Reflecting on There Will Be Blood
How the opening scene and Daniel Plainview's Brother are the key to unlocking his character
A professor once remarked that certain films never beg for your attention. As movies and television attempt to adapt to the supposed loss of attention span of people, There Will Be Blood rises above as a film that demands attention instead of begging for it.
The opening sequence begins with only a title card explaining that it is 1898. For the next 15 minutes, no dialogue is uttered. The audience witnesses Daniel Plainview’s (Daniel Day Lewis) hunt for oil while almost dying himself.
While many could overlook Daniel Plainview’s name, Paul Thomas Anderson, the writer and director, chose a name that insinuates that this character is out there for us all to see. This being an homage to Stanley Kubrick calling the hotel in The Shining, the Overlook Hotel. Just as Kubrick tells the audience to not overlook anything, Anderson does the same telling the audience that his lead character is in Plain sight for us all to see.
While there are many themes and points Anderson is making such as late stage capitalism or greed, but one thing that drew my attention even further is Daniel Plainview’s hatred. While Plainview’s intention of building an oil empire is clear in that first scene, I believe that the opening scene revealed something deeper driving him. What Daniel truly wants is to escape any kind of vulnerability. The film never says why he fears any chance at true connection, but in a few scenes we garner clues as to why.
One of the most pivotal characters that reveals this intense desire being his “brother” character, Henry. While Plainview speaks to lots of people sharing stories to buy oil fields or gain people’s trust, Henry is the only one Daniel truly opens up to. In this short scene of revealing what lies inside of him, Daniel has a hatred that has built up inside of him making him want to take from every person he encounters.
While this film feels about as far away from me as possible, it does bring up something universal in what all consuming grief could look like. While this grief could have come from a family member dying or even the possible failures Daniel Plainview encountered in life, this film reminds the audience that hatred is a choice. From even in my own life after I’ve been wronged there is a gut reaction within me to let the hate simmer. Let it grow into something that motivates me to destroy other people.
While I was able to bring myself out of that with friendships and family, someone like Plainview chose isolation.
Isolation that bred a self reliance that never left him. The opening scene of Plainview falling nearly to his death then crawling his way to the nearest town reveals his iron will. It also reveals his own reluctance to have a true partner. From that point on he only brings an orphaned child with him, but never anyone he would see as an equal. One could surmise the real hatred built up the most in those times alone when he had nothing and no one to help him.
As Quentin Tarantino once said that there was a movie in the scene when Plainview drags himself to society with only one leg. I would argue that this is where Plainview’s true change occurred. His anger built up into hatred for others knowing he was the only one he could trust was then rewarded. From that point on, Daniel was only furthering his descent into the hatred that the viewer could only take as a warning and a safe exploration of what true hatred looks like.
