There Will Be Blood
There Will Be Blood is a film about the spiteful capitalist called Daniel Plainview, who, in the dustbowl era, is trying to drill for oil for not just a fortune but also to satisfy his competitive need to destroy any other businesses/competitors.
The marketing for this film reflects the tone of the film, rather than the visuals and environment the film lives in. In the poster above, the colour black is using unsparingly as it is spread across the entire poster. Red permeates the bottom section of the poster, which reflects the blood lust and violent acts of Daniel Plainview. The use of red will also bring a more unsettling feeling to the whole poster, as it somewhat clashes with the brighter greens/blues in the top half of the poster. This creates a lack of symmetry in the poster whilst also adding an element of unpredictability (and thus again reflecting the personality of Daniel Plainview). The font used for the title seems to be gothic, which has connotations of danger, the dark, creepiness, etc.
The singularity of Plainview on the poster is an interesting representation of social groups. It could be feeding into the male archetype often used in media (loner, dangerous, masculine, strong minded). Using Plainview as the lone character tells an audience a lot instantly about the tone, characters and world in this film and can even give a hint at what the ideology (or ideologies of the film could be). It's important to note also that the singularity could suggest introspection and that the film is, by association, also introspective.
A gothic font is used for the "There Will Be Blood" title, which works thematically with the representation of Daniel Plainview but also adds a new dimension to the portrayal of the character. The gothic font perpetuates the ideas of loneliness, danger, oddity, edginess and darkness but can perhaps add a new element of monstrousness to Plainview. I closely associate the gothic genre with gargoyles, full moons and eerie suberstitions, so perhaps to an audience with a similar understanding of the genre, this font would create a link, or bridge, between monsters and Daniel Plainview. Associating him with the dark creatures of gothic stories gives a wholly new monstrosity. His spited stare into the distance is now tinged with worse intentions than you previously thought and the brutality of the man we see in the film shines through.
Lighting here ensures that the inherent duality of Plainview come through in a visual manner, which is much more subtle than trying to communicate Plainview's sly, snide, lying nature through text. This forces the audience to use intuition much more to uncover the hints that this poster gives, which in turn lets us know that this is not a summer blockbuster but instead aims to be an intelligent, well thought out, mentally stimulating, challenging film. It's vital for the poster to do its best to inform people what type of film is being shown, so that people within the parameters of the target audience will be interested.
A binary opposition prominent within this poster is dark vs light, which obviously has connotations of morality. Morality is quite an important theme in TWBW, as the film routinely shows the morally wrong actions of Plainview as some sort of character study. You frequently try to reconcile his bad actions until the pile of evil builds into something larger than anything Daniel can control, almost as if he has been hoarding his resentment and cut throat competitiveness to an unmanageable point.
This cover has white running all through out the box. This contrasts to the darkness and seediness of the other poster. White could perhaps reflect the white hot sun glaring down on the desert that There Will Be Blood takes place in. This white is stained by small amounts of black, which perhaps is a nod to the theme of good vs evil. Perhaps the black represents a small piece of Plainview's character (his competitive desire) that infects and spreads to the rest of his personality.
In the picture where Plainview is standing over a small fold up chair, looking away from the disaster he has created, we can observe clear visual metaphor. The oil drill his spewing out oil from the ground, which could represent sins and toxic behaviour being taken from hell (as hell is often portrayed as being underground) and spread across Eden. Daniel Plainview is not exactly embracing it but instead seems to be contemplating not just what he has done but who he is as a result of what he's done. Not only does this add another dimension to his character, but it also gives some hints at themes and possibly emotions to expect.
"Blood" in the title emphasises this word and signals to people that violence should be expected. This helps thin the possible audience for the film and help marketing appeal to the target audience.
Daniel Plainview is also plastered across the whole of the cover, which reflects his morbidly self-obsessed personality. He only cares about furthering himself and his own interests, hence why he is almost the only person seen across this cover.
That almost iconic picture of Plainview standing in front of the fire brings in the binary opposition of man vs nature, which is a theme that could possibly give way to the question of "what is man's nature"?
One point that binds both the poster and DVD cover is the archetypal representation of the male protagonist. As I said earlier, Daniel Plainview is represented as lonely, masculine, dangerous, in control and autonomous. This DVD cover perpetuates that by making visual references to the western genre. Not only is the setting a desert but Daniel wears a hat reminiscent of that of a cowboy. Classic western heroes, both old and new, are tough, rugged, smart, autonomous. This look on Daniel evokes images of old western archetypal protagonists like John Wayne somewhat but also new ones. Wayne was more charismatic though, so perhaps this representation of Daniel Plainview is more reflective of the modern anti-hero version of the cowboy (someone in the vein of Josh Brolin in No Country For Old Men).
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