![]() But he has to be careful not to offend Eli's faithful flock. Plainview reacts instinctively to Eli as a nemesis, and seeks to defeat him in any way possible. So when he comes up against the determined Eli, it's like a trigger goes off. Plainview confesses at one point that he has a competition in him that makes him hate seeing anyone else succeed. Eli, we are told, is a healer and he wants to start a congregation of his own. Of course Plainview doesn't want to pay that much. Eli's family has property with oil potential and Eli wants to sell those rights for $10,000 so he can build a church. So when he comes up against a young man named Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) who is as driven as he is, a tense rivalry develops. His people skills, however, leave something to be desired. His wells do come in and he begins to amass wealth. The boy's presence allows him to present himself as a trustworthy family man, and that makes his sales pitch more appealing.īut Plainview is also good at what he does. (Dillon Freasier), accompanies him as he pitches local communities about selling the oil rights to their land to him. There's a fleeting moment of tenderness in one scene between Plainview and the baby, but after that we sense that Plainview sees the child as merely another tool he can use in advancing his oil business. ![]() When one of the workers gets killed in a drilling accident, Plainview adopts the man's infant son and treats him as his own. The work is also, as you could imagine, quite dangerous. When the oil comes in, Plainview and his crew initially just pour it in a makeshift hole because they simply don't know what else to do with it. There's no high tech equipment here, just men jerry-rigging whatever they can to make things work. Soon Plainview comes upon oil and Anderson shows us the primitive, early days of oil drilling. ![]() Then Plainview wakes up with a gasp that makes the scene play out like a birth, Plainview is gasping for air like a newborn infant, and the scene grabs us. As Plainview falls into the shaft, he covers the lens and the screen goes black and silent. We also get our first taste of Anderson's craft. At this point we have the first sense of the ferocious drive that will propel him in all his endeavors. At one point he falls down a shaft and must pull himself out and drag himself to town despite what appears to be a broken leg. The first fifteen minutes of the film contain no dialogue as we watch the lone Plainview mine for the silver. When we first meet Plainview he's a solitary silver prospector. For the film, Anderson focuses on Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis). So Anderson decided on the new title, "There Will Be Blood," which has a Biblical ring to it that turns out to be quite appropriate. This also marks the first time Anderson has not penned an original screenplay from which to direct.īecause Anderson chose to only take a few elements from Sinclair's "Oil!!,"he felt it was wrong to use the books title for his film. In freely adapting “Oil!,” Anderson leaves the socialism and muckraking behind but holds on to Sinclair's theme of the corrupting power of money and capitalism. Upton Sinclair was famed for his muckraking expose “The Jungle,” and for the socialist agenda he often put forth in his novels. The filmmaker who gave us “Hard Eight,” “Boogie Nights,” “Magnolia,” and “Punch Drunk Love” now turns to an 80-year-old Upton Sinclair novel called “Oil!” as inspiration for his epic tale of greed and ambition. What he brought to the character of Daniel Plainview, not even Paul Thomas Anderson expected.“There Will Be Blood” (opening January 11 at AMC Mission Valley and on January 18 at Landmark’s La Jolla Village Theaters) is not the film fans of Paul Thomas Anderson may be expecting but it's a film that should please them nonetheless. Luckily, there was both between PTA and Daniel Day-Lewis. Compared to classical acting, Method acting often requires great collaboration and rapport between director and actor. But as he continued writing, he always came back to the fact that Day-Lewis was the only person who could get the job done.ĭaniel Day-Lewis is known for his method acting and rigorous approach to developing characters. This would allow him to create the character more organically. The task was ambitious since Anderson had never formally met Daniel Day-Lewis.Īs he continued writing the character for Plainview, PT Anderson tried to detach himself from the thought of Day-Lewis playing the character. ![]() From the start, Paul Thomas Anderson had Daniel Day-Lewis in mind to play Daniel Plainview. Who is Daniel Plainview played by? It would be difficult to imagine the part played by anyone other than the great Daniel Day-Lewis and for good reason. Daniel Plainview Character Analysis Writing for Daniel Day-Lewis ![]()
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