Daniel Plainview In Upton Sinclair's There Will Be Blood

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There Will Be Blood is a must see film. Based on Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel Oil, this 2007 film, directed and written by Paul Thomas Anderson, tells the story of a greedy and brutal oilman by the name of Daniel Plainview (portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis) and his battle against the “Third Revelation”, Eli Sunday (portrayed by Paul Dano). From the clothing, the lack of roles provided for women, to no African Americans being in the film, this drama is set mostly in the time period of 1911 in California, but flips to 1927 when Daniel gets his revenge. Before we get into that, you must know how it all started. In 1898, Daniel Plainview discovers oil near Los Angeles, California where he establishes a small drilling company. During an accident, one of his workers is killed and he becomes the adoptive parent of H.W. In 1911, a man named Paul Sunday approaches Daniel and tells him of an oil deposit that …show more content…

In fact, Paul Thomas Anderson created the role of Daniel specifically for him. You simply could not make anyone else play Daniel, it would not be the same. He puts a lot of passion into this film. His character is characterized as very indirect. You can tell what kind of character Daniel Plainview is simply from his actions and his speech. He speaks down to people, showing his authority and power over people and he lies to people, showing that he will do anything to get his way. He is a very static character. He's a competitive psychopath who has little feelings towards other people. It shows throughout the entire film and it doesn't change from the start of the film, all the way to the end of the film. When his son H.W. tells him that he is moving away to open his own oil company, Daniel is very blatant with him, telling him that he is no longer his son, but his competitor. He also harshly admits that H.W. is not his biological son and that he is nothing and will never be anything like

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