The Significance of There Will Be Blood in 2020

"I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people. There are times when I look at people and I see nothing worth liking." - There Will Be Blood (2007) dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

As the strings swell, Daniel Plainview is born from the earth. He crawls, gasping for air and nursing a badly broken leg. The camera pans upwards, showing a vast landscape of mountains. This is his empire of dirt.

There Will be Blood is a cinematic masterpiece. It's a complex interwoven tale of a lifetime of loathing, lust for power, and manipulation. The speech Daniel Plainview gives about the innate competition he has within himself (which drives him to hate all others and long to live alone with his success) is the thesis statement for the film. Plainview is a cartoonish caricature of a rich man fleshed out into a real breathing, bleeding, living human being in the same way that Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg are also real breathing, bleeding, living human beings.

Eli Sunday is Plainview's foil, a reflection of the oilman which is both the same yet different. Religion is his business of choice, and rather than avoiding people he opts to thrive amongst them. With his thin smile and baby face he offers them the gift of the blood of the lamb, all the while striking down his own family should they choose to stand in his way. His trust of people is what sets himself and Daniel apart, and ultimately it's what leads to his demise. The deceiver is deceived after years of playing games of cat and mouse with a businessman who's been winning from the very beginning.

H.W. is the face of the disabled. He is among the downtrodden who capitalism crushes (or holds up long enough to throw back down). As an orphan who ends up deaf after a workplace accident Plainview's love for him extends as far as his usefulness. There are instances of softness between the pair as profit rolls in. Plainview finds himself showing paternal vulnerability around the boy. He tousles his adopted son’s hair, laughs, roughhouses with him, and even shows concern when he discovers young Mary is being subjected to abuse.

“No more hitting,” says Plainview, holding a horrified Mary in place in front of her family one evening. Her father watches, humiliated. This act is no different from corporations plastering Black Lives Matter onto Facebook advertisements or releasing limited edition items decorated in rainbows for Pride. This is pandering for the sake of pandering: it's a false act of kindness which stems from a callous and deliberate marketing move. Plainview cares little for Mary’s wellbeing, but he cares a great deal for controlling her father.

Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance is the driving force of the film in a way that no other performance has driven a film since. He is a moustache-twirling cartoon drawing of a villain and his delivery of some lines is comedic to the point of being meme’d time and time again. Day-Lewis elevates this 2007 historical drama into something familiar to the world we know today.

In today’s political climate it’s hard not to note the relevancy of There Will Be Blood. America is overrun with moustache-twirling cartoon villains who are willing to do anything to add another penny to their hoard. Empires are still built on oil and thrive from the cheap labor of the underprivileged members of society. Desperately, the orphans of the world scramble for the next low-paying job they can cling to. The Daniel Plainviews and Eli Sundays of the world watch and laugh from the sidelines.

We all deserve better than this.