Rumor says that Daniel Day-Lewis might win the Oscar this
Sunday for his performance in Paul Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood”.
Even before its release, Lewis received acclamations for his
performance as Daniel Plainview, an oil prospector who is setting dynamite in
silver mine in 1898, in an adaptation of Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel, “Oil!”
The movie received eight nominations at Sunday’s Academy
Awards. It received nominations at the following categories: Best Actor in a
Leading Role, Best Motion Picture of the Year, Achievement in Art Direction,
Achievement in Cinematography, Achievement in Directing, Achievement in Film Editing,
Achievement in Sound Editing and for Adapted Screenplay.
“There Will Be Blood” was released at the end of 2007 and recorded
sales worth of $31 million at the U.S. box office, the lowest from
all the Best Picture nominees.
Even so, Lewis was praised about his performance in the
movie so is hard to imagine that he will not win the Oscar. Let’s not forget
that he was nominated before at the Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading
Role for “Gangs of New York” and “In the Name of the Father” and won in 1989
for his leading role in “My Left Foot.”
The movie was shot over three months in 2006 from May to
August, in New Mexico and Marfa, Texas.
Lewis plays Daniel Plainview, an oil prospector who tricks a
local farmer to give him the drilling rights over his land and dynamites a
silver mine. This venture leaves him wounded, but he manages to reach to the
claim office, bruised as he is. Plainview
turns out to be a greedy character, a man of very few words, who wants to take
every piece of land from the Californians.
Soon Plainview
starts an oil drilling business and, after an accident suffered by one of his
partners in which he loses his life, he becomes the adoptive father of boy.
Anderson
was inspired by Sinclair’s novel and used his book as the base for the
screenplay.
The story is a very loose adaptation of the novel and it
bears stories about fathers and sons, ambitions, greed, and the dependence and
crave for oil at the turn of the century.
Lewis already won the Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama award
at the Golden Globe Awards this year, Best Leading Actor award at the British
Academy Film Awards and Best Actor award at the Critics’ Choice Awards.
Could it be a pattern or pure coincidence? Well, we’ll just
have to tune in Sunday night to see it.
