The pursuit of the American Dream (and the cost that accompanies achieving it) has been a theme in many of the greatest works of art of all time, and film is not an exception. While Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood and Orson Welles's Citizen Kane have this exact theme in common, they both convey it in different ways, often using contrasting techniques. One is revered among nearly everyone involved in the production and academia of film, and the other is hardly debated among those crowds today, three years after its release. Surely, though, there is much to both of these films that is worthy of analysis and appreciation.
When Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood was first released in December of 2007, several critics immediately compared it to Orson Welles' 1941 directorial debut, Citizen Kane. Of course, the link between the films to which nearly all of the critics pointed is the similarities between the stories of each film's respective protagonists, Daniel Plainview and Charles Foster Kane. Perhaps the most obvious similarity between the two protagonists is that they represent what can happen when anyone achieves great success, wealth, and influence (i.e., the American Dream): downfall of the soul and total isolation; at the end of There Will Be Blood, Plainview sits in the private bowling alley of his expansive, empty mansion, with blood on his hands and vodka on his breath, and nobody but his butler to hear his utterance of the film's last words: “I'm finished”; at the end of Kane's life, he too is alone in a similarly massive home, sharing his last breath of “Rosebud...” with just his butler (though news of it would quickly spread throughout the land).
There Will Be Blood's Daniel Plainview (played by Daniel Day-Lewis) and Citizen Kane's Charles Foster Kane (played by Orson Welles) essentially fall into their fields of business by luck, mostly. Plainview sets out to be a silver miner but suddenly becomes a self-proclaimed oilman after he accidentally strikes oil. Do not be fooled, though: Plainview works very, very hard to make his eventual fortune, but that luck is what he owes his wealth to, as one can only do so much to increase one's odds of finding silver or oil. Kane is lucky in that he is adopted into money. Of course, once he establishes his place as publisher of the New York Inquirer, he then works hard to gain influence and respect in the community and across the country. Once Plainview and Kane settle into their respective occupations, they both put in an immense amount of effort to escalate to the top of their fields.
The stories of Plainview and Kane are paralleled yet again in that they both make promises to the communities in which they establish themselves. Plainview promises the residents of Little Boston a plethora of improvements to the town that would result from the placement of an oil well there (e.g., schools, roads, irrigation systems, etc.). Kane goes so far as to write out his promises and publish them in his first issue of the Inquirer, under the headline of “Declaration of Principles”. Outside of the stories, the characters of Plainview and Kane share another similarity: they are both loosely based on one or more historical figures. There Will Be Blood is loosely based on the novel Oil! by Upton Sinclair, which is loosely based on the life of oil tycoon Edward Doheny; in a roundabout way, Daniel Plainview is loosely based on the life of the aforementioned Mr. Doheny. The character of Charles Foster Kane, though, is a much more direct representation of the famed newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. So direct, in fact, that Hearst was very bothered by the existence of Citizen Kane and attempted to block its release.
Ultimately, both Plainview and Kane fall victim to their undying ambitions. Surely this drive brings them their successes, but only because they would not let anything stand in their ways, resulting in many personal, physical, emotional, and psychological sacrifices. Plainview abandons his adopted son (though it is quite clear that his only reason for adopting the boy in the first place is for financial gain), kills the man who falsely claimed to be his brother (though Plainview had established a bond between the man while under the impression that the man was his real brother), succumbs to alcoholism and sheer madness, and generally pushes everyone around him away for reasons he makes very plain with the following line: “There are times when I look at people and I see nothing worth liking. I want to earn enough money that I can get away from everyone.” While Charles Foster Kane is by no means as plainly misanthropic as Daniel Plainview, he ends up in a similar position after his second wife leaves him due to his selfishness and controlling nature.
Without connecting the dots of similarities between Daniel Plainview and Charles Foster Kane, one might would have a difficult time relating There Will Be Blood to Citizen Kane. This is because, formalistically, many aspect of the two films are dissimilar. Ostensibly, Citizen Kane is much more expressionistic than There Will Be Blood, however, after consideration, it is becomes clear that both are more expressionistic than they are realistic, though they both have signficiant strains of realism present as well. Obviously There Will Be Blood is in color, while Citizen Kane is in black and white, but this is most likely due to the cinematic zeitgeist of the times in which each were made. Gregg Toland's cinematography in Citizen Kane was revolutionary at its time and has influenced innumerable films since. His use of deep focus was unparalleled at the time and it contributed significantly to the realism of the film, as it presented people and actions in the way that our eyes perceive people and actions. Another simple and realistic aspect of Citizen Kane is the inclusion of ceilings in the mise-en-scène—the first film to do so. Less innovative (though equally effective) camera angles were also used throughout Citizen Kane, such as low angle shots on Charles Foster Kane and high angle shots on Susan Alexander Kane while they argue about her singing career, making him appear more dominant and her appear more vulnerable and powerless. Shots in Citizen Kane are primarily tightly framed and a shadows are used remarkably well, particularly in scenes such as when Kane writes out his “Declaration of Principles”: Kane is in a shadow when he presents the document, foreshadowing his inevitable betrayal of those principles. Overall, Citizen Kane utilizes low key lighting to great effect.
