In Defence of Daniel Plainview
Daniel Plainview
This is not exactly a review of There Will Be Blood. This article is more in support of Daniel Plainview.
There is almost a 5 minute sequence in There Will Be Blood, which captures the essence of the movie. The scene starts off with a fire in one of the oil wells owned and operated by Daniel Plainview. Without even blinking or gaping at the enormity of the fire, we find Daniel Plainview running towards HIS oil fields. He knows that his adopted son is somewhere near the well and most of us are fooled into thinking that he is running for his son’s life. He does manage to take his son out of danger zone, but even before his son is completely out of danger he runs back again to his oil fields. And this time there is no illusion about his intent. He is out there to protect his oil fields. His oil fields are much dearer to him than his own son. This time Daniel Plainview not just takes his first son (oil fields) out of danger zone but also ensures that it is completely out of danger. We are not told how much time has lapsed but it does look considerable. Such is the intensity of the scene that I found myself running along with Daniel Plainview. The deftness and dexterity with which he handles a catastrophe of this magnitude makes you wonder, if this is man we talk about while using the word Genius.
Daniel Plainview is an oil man, and he is very proud of it. The look and posture of Plainview is such that it often gives you a feeling that its oil and not blood that runs through his veins. He reminds me of famous character Nathaniel Taggart from the fiction Atlas Shrugged. The man who started off alone guided by nothing but his own vision and succeeded against all odds.
The film starts off with a brilliant scene depicting Daniel Plainview’s quest for silver and ultimately oil. The starting scene is reminiscent of the famous dawn of man scene from the space odyssey. Much like his predecessor, Anderson is out to show that real dawn in the life of man starts off with his quest for something productive. For a good 15-20 minutes we don’t have any kind of dialogue. But the effect of those scenes is such it creates a complete character sketch of Daniel Plainview – Strong, focused and determined. This scene is also a tribute to never ending power of human spirit which has the ability to overcome each and every obstacle. But soon we are exposed to the fact that it is much easier to fight nature and natural obstacles but it’s almost impossible to fight the obstacles created by useless men who just don’t want you to succeed.
Daniel Plainview soon finds luck on his side when he is informed about an ocean of oil which can be bought at the price of quail. Overcoming all obstacles, both natural and man made, he starts drilling in this oil reservoir. It is here that he encounters his nemesis, Eli, whose father happens to own the large chunk of the reservoir.
Eli is an epitome of evil. He is all what Daniel Plainview is not. He doesn’t believe in doing anything productive. He holds power not because he is immensely productive but because he has the ability to bring down productive men on their knees. Fittingly, he is being made a priest, which was one of the first forms of government in western history.
“I look around people and find nothing worth liking”. This is what Daniel Plainview confesses to his imposter brother. Daniel liked to work and work efficiently and it seems logical that the only ability he can appreciate is excellence. But such is the state of the world around him that he encounters stupidity and self pity everywhere. In the earlier scenes, his son demonstrates the ability of an efficient and an able man, but after the accident we find that he is consumed with self pity. No wonder Daniel refuses to keep his son with him.
“Its not just that I want to succeed. I don’t want others to succeed.” Adds Daniel to his brother. Well, any sane mane with surrounded by stupidity will like stupidity to fail.
“And what is my sin actually? Drilling” Slowly and steadily, we find that Daniel Plainview has come to realize that he is being hated for his excellence and productive capacity. This is reminiscent of the turmoil that all the heroes of Atlas Shrugged had to go through before realizing the truth. And who has made people hate excellence. A root cause analysis will reveal that the preachers of truth and guardians of the society are the ones who have nurtured this tradition in society. Finally we find Daniel Plainview doing what should have been done ages ago – Silencing the voice of the incompetent.
A lot has been written about the technical aspect of the movie. There is nothing much that I can add to such articles. For me, every aspect of the movie like acting, writing, sound, camera work etc, is just about perfect. IMO, it’s a modern day masterpiece and I regard it as one of the best movies ever made.
I don’t know what the intentions of Writer/Director of the movie were, but to me it is a fitting tribute to one of my favorite novels – Atlas Shrugged. The turmoil of central character is reminiscent of the turmoil faced by the heroes of Atlas Shrugged. I had read somewhere that Anderson regards this movie as a horror movie. Indeed it’s horrific, more so when you find the central character being subjected to pain and suffering which he doesn’t deserve.
I have read umpteen reviews on There Will Be Blood, but could not find a single review which appreciates the character of Daniel Plainview. For me, he is how a man should be.
