I drink your milkshake!
[SLURPING] I drink it up!
Don't bully me, Daniel!
This is There Will Be Blood, the Oscar winning 2007 film that
cemented Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day-Lewis as one
of the greatest pairings of actor and director
in the history of movies.
This pivotal scene is the perfect example
of what makes this slow burn story such an epic tale.
And it reaches its climax in a truly gruesome display
of cruelty and inhumanity.
Daniel Plainview transforms into a monster
fueled by pure ego and rage.
It's a cinematic masterclass in instilling fear in an audience,
but would it have worked if Plainview
was played by anyone other than Daniel Day-Lewis?
Before we get started, be sure to like
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There Will Be Blood is a loose adaptation
of the Upton Sinclair novel Oil, which
is a third person investigative narrative centering
on the fallout and background of the Harding administration's
Teapot Dome Scandal.
Paul Thomas Anderson, the writer and director
behind projects like Boogie Nights, Magnolia,
and Punch Drunk Love was living in England
when he found the book at an antique bookshop.
Feeling nostalgic for California,
he began reading about the state's history and the widely
cutthroat days of oil magnates.
Anderson became obsessed with the idea
of making a film set in this era.
As he developed the story and began writing in earnest,
the story evolved and shifted.
He eventually retitled it There Will Be Blood.
As he wrote, the only actor he could imagine pulling off
the main character was the Oscar award winning method performer
Daniel Day-Lewis.
I've abandoned my child.
Say it louder.
Say it louder!
I've abandoned my child!
I've abandoned my boy!
Despite having never met him, Anderson
attempted to tailor the part to Day-Lewis specifically.
At the climax of the film, Paul Dano's Eli
comes to visit Daniel Plainview to ask him for help.
Up until this point, the whole film
had been push and pull between Eli,
who had been using his position in the church
to accomplish his goals and Plainview,
a ruthless capitalist hell bent on extracting as much money
from the land Eli and his family had lived on for generations.
Eli has fallen on hard times and wants to finally sell Plainview
his land.
Only Daniel Plainview is one step ahead of him.
He's been drilling the oil out of all the surrounding areas
and siphoning out everything of value.
He purposely left Eli's land dead and useless.
The scene first starts out with Plainview coolly
and calmly explaining these things to Eli.
The joy and delight in his eyes is apparent.
He relishes emotionally destroying Eli.
The scene is subtle, and it has reversals and layers that
are not immediately apparent, and that's what
truly makes it so terrifying.
I am the third revelation!
I told you I would eat you!
We're family!
The performance Day-Lewis gives is like watching someone walk
into quicksand.
You know what's going to happen and you spend the entire time
hoping that they'll be able to escape,
but you know they won't.
Day-Lewis stated that his only goal with Plainview
was an honest examination of a life.
This agnosticism surrounding the objective atrocities
that he commits in the film is why his performance
is so disturbing.
You feel a dispassionate removal of moral hierarchy
from his actions.
When analyzing the scene, you can see just
how in tune the two performers are.
They're genuinely experiencing this moment together.
Paul Dano's movements through denial, anger, disbelief,
and then a groveling acceptance and pleading for his life
serve as the backbone to the scene.
Without his amazingly understated and vital rhythms--
I am a false prophet!
God is a superstition!
--you don't get Day-Lewis' operatic evil having
a genuine sense of reality.
That land has been had.
Nothing you can do about it.
It's gone.
It's had.
If you would just--
You lose.
--take this please, Daniel.
Drainage!
Drainage, Eli!
The fact that the scene quickly escalates to Plainview hurling
insults to outright bullying to a full on attacking Eli
could read as campy or over the top in a less skilled actor's
hands.
But Day-Lewis is in complete control of the scene,
and the audience feels terror and exhilaration simultaneously
as he revels in bullying Eli.
Watching the scene is an experience all by itself.
It steadily builds until Daniel Plainview begins
hurling bowling balls at Eli.
One of the balls hits a bucket of mop water,
acting as an exclamation mark on the scene.
And it all climaxes in Plainview grabbing a bowling pin
and then brutally murdering Eli.
It truly is unthinkable that anyone else
could bring Plainview's animalistic intensity to life.
It makes complete sense that Anderson
was obsessed with the idea of Day-Lewis
playing the collegiate and coiled businessman.
Surprisingly, the co-creation of Daniel Plainview
did not have much back and forth collaboration
between the writer and director.
