Both Daniel Plainview and Eli Sunday are men in pursuit of power, whether it be through selling oil or selling religion. As master manipulators they both see through the charades, Daniel doesn’t buy Eli’s holier than thou attitude. Eli knows Daniel doesn’t care about helping the people, and he is perfectly fine with that, as long as he gets a cut of the action. Daniel knows Eli is thirsty for power and uses it to his advantage. When Eli approaches Daniel to collect, he is called out by Daniel “aren’t you a healer, a vessel for the holy spirit?, when are you coming over to make my son hear again? can’t you do that?”. Industrialization is a way to fund Eli’s expanding congregation, a means to an end, the end being power. During the drilling Eli and Daniel are adversaries but the money is able to keep them cooperative. Eli gains the upper hand when he forces Daniel to confess where he is able to gain a position of power by appearing spiritually superior in front of the congregation. Daniel is willing to go through with it, justifying it with profits. The dynamic of power is reversed 30 years later when Eli comes back to beg for money. Daniel gives Eli the choice of admitting his phoniness “I am a false prophet and god is a superstition” in exchange for a land deal. He can’t help but add another fee to the deal, $5000 and even some interest. Daniel makes Eli admit he’s a phony, motivated only by his pride and the pursuit of power.False Prophet

Eli Sunday son of  Abel Sunday was not so different from any of Daniel Plainview’s competitors. He had similar aspirations, seeking a way to stamp his authority on the country and make a better living out of the new oil land. Eli approached the matter a little differently. Paul Thomas Anderson parallels capitalism and religion in the hearts of modern Americans; salvation either in God or in the Dollar. The underlying theme of the film becomes a battle between Daniel pitting Eli for the town, but Daniel didn’t solely despise Eli because he purported to the afterlife and spirits. Daniel found the idea  stupid but as people got swept up into Eli’s show Daniel quickly realized it as a valid being. It wouldn’t have mattered if it were religion or prospectors, Daniel would have seen them as a threat and challenge, and he would have set out to defeat them.

The thing that was especially troublesome for Daniel was that he couldn’t just get rid of this young preacher.  Eli was physically weak and inexperienced but had the strength of numbers through his church folk, an advantage that wouldn’t allow Daniel to take him out. The greatest moment for Eli was the Baptism of Daniel. It was  his chance to humiliate Daniel and take revenge by putting on exaggerated theatrics that it almost becomes comedic. The emotion drawn from Daniel was shame, repentance and anger. Daniel only did it to get the pipeline but wasn’t going to forget what Eli had done to him, unaware he would get his revenge thirty years later.

Abel Sunday owns a fairly large plot of land in Little Boston, Massachusetts. When Daniel Plainview is approached by Abel’s son, Paul Sunday, about the possibility of purchasing the land, he makes two things very clear. Firstly, he makes it clear that there is in fact an abundance of oil on the lot. Secondly, he makes it clear that there is virtually nothing else. The land is incapable of growing anything but weeds, and is used as nothing more than an animal farm. Vast stretches of land on the property go unused, due to the destitute nature of it’s soil. Other than the potential for quail hunting, the property has little to give it value. However, due to rampant industrialization, the oil which was previously virtually worthless, has now become a black gold mine. Over the course of a few short decades, Abel Sunday’s patch of land went from being nearly worthless, to incredibly valuable. Abel catches a fairly hefty sum from Daniel Plainview, and his life is surely better for it.

The movie “There Will Be Blood” is all about industrialization. More specifically about the oil business and how a certain individual’s life is consumed by this and industrialization as a whole. There is great money in oil plantations and people will go to no end to get what they want. Daniel Plainview is the “oilman” in this film and he is the example of what happened to some people during the times of  industrialization. Daniel is a miner at the beginning that comes across finding oil and a baby that he takes in since the father had died in an accident.  You find out that it wasn’t out of the goodness of his heart that he took the baby boy to only help himself succeed in the oil business. The truth comes out when his “son” H.W. goes deaf in an accident and Daniel just couldn’t deal with it and sent him away. By the end of the movie Daniel is shown as a very cruel heartless man who couldn’t care less about anyone else other than himself and making his money. This overwhelming obsession to  be rich took over this mans life and it just left him with nothing but misery.

Daniel Plainview is the personification of capitalism. His stubborn obsession for profit consume  and turn him into an oil-seeking devil willing to give up everything(including his adopted son) for the promise of wealth. Much like Heisenberg from Breaking Bad, Daniel is an antihero in the sense that his actions and personality lack traditional heroic values. Some may see him as the movie’s antagonist but I believe the true villain is Eli Sunday.

Daniel is forthcoming about his intentions of finding oil whilst Eli uses the cover of the Third Revelation church(religion) as a tool to manipulate the minds of the people. Eli is a “false prophet” and secretly chases after Daniel for oil money. The “milkshake scene” is the conclusion to a longstanding battle between capitalism and religion in this film. Daniel has the upper advantage in that he  has gained and lost everything he truly loved (including H.W) and  nothing is worth fighting for anymore. Eli, on the other hand, is a desperate snake in need of quick cash. Daniel lays out the cards flat on the table and tells Eli that capitalism and religion had nothing to do with the oil digging and it was the man who would seize the opportunity the quickest that would reap its benefits.

The milkshake mentioned in the scene that both men possess is a metaphor for the opportunity to amass wealth(in this case, the oil fields) and the straw that Daniel seems to be the sole owner of could refer to the effort one must make before he/she can gain that wealth. Eli’s milkshake did bring all the boys to the yard but it was Daniel who ended up drinking it all.

Scene chosen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHz-zZoBnbc

Daniel Plainview is a profit-oriented man who is obsessed with oil. He does not have any limits to reach his goals: finding oil and becoming rich.

In this scene, the industrialization is well illustrated by the images of the large amount of labor workers, the transportation, the technical arrangement around a natural resource which in this case is the oil. It is also recognizable with the way it is filmed; the first seconds, while D.P speaks, you see the emptiness of the land and then slowly you discover the oil industry and its organization. It is slowing emerging.
In Plainview’s speech to the Little Boston people, he stresses on the importance of family, and promises education, cultivation, agriculture and a new road to the Church.
Although, he appears loyal, wise and thoughtful, the truth is that he only tells them what they want to hear to gain land and make profit.
“I like to think myself as an oilman” He is a man of conquest and feels powerful to be part of this industrialization.

The history of industrialization is depicted as a social destruction. Indeed, throughout the film, the main character will loose his sense and he will be discovered as a man who pursues a life of wealthy solitude.