He might look at my face and find nothing worth liking, but I look at his face and admire the beauty of it. Such men have always been my hero and I stand in defense of Daniel Plainview.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Brilliant, eloquent eulogy to Daniel Plainview. I saw the movie last year, and was utterly captivated by it. Thanks for this article! It makes all the more sense since now that I am reading Atlas Shrugged. Uncanny similarities…
Very true AzadK. I was resisting this film for a long time because I’m not a big fan of PT Anderson’s earlier films (Magnolia and Punch Drunk Love). I find his movies sort of contrived in spite of having big ideas and some brilliantly executed sequence, especially Magnolia. Guess his films are an acquired taste. Anyways, saw ‘There will be blood’ very recently and i was completely fascinated by the Daniel Plainview character. Its an unblinking portrayal of an ambitious and ruthless business man and Daniel Day-Lewis spectacular performance is nothing short of brilliant. Yes its really mannered and over the top, but he never breaks character and somehow makes it work.
I sampled couple of reviews after seeing the film, most of the critics didn’t seem to like ending. I don’t know, i liked it though it comes as a complete surprise. But i think it was what Daniel Plainview would have done and it felt cathartic.
A very difficult movie to watch. It really tests your patience and the climax, I felt was very rewarding for all that wait. Nice writeup, a bit more about the fragile relationship between the father and the son would make the analysis more round.
And I’m with you.
Interesting… Rand’s concept of the self and the ‘I me myself’ definitely holds, but in the real world its not all.
Plainview could be Taggart in his work, but he doesn’t exist in that isolated frame. The relation with his son, the others, and the ending, do these seem in line..
Its a very romanticised take…one extreme doing away with another… what definite good comes of it…I need my space, you object, you perish…well..is that the way her world works too?….
@Shanmuga – I haven’t seen any of Anderson’s earlier films. I have seen There Will Be Blood 5 times though. Will try to catch up on his earlier films too
@jaiganesh – Relationship with his son deserves another post. This post was to celebrate the greatness of Daniel Plainview
@Arthi V – Well, if you take a look, then the starting scene clearly demonstrates that DP can exist alone. He starts off alone and almost manages to drill out all alone. But people like Eli cannot exist alone. They need some one to chew upon.
In my opinion,”THERE WILL BE BLOOD” is a masterpiece, the best film i’ve seen since”THE LIVES OF OTHERS”. It was robbed of the Best film at the oscars.Daniel Day Lewis’s performance is 1 of the greatest in cinema history.To hold a candle to his performance 1 has to go back to Anthony Hopkins’s performance in “THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS”. Daniel drank every1’s Milkshake!
Regards,
Santino
I’m just 250 pages into Atlas Shrugged, but, do the characters breed HATE within themselves, do they allow HATE to overpower their objective outlook?
IMO Mr. Plainview is similar to the Atlas Shrugged characters in terms of their superiority, their self-assurance and the drive they possess naturally to excel. But I really doubt, if Daniel Plainview is as objective and self-aware (apart from his superiorty perception) as Dagny Taggart or Hank Rearden are.
I doubt my own understanding of all these characters, so please respond
Hate cannot over power your objective outlook, if you have objective outlook in the first place. The question is how much are you willing to take?? There is a limit to everything and even the best of the people do break in. IMO, Daniel Plainview used to hate people because of their incompetence and their natural tendency to create barriers in front of him. He just wanted to be left alone to make money.
DP would have scant respect for the fops who worship at the altar of Ayn Rand. Which is precisely what makes him cool!
DP would have scant respect for the fops who worship at the altar of Ayn Rand. Which is precisely what makes him cool!
:D
Yeah!!! thats wat I feel. DP breeds hate in himself. and thus would not even respect any of the superior Ayn rands offsprings (fops who worship at the altar Ayn Rand ;)). That may make him cool, but not a man who could be looked upto.
Very interesting and tasteful analysis. You captured the aspects of Plainview in a light of ambition, and your respect for the cause of ambition and endeavor comes across fairly consistent. I love the film, have seen it a few times with a diff pov eachtime. Sometimes I saw it in comparison to the other western classic NO COUNTRY, sometimes to dissect Daniel Day’s performance, or sometimes to just gape in awe at Paul Dano’s courage to stand up to the grand scheme.
On philosophical levels, I personally treat it as a unflinching quest for that which is unattainable, which is also underlined in the penultimate sequences. So much to say about the film. But good write up.