Anderson was squirreled away writing, breathing life
into the long forgotten world of the early days of the oil rush.
Day-Lewis was consumed with the idea
of lending an air of verisimilitude
to this objectively operatic and larger than life character.
Contrary to what you might have assumed,
much of the character development for Plainview
was actually done by Day-Lewis by himself.
He would call Anderson, ask a few questions,
and then hang up.
Their discussions were relatively brief,
with Anderson giving Day-Lewis full control of the idea
of Daniel Plainview.
When asked about this process, Anderson
said, "as far as I'm concerned, I
didn't need to give him anything more than he wanted to know."
That's not to say that Anderson wasn't involved at all.
Obviously his writing was essential to birthing
this character.
He had three sources of inspiration initially.
Count Dracula was the first analog
that Anderson thought about.
And when looking at the finished movie,
you can really feel that.
The fact that Plainview is introduced
shrouded completely by darkness, how
he's literally and metaphorically insatiable,
constantly trying to suck the blood out
of the land and people around him.
When asked about it, Anderson said
I just had it in my head underneath it
all that we were making a horror movie.
Maybe we go to horror movies because we
want to see something horrible happen in the same way
we might get excited to look at a car crash.
In some ways, Plainview's story is a bit like a car crash.
One that keeps just getting worse.
The second component that made Plainview
was J. Arnold Ross, the original character from Sinclair's book
Oil.
He and his son discover oil while hunting,
and we follow them as they become embroiled deeper
and deeper into the oil world.
There Will Be Blood was adapted from roughly only
the initial 150 pages of the book and loosely at that.
But still, J. Arnold Ross and his son Bunny
serve as the sketched out archetypes of Daniel and H.W.
The third and arguably largest influence
on Anderson's conception of Plainview
was the real life big oil magnate Edward Doheny.
Much of Plainview's in film biography and exploits
were based on this man.
In fact, the final scene of the movie
was filmed in Doheny's former mansion.
The animalistic ferocity and energy
that Day-Lewis displays in the climactic scene
is in stark contrast to the rest of the film.
Plainview is a character that is defined
by his calculating mind, staunch dedication,
and unwavering determination.
The film itself is a slow burn rumination
on how far humanity will go to get what it wants.
And this scene is the climax of that.
Plainview harbors a myriad of emotions for Eli.
Resentment, anger, and pity, all of which
glow through him in this scene.
The scene is intimate yet simultaneously explosive,
which is what really drives home how horrifying Plainview is.
The whole movie, you've been waiting for him
to reach his breaking point.
Day-Lewis plays him as a man who's simultaneously barely
in control of himself and constantly manipulating
everyone around him.
The audience has been waiting for him
to lose control for the entirety of the 158 minute runtime.
And when he does, it doesn't disappoint.
It catapults the film into having
one of the most memorable scenes in movie history.
Ultimately, There Will Be Blood is a perfect example of what
happens when a director and an actor
join forces to create a perfect terrifying performance,
from the cold shark like behavior patterns of Daniel
Plainview that were established by Anderson to his deeply
human motivations and broken soul
that Day-Lewis so beautifully embodied.
Both of these aspects of the persona,
we watch in the film dovetail into an amazingly
complex and cutthroat character that
left audiences around the globe enraptured and frightened
to the bone.
Daniel Plainview is so scary because we
inherently understand his level of commitment and drive
to achieve.
He's ostensibly weaponized capitalism.
He's the face of pure ambition.
His mind is constantly scheming the demise of those around him.
Part of it is words on the page, yes, but most of it
is Day-Lewis' performance.
It's his body language, the angularity of his posture,
it's in his vocal delivery, and in his trademark hat.
There are some movies where the star is obviously
in the picture as a means of furthering their brand
or portraying a character in the hopes of finally getting
that big award show nod.
And while There Will Be Blood was critically very
well received and went home with nominations
for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor,
nothing about this film feels calculated in order
to make an awards run, which is probably
why Day-Lewis ultimately went home with the Best Actor win.
It feels like both Anderson and Day-Lewis
were trying to create the most honest depiction
of the character Daniel Plainview possible,
no matter how horrifying the revelations they uncovered
truly were.
I'm finished.
Well, that's it for this episode.
What do you think?
Is Daniel Plainview Daniel Day-Lewis' most iconic role?
Were you frightened by the final scene of the film
when you first watched it?
Let us know your thoughts down below, and as always, please
like and subscribe for more videos like this.