struggles of its central character. Daniel Plainview himself, although always interesting, is certainly not the most endearing of men. Indeed, while at first we will him to succeed, as the film progresses the cost of his success becomes increasingly apparent as an unhappy outcome seems ever more inevitable.

However, Daniel Plainview does not have a monopoly on manipulation within the film. Paul Dano is compelling as the over-zealous yet seemingly sincere preacher, Eli. As a Christian myself, I wince whenever Christianity is unfavourably or inaccurately portrayed in a film or on TV. However, I cannot dispute the historical validity of such a character, nor the effectiveness of the way in which Eli is used to develop the dynamic of the film.

To say that the tone of the film as a whole is sombre would be a considerable understatement. Many of the principal characters, including Daniel Plainview himself, seem to have been stripped of their humanity by their own selfish ambition. Furthermore, the mood is heightened by the fact that most of the important scenes in the film take place in the dark.

Many people are already beginning to liken There will be Blood to Citizen Kane and indeed, as studies of the lives of men driven by ambition, the two have much in common. However, although it is difficult to imagine how There will be Blood might have been improved as a film, it simply cannot compete with Citizen Kane in terms of innovation and, ultimately, cinematic importance.

Rating: 8.7/10

To see reviews of the other nominated films, please use the links below.