A modern classic, plus Daniel Day Lewis in top form!

Rating: 10/10 (26 October 2010)

I was blown away by this movie, totally and completely!! Daniel Day Lewis plays the role of his life, I've never seen such an authentic performance (except perhaps Robert Powell in Jesus of Nazareth)!!
The complexity of Daniel Plainview's character is greater than life and I could not refrain from sympathizing with him, despite of his greed and his ruthlessness. Because what I see in the character of Daniel is one of those pioneers that helped build America, people with blood on their hands, but who had this strong, relentless will to succeed, to be number one, to be the best. This strong will bring them fortune and power, but will also be their downfall. Daniel loves his adoptive son underneath it all, but when his son threatens to become his concurrent in the oil business, he renegades him. That scene, showing the victory of the dark side of Daniel (greed) over his feelings for his son, is absolutely heart-breaking and to my surprise I found myself crying and hoping that he will not do it. It's like seeing Anakin Skywalker become Darth Wader, so to speak, but much more complex. To me, Daniel is a good person, he protects a little girl from a violent father, adopts an orphan (mingled with personal reasons to benefit his business, it's true, but still, he loves that boy), and accepts a long lost brother. But his inner demons estrange him from the ones around him, and when the brother turns out to be a phony, he kills him.
Another absolutely brilliant point of this movie is Paul Dano, playing the fervent priest Eli Sunday. I don't know for other people seeing this movie, but the character of Eli Sunday is to me the typical cowardly, week and despicable person that will use any means it can to get the power it so desperately desires. In this case, it's by founding a religious cult. Daniel and Eli both desire power over the ones around them (hence the conflict between them), but they achieve it differently: one by sheer force,violence or money, the other by manipulation. Personally I prefer the methods of Daniel, there's plenty of despicable ass-kissers of the likes of Eli just waiting to have you at their mercy nowadays and I sure can't stand them. I was really glad when Daniel tells Eli at the end there's no more oil in those fields, it warmed my heart to see that hypocrite worm squirm...after which comes that rough ending, which is hard to endure, but describes Daniel's complete descent into darkness and his total separation from human kind ("I am finished.").
What a great movie! What a fine performance! A true masterpiece and I'm sure it will become a classic.
10/10