Artistic Triumph

Rating: 8/10 (7 September 2012)

Daniel Day Lewis is a standout in this film about an early 20th century oil man who makes a name and fortune for himself in old Texas. The pacing of the film is excellent, in that the viewer is always on the edge of his seat wanting more. The film would be a masterpiece if not for the miscasting of the preacher character, Eli, who lacks charisma and is no match for the coolness and ruthlessness of Daniel Plainfield. Nor is the boy particularly well cast, as he comes off as unemotional and shallow. Also, the ending was strange, although I liked the fact that Plainfiled turns the tables on the preacher for the former having put Plainfield through humiliation earlier in the film, which Plainfield willingly submits to, because his mind is fixated on the prize of leasing land for his pipeline project. Many of the reviewers here misunderstood the character of Plainfield and his development, which Daniel Day Lewis plays masterfully. He is not completely a misanthrope, evidenced by the love he shows toward his adopted son and the daughter of the rancher and by his accepting (though suspicious) attitude toward his faux half-brother. It is after his son loses his hearing in a tragic accident that Plainfield begins to become callous, because the one person he cared about has been made mute and deaf to him. He also is pained in learning that his half-brother died from TB before ever meeting him. In the end, Plainfield becomes Scrooge-like, betraying hurtful information to his adopted son about his origin, after the son betrays his father by telling him he intends to leave for Mexico to establish his own company, which his father takes as representing competition to his own. Plainfield is as deep of a character as the oil wells he drills and it is worth a study of this intriguing man for his genius business acumen and his ruthless people skills.