The story follows Daniel Plainview, an oil-well producer, as he buys land to extract the oil underneath. In a southern Californian town, in which he's trying to purchase land from its inhabitants, him and his son meet the local pastor and that's where the crux of the conflict will develop from.
As the title is a Old Testament reference, the movie is filled with allusions to the Christian faith (e.g.: baptisms, sacrifice, speaking in tongues, blood of Jesus, etc.) that play into the tension between Plainview and the pastor. With the blood in the title as an integral part of the film, the viewers see the competition between the three types of blood (family, oil, Jesus' blood/Christian faith) - in the end only one of the types of blood can win.
It goes without saying that Daniel Day Lewis' performance is nothing short of amazing - his winning of the Best Actor award at that year's Oscars was absolutely justified. His performance is reminiscent of Orson Welles in Citizen Kane as a man that's possessed by a desire and will stop at nothing to achieve that goal, even if that means to disregard one's own family and sanity.
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