Radiohead's Greenwood goes sinister for 'There Will Be Blood'

After a screening of "There Will Be Blood" last night at Writer's Guild theater in Beverly Hills, director Paul Thomas Anderson said he "had to learn how to be simple" to make film. The movie tracks the life of an oil magnate played by Daniel Day-Lewis, and takes its inspiration from Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel "Oil!."

Much of the post-film discussion focused on the way Day-Lewis (above, with Dillon Freasier) approached the role of an arrogantly scheming and oft-paranoid oil man. And if there's anything simple about the film, it's in Anderson's focus on this one man, as the film has an underlying -- almost horror-like tension -- to it.

That foreboding sense of dread, though, comes in large part from the score by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood. The soundtrack won't be released until Dec. 18 via the Warner Bros. imprint Nonesuch, preceding the Dec. 26 opening of the film. It should be a fascinating, if difficult, listen, judging by the moments of the music in the movie.

It'll be curious to see if it stands as a singular piece, or if Academy voters find it too experimental, too hauntingly sparse, for the original score nomination it deserves.

Like Anderson's film, Greenwood's music often feels deceptively simple, playing out like a twisted, mutated take on orchestral music of the turn of the century.

At times, strings are manipulated into something that sounds like an air-raid siren, and in the few moments there's percussion, it's startling. The rhythms resemble the clangs of the oil machinery in the film, a carefully orchestrated but scattered-sounding noise -- the sound of a mind going mad, perhaps.

Greenwood and Anderson earlier discussed the music and how it relates to certain scenes of the film with Entertainment Weekly, where Greenwood said "The Shining" was a conversation point between the two. Indeed, the opening scenes of "There Will Be Blood," with its wide-open shots of Texas land and guttural orchestra sounds, certainly recall the 1980 Stanley Kubrick thriller.

Greenwood told EW:

I think it was about not necessarily just making period music, which very traditionally you would do. But because they were traditional orchestral sounds, I suppose that's what we hoped was a little unsettling, even though you know all the sounds you're hearing are coming from very old technology. You can just do things with the classical orchestra that do unsettle you, that are sort of slightly wrong, that have some kind of undercurrent that's slightly sinister.

Greenwood's words above best describe the music.

Last night, Anderson also cited John Huston's 1948 film "The Treasure of Sierra Madre" as inspiration, and said he sent pieces of Max Steiner's score to Greenwood. While the music of the latter took a more majestic approach, Greenwood is able to grace "There Will Be Blood" with a similarly epic sonic scope.

"I knew our score would sound nothing like that," Anderson said, "but this is what I was trying to get into the mix."

More on the film, and the soundtrack, as their respective release dates approach.

(Photo courtesy Paramount Vantage)

Comments

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[Patricia Realini]

I was lucky enough to see There Will Be Blood at the Arclight in Hollywood. Tickets sell out quickly and with good reason. When the movie began I was drawn in by the amounting tension of the score and the skill that was behind it. The percussion and strings made me squirm in my seat and i enjoyed every minute of it. There WIll Be Blood has to be the best movie of 2007. The progressive score was the telling of emotion not of beauty. That is were i feel the movie will be misunderstood. Many people tend to believe that that which pleases the senses must be good and if it does not it is no good. But in truth it is Greenwood's ability to manipulate the emotion that makes him deserving of the credit of the oscar. Not only does the score tell of foreboding but in some parts a solemn string solo expresses the lonely and demented mind of Daniel Plainview, with it's constant underlying bass that tells of his need to continue to gain more wealth. And not just the music is fantastic in this piece but also the gorgeous shots of Daniel Day Lewis where his silhouette is shadowed by the immense oil fire at his back and the audience sees his heavy breathing. He is the embodied beast of greed in this shot. Lewis's voice is haunting and majestic in it's ability to charm and frighten all at once. I could go on for pages explaining the beauty behind the horrifying details in Paul Thomas Anderson's latest wonder but before i give it all away go and fall in love and hate will the characters yourself.