“There Will Be Blood” is a good movie (for the first time ever, Mrs. Sherpa is wrong on this). Daniel Day Lewis - though he’s playing a similar character to Bill “The Butcher” Cutting - is excellent and his character is exceedingly evil. The trouble is you can’t find much sympathy for his victims.
The movie itself is based on Upton Sinclair’s novel Oil! It’s the story of Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis) and his quest for oil in turn of the 20th-century Southern California. He’s quite possibly evil incarnate and the film - though masterfully done - is not an uplifting story. In places, it’s downright abusive to a viewer (kind of like Crash).
From a historical perspective, understanding the legal consequences and interests at play at this time would probably be interesting to ponder. This review however turns on one phrase: I Drink Your Milkshake! The line has inspired its own website (and even its own sports metaphor).
How does it come up? Well, Plainview buys up all the land - except one parcel - in a town that’s sitting on an “ocean of oil.” He strikes it big and makes a fortune.
When the holdout owner passes away, the town’s church, pastored by local pentecostal healer Eli Sunday (played by Paul Dano), acquires an interest in the land. Eli is broke, having squandered donations to the church. So, he approaches Plainview about buying the church’s interest in the tract, knowing that at one point the property held oil at and beneath the surface.
Plainview is about 10 years ahead of him. After getting Eli to admit that he believes God to be a superstition as a condition for buying the land, Plainview informs the preacher he doesn’t need the land because he’s been drinking the oil for years:
I wondered whether that was true, having a hard time recalling the precise rule of Pierson v. Post and the Rule of Capture. States dealing with the challenges of resource extraction adopted some version of the rule of capture which allows property owners, like Plainview, to extract resources from beneath their property even if those resources drain into that ground as a result of the extraction.
You can’t drill down on a slant into the ground under someone else’s land, but if, as a consequence of your extraction the oil or water or gas migrates to your ground it’s considered fugitive and you have every right to it:
In the absence of a statute declaring otherwise, the landowner, by drilling on his or her land, may capture what he or she can of the contents of a pool, notwithstanding that in doing so the landowner reduces the common supply theoretically available to his or her neighbors.
38 Am. Jur. 2d Gas and Oil ยง 10.
The film is worth seeing, though be warned that it’s a bit slow. Still, the acting is great. Let me know, whether, you find one redeeming quality in Plainview.
finally got around to watching the infamous There Will Be Blood… Daniel-Day Lewis’ performance was top-notch. He takes well to the overbearing, violent father-figure role — he also did this in Gangs of New York.