An examination of alienation

Rating: 10/10 (22 November 2008)

Contains spoilers. If there's one thing that's absolutely certain about Daniel Plainview, it is this; There Will Be Blood. This movie is a study of the singular man. A man probably emotionally crippled by his past, causing a paranoid fear of intimacy. Believing himself utterly isolated in a meaningless universe, without emotional connection or outlet. On the run from his past driven by spite, he makes for an excellent prospector. Toiling alone in the wilderness. Mining for silver but striking oil amalgamates spite and intellect into pure ambition. The movies eerie, unsettling score charging every scene is, I think, a device to show Plainview's emotional state, reminding us that this is a character study,foreshadowing his ominous fate. His newfound riches lets him blossom into a power-player, a shrewd manipulating businessman.-And a sadist. And ultimately a sociopath while he medicates his emotional isolation with copious amounts of alcohol,despising all weakness in others as he despises his own self-pity. Plainview has a special hatred for religion which is possibly an extension of his issue with intimacy, or probably connected to the past he fled. Despite all his faults he can also seem a man of principles, as he takes care of the orphaned boy and admonishes Mr. Sunday for beating his daughter. But the admonishion carries with it a feeling of power-play against Mr. Sunday and his religious practices.And he of course ends up exploiting and disowning the boy. Several years later when all his ambition is realized we see a shell of a man, finally alone, in his ornate cage of a mansion with nothing left but his bitterness. But still alive. Then comes the priest and Plainview turns the tables on him, returning the favor of betraying his own convictions for greed. He kills the priest and wins his final battle. Vanquishes religion with a few strokes of the bowlingpin-wand.And conquers the universe. "I'm Finished." He can die.