While Robert Elswit's cinematography in There Will Be Blood might not be as innovative as that of Gregg Toland in Citizen Kane, it is still impressive. Surely the most stark contrast between its photography and that of Citizen Kane is the use of huge, open, widescreen shots that not only showcase the vast expanse of the American frontier, but also reinforce Daniel Plainview's sense of rugged individualism. These breathtaking shots give the film a sense of real space and time because they were clearly filmed on location, as opposed to on a set in a studio. Even in the last couple scenes, which take place in Plainview's massive mansion (a symbol of his great wealth), very wide and very long shots emphasize Plainview's loneliness and isolation within his enormous home. Also contributing to the realism of There Will Be Blood are the long tracking shots used throughout; for example, when the oil derrick gushes (and eventually catches fire), multiple tracking shots are employed to bring the viewer into the very intense and unsettling situation at hand.
Legendary composer Bernard Herrmann's score for Citizen Kane is effective in enhancing the drama in several scenes, including the tensional buildup in the opening sequence that leads to the extinguishment of the light in Charles Foster Kane's house, followed shortly by his utterance of “Rosebud...” and then by his death. Bernard Herrmann's score is also operative in setting and maintaining a perfect tone throughout the film. In general, all of this is achieved very subtly, as the score often goes unnoticed due to the engaging nature of the story unfolding onscreen. In terms of diegetic sound, Orson Welles uses overlapping dialogue very generously throughout the film, especially in scenes such as when Kane first arrives at the offices of the New York Inquirer and it seems as though Mr. Kane, Mr. Bernstein, Mr. Leland, and Mr. Carter are all talking at the same time for several minutes. This technique would eventually become a trademark of Welles's and though it is possibly played up for a slightly humorous end (such as in the aforementioned scene), it is very effective in producing a sense of the real world, in which people by no means take carefully measured turns in conversation.
The soundtrack of There Will Be Blood, composed by Jonny Greenwood, is quite far removed from that of Citizen Kane. Like Kane, though, Blood opens with a powerful and unsettling crescendo of noise in the very beginning of the film, though it is much louder and more noticeable in Blood. That phrase also applies to the respective scores in general, as Greenwood and Anderson clearly intended for the non-diegetic sound of There Will Be Blood to be as noticeable as possible. This is perfectly exemplified in the previously-alluded-to scene involving the oil well gush which deafens Daniel Plainview's son and the subsequent fire: the scene is very hectic and the extremely dissonant pounding of the score literally sounds like a group of people with no musical capability simply making as much noise as possible. In fact, there is an extended portion of the song during which it is very difficult to decipher any sort of tempo. This disconcerting, chaotic music fits well into the scene which involves several tensions (e.g., the audience's concern for Plainview's deafened son, everyone's concern over the fact that money is literally burning away, and Plainview's excitement in learning just how much oil there is under the ground on which he stands).
Yet another important innovation found in Orson Welles's Citizen Kane is the experimental use of montages. In sequences such as the parallel breakfast conversations between Charles Foster Kane and his first wife Emily, a montage is used to juxtapose the fading happiness of the married couple through time. This technique allows for the passing of several years in the story, reducing the film's running time, but without losing any of the significance of the decaying marriage. Welles also experimented with long takes, as seen in many scenes, including that in which Kane's parents sign him over to Mr. Thatcher. Along with the deep focus used in this scene, the long take undoubtedly creates a sense of real time and space.
In the same vein, There Will Be Blood also relies heavily on long takes. Long takes in scenes such as when Daniel Plainview gives his first proposal to the people of a small town, after which he leaves in disgust. The camera is on focused on Plainview's face for nearly the entire duration of the scene, which consists mostly of him talking. As in Citizen Kane, the use of long takes here and elsewhere throughout the film maintain a sense of real time and space passing in the story. Unlike Citizen Kane, however, when Anderson wishes to indicate that a great deal of time has passed in between segments of There Will Be Blood, he simply uses title cards to explicitly state in what year the subsequent scenes take place.
The narrative of Citizen Kane is somewhat complex in that it uses flashbacks to tell most of the story, whereas the narrative of There Will Be Blood is entirely chronological and very straightforward. These narrative techniques tie-in very well to the messages and purposes of each film. The jigsaw puzzles used by Susan Alexander Kane near the end of Citizen Kane are directly made into a metaphor in the last few minutes of the film in order to compare the knowledge of the significance of Charles Foster Kane's dying word as just another piece in the puzzle that comprised the man. Appropriately enough, the film's use of flashbacks not only tell the story effectively, but also take the form of a jigsaw puzzle for the audience in that viewers pick up little bits of information throughout the film, only to discover the final piece at the very end of the film. When the audience realizes how mundane Kane's last word is after nearly two hours of buildup, some might become disillusioned. However, the point of using such a simple, unimportant object such as a sled is stated directly by the reporter Thompson at the end of the film: “I don't think any word can explain a man's life.” Though the audience is taken from Kane's childhood through many parts of his adult life, there are surely aspects to him that cannot be expressed, and Welles is acknowledging just that with this line. Conversely, There Will Be Blood's straightforward tale reflects the unabashed nature of its protagonist, Daniel Plainview. Though the audience sees neither any portion of his childhood nor his death, ironically, more about his life is clear than that of Charles Foster Kane.
Though separated by over 65 years, Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood and Orson Welles's Citizen Kane have remarkably similar themes. While both films warn of the impending doom at the end of the overly ambitious, selfish, and greedy tunnel, they each effect this theme in different manners, and, ultimately, they hold different purposes. The legacy of one has been evident in filmmaking for centuries, while the other one has hardly been released for three years yet. How long will Citizen Kane remain the top choice for greatest film ever, time and time again? Will There Will Be Blood ever be fully appreciated? It is difficult to say. In the words of Daniel Plainview, though, one thing is certain: “I'm finished.”
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