We hear the harsh sounds of a string orchestra. As the score slowly crescendos, we see a vast desert landscape with nothing in either direction. In 20 seconds, the scene is set. For nearly 15 minutes not a word is uttered, yet through a series of long tracking shots the action and story are propelled at an engrossing pace. Accompanied by a persistent and haunting score, the world of Daniel Plainview and There Will Be Blood is revealed, and from the onset we start to realise the epic journey we’re about to embark on.

Oscar-nominated director PT Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia) has made a career of creating visual masterpieces backed by a brilliant score and music. There Will Be Blood is no exception. Under the direction of acclaimed Radiohead guitarist, Jonny Greenwood, the score is as complex and challenging as the film itself. And Oscar-winning director of photography Robert Elswit had his work cut out for him in creating an eerie canvas of wide-open spaces where darkness doesn’t just bubble underground, but above it as well.

Shot in Marfa, Texas, There Will Be Blood looks like it was pulled directly out of a sepia-toned photograph. At first glance everything may appear normal, but the pictures don’t tell the whole truth. Relying on wide angles and long tracking shots, the magnitude and vastness of the desert takes centre stage, becoming one of the film’s most unforgiving characters.

The cinematography, full of barren landscapes and sprawling vistas, serves to balance the tight cramped space of the oil derrick; just as the slow and methodical camera work balances the chaos of Little Boston.

With a cornucopia of stringed instruments, like the violin, cello and even piano, the sound results in a brooding, frenetic arrangement, that beautifully captures the simple lives of those in Little Boston.

In There Will Be Blood, some of the most revealing moments occur when there is no dialogue at all. With all the great speeches and monologues that Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) give in the film, it’s often during the quieter, more reflective moments that we learn most about them. The music not only reflects how they are feeling, but sometimes even informs them. Serving as a pseudo-narrator, the repetitive and striking sounds rise and fall with the story, adding a layer of intrigue to the action. The rhythm of brass and percussion instruments echo the sounds of the oil machinery, while when the orchestra is at full-steam it seems to parallel Plainview’s descent into madness.