A critique of America

Rating: 8/10 (1 April 2008)

From my position as an outside to American culture, for me Paul Thomas Anderson's main message in 'There Will be Blood' is a critique of the American dream of making money and of the falsehoods of religion. Daniel Plainview is shown to be constantly striving for more and more profits in the film, but we never see him enjoying his wealth until the end of the film, where he seems to be an emotional wreck. This representation for me is summed up in the scene where Daniel takes H.W. to the restaurant and he says 'what you need is a nice, expensive meal'. For Plainview wealth is merely a trophy of him beating his competition, and he seems to gain little personal enjoyment from it. Whereas Eli is a slimy and unnerving character who runs his church like a business and beats his father as he deems him to have sold his land for insufficient money.