2007‘s There Will Be Blood serves as both a sprawling American epic exploring the intoxicating power of oil at the dawn of the 20th century, and an intimate character study scrutinizing the soul behind extraction at any cost. Daniel Day-Lewis‘s legendary performance as ambitious anti-hero Daniel Plainview cemented the film in cinematic history books. By charting Plainview‘s trajectory from determined prospector to hollow tycoon, writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson provides a searing indictment of unchecked capitalism‘s moral consequences. Examining Plainview in detail reveals the inner workings of a system that ultimately decays human bonds and rewards naked self-interest.
Genesis of an Oilman
As There Will Be Blood opens in 1898, former silver miner Daniel Plainview toils atop a precariously erected wooden derrick, mining for oil. When an accident kills his drilling partner, Plainview absorbs the company and adoptive baby son H.W. without hesitation, revealing a opportunist willing to capitalize on misfortune. Driven by early 20th century free market zeal, he sells himself as an oil extraction champion who can tap profits from the landscape resistance has left "useless" and "wasted." This establishes core traits – tenacity, gall, and lust for conquest – that fuel his capitalism crusade.
Anderson frequently shoots Plainview silhouetted against the hulking machinery of his trade, like a captain piloting a sinister steamship. He understands industrial might holds the keys to American fortuity. As Plainview proclaims later before a crowd of hopeful 1932 prospectors, this oil game demands risking "your very life, and leave it on the table." Plainview has survived thanks to discipline, boldness, and subsuming identity completely within entrepreneurial spirit.
A Master Manipulator
Fundamental to Plainview’s sparkling early victories proving oil-rich land and building profitable wells is an innate mastery of manipulation. He coolly reads desperation and hidden desire, adopting the soft reassuring tone of a confessor or candid friend. "Plain Speaking" and "Plainview" even suggest straight talk. But Daniel Plainview brutally capitalizes on this illusion of transparency, via half-truths and misleading promises designed to further his own wealth above all.
When the Sunday family visits Plainview‘s beachside office in 1902 flashing oil-rich land ownership, he feigns only mild interest, before agreeing to visit their ranch. Out there Plainview literally gets his boots dirty investigating terrain firsthand, earning patriarch Abel‘s respect. He relieves Abel‘s frustration at past volatile drillers by calling them "fools," then highlighting his own Stabler and Steadfast rig‘s "proud well." After church service, Plainview pointedly compliments young preacher Eli as "good" and "helpful." Such moves all gently manufacture trust and rapport without ever outright lying.
Ultimately Plainview offers $500 down plus royalties equating to small fortune for struggling Abel. The old man accepts gratefully, unaware what mineral riches sit below their soil or the exponential profits to come. Plainview has expertly nudged every pain point, hope and bias to seal his bounty. The Sunday‘s local knowledge paired with his industrial machinery are about to yield massive fortunes, tilted lopsidedly in his favor.
Conquering at Any Cost
Within a few years, the Sunday/Plainview oil partnership transforms a rural scrubland into roaring boomtown, rechristened Little Boston. By 1911 Plainview owns an entire EMT rail line plus miles oil derricks scar the arid terrain. He celebrates by naming H.W as a partner, fulfilling his old vow they would share 1001 wells. Plainview seems positively jolly giving a speech extolling chivalrous capitalism.
But foundational business is settled, uglier means sustain Plainview’s empire. He discovers Standard Oil representatives surreptitiously assessing his pipeline worth, Plainview murdering the "spy" with bowling pin after forcing him to loudly proclaim hatred for pipelines. Dramatically lit, the scene connects capitalism directly to bone-cracking cruelty. Plainview admits he looks others in the eye and sees only "competition." He‘ll commit virtually any sin if it fortifies dominance.
Most symbolic of Plainview’s shift from halcyon builder to tyrannical monopolist is his contentious relationship with Eli Sunday. Their simmering rivalry erupts when Eli demands $10,000 for oil rights under family land, ultimatums clashing with Plainview‘s hatred of coercion. Both men sanctimoniously insist "God is with me Almighty" during their face off. This signals opposing forces – material riches versus spiritual power – at odds to control this new black gold Mecca. Ultimately though, capitalism reigns supreme.
A Hollow “Victory”
Fittingly when the Sunday/Plainview feud culminates years later, fists and weaponry have been traded for something innocuous but equally deadly – milkshakes. Both now grayed patriarchs, Eli arrives at Plainview‘s opulent private bowling alley bearing twin boys, the next generation of California oil royalty. Plainview literally seethes hearing that the unseen son is named “Daniel Plainview Sunday.”
Finally, Plainview explodes with long suppressed vitriol, bludgeoning the infirm preacher to death with a custom bowling pin. He admits coveting the Sunday ranch‘s vibrant community long ago, something "he could never have." This crystallizes Plainview’s motivation and ultimate punishment – his thirst left him siphon off riches and pleasure from the world itself until only ashen soil remained. Alienated from any human bonds, he haunts his personal Xanadu alone.
In riveting final moments, Plainview‘s butler meekly interrupts his nightcap. When asked his name Plainview replies “I don‘t like people joking and trying to trick me.” This cutting declaration encapsulates a worldview seeing all human interactions as sequences of deceit and manipulation, ever threatening his cherished “independence.” Film scholars note Charles Foster Kane from Citizen Kane receives a similar late night visitation, highlighting There Will Be Blood‘s debt. But whereas Kane holds a snowglobe of childhood joy before expiring, no flashbacks or mementos stir Plainview‘s heart. He remains viciously committed to the end.
The American Nightmare
What makes Daniel Plainview such a resonant film monster comes through his distinctly American flavor of sin – the perversion of courageous Western enterprise into amoral hierarchy of profit above people. His promises echoed those made by rail barons, fur traders and gold rush speculators who conquered frontiers with blood as much as business acuity. When oil strikes mint fresh Plainviews nationwide in early 20th century, unfettered capitalism reveals barbarity below supposed civility.
Ultimately Daniel Plainview and Eli Sunday both desperately crave control, they merely wield different weapons – coercion vs capital. But the system Plainview represents corrodes human bonds and raped natural beauty solely for more coin. It left him staring into a spiritual abyss by film‘s end. Perhaps this was the "blood" Paul Thomas Anderson‘s poetic title warned of all along – the lifeforce greed sucks dry until none‘s left, not even our own.