Daniel, the anti-hero

Rating: 7/10 (7 February 2010)

It is a mistake to label Daniel, the main character of this film, as simply greedy and evil. He is as human as the rest of the characters in the story (who are less developed), but his main flaw is his competitive drive towards others, as well as his disdain for most in general, which he admits to in a candid moment with who we assume to be his brother. It is often directed towards the local religion, and primarily the object of this disdain becomes a local self-appointed prophet/young man named Eli, who, while perhaps considered innocent on the surface, is equally self-serving and passionate with his own visions of success in this small but developing town.
**Spoilers to follow**
Towards the beginning of the film, Daniel "adopts" a young boy whose father died in a tragedy during a primitive drill. Though it is later stated in the movie that he kept him 'as a face to help make money' this is not entirely true. It is evident throughout the film, but not at all times, that he sincerely cares for the boy and treats him like his own.
Daniel only slowly grows more viscous, cynical, and distrustful of others towards the end of the film. His paranoia proves accurate when someone posing as his brother comes to work alongside him at the oil site. The turning point is when he finds out about the betrayal and his dark-side takes form in physical reality.
The height of his paranoia and ugliness is revealed some years later as his son, perhaps the only person he has ever loved, sits down with him to inform him he has plans to move to Mexico with his wife and start his own company. Instead of embracing the move, he takes the opportunity to tell him the truth about their father-son relationship, along with every other mean thing he can muster with his imagination. And therein lies the most tragic aspect of the character and the movie. No doubt, he felt abandoned after his son grew older and married and now betrayed by his plans to move and set up a new drilling company. At this point he simply has not much else to live for, despite all the wealth he has accumulated. Sadly, his only trusted friend is his servant. He does take sincere pleasure in bashing, shall we say, the now older preacher, Eli. The end of the film comes and feels sudden and we are left feeling empty.
Daniel is an intelligent, intense character that was reliant only on himself, and at each step of the way he is personally involved in his work (in his unholy quest towards becoming rich). It is not disclosed why he never married or took on female companionship, and we can only venture a guess that it may involve trust or some intimacy issues, or perhaps he just didn't like others enough to allow them to get very close. When he perceives betrayal from those who do become closest with him (his brother - who is the impostor, and his son) he reacts with complete vengeance and no remorse. These two things drive him towards the edge and he becomes not only a drunk but psychopathic. The movie is a portrait of a flawed but not an altogether unlikable man--he did after all take on the boy as his own whom he protected and he stood up for the local young girl his son eventually married who was beaten by her dad for not praying--who finds the true success he seeks but sinks into despair and complete oblivion in the process.
There are perhaps other social implications to this but they are not readily visible. As a result, this is mostly a tragedy, sometimes slow moving at times, about the character Daniel amidst the reality of expansion in the west around the turn of the century leading to the wealth of our now heavily oil-based societies.