There are some men whose evil is for a long time untapped, hidden and lurking, but at some point will gush to the surface.  Unfortunately there will be people who will be the recipients of this untapped evil and nothing can prevail to prevent the inevitable. 

       To play a flawed, extremely complex character, you need an actor with great perception for the intricacies of the role.  You need an actor of the stature of Daniel Day Lewis.  One thing that struck me, was that had played a similar type of character in the "Gangs of new York" but here he has the tones and looks of an older man, whose mind has been twisted and warped and ground down so that all he can feel is hatred for lesser mortals. When we first see Lewis, he is alone and is the victim of an accident in a maladroitly built mine. 

       The film opens with a long period without any dialogue, perhaps we are being drawn into the terrain and the ambience is being created through silence and images. This the turn of the century and the oil industry is in its infancy.  Mining is a perilous line of work, accidents are aplenty.  A terrible accident befalls him and perhaps this infuses his relentless competitiveness to succeed.  At first he is seen as an affable, caring businessman with a gruff but soothing voice.  Who would, we might imagine, strike honourable deals. Daniel Plainview adopts the son of a worker killed in a mine accident and uses him as a kind of "marketing tool" for when he talks to people of family values. There are missing elements in his life, which we are blind to, was a wife featured in his life? Perhaps these are the elements that lie behind this welling up of anger? Whenever probed on such matters, he just clams up. Equally, any criticism on the way he brings up his son, is met with ferocious angry retorts.

       His business grows, and then a young man arrives Paul Sunday (Paul Dano), telling him of land where oil is boundless on his family estate.  After some haggling, the young man reveals where this oil rich land is. He arrives with his adopted son using the guise of being quail hunters.  Plainview then attempts to buy the property without telling Paul's father, Abel (David Willis), of the oil, but Paul's twin brother, Eli (also Paul Dano), knows of the oil and raises the price to $10,000, which  he designates to fund his own church. Plainview pays him $5,000 up front and promises the other $5,000 as a donation to the Church, the bizarrely named church of the "Third Revelation."  An unlikely and unequal relationship grows  between the church man  and the oil industry man, with Plainview, always  in the ascendancy.

       Suddenly there is an almost divine retribution, as a huge quantity of oil is released skyward, but as a consequence of the blast, Plainview’s adopted son loses his hearing.  The music that accompanies the most dramatic scenes really enhances the dark atmosphere. Jonny Greenwood, a member of the British group Radiohead, was responsible for such a notable and powerful soundtrack. Now Plainview cannot control or order around his son in the way he previously could. Perhaps this sorrow is taken out on the "faith healer"  the baby faced Eli, who he attacks and just about stops short of murdering. When pitting the strong personality against the weak, there is no match, no contest.   I recalled scenes in the "Clockwork Orange," when the main character savagely attacks a down and out, and a similar mirrored scene in "American Psycho," when the main character also picks on a hobo and releases all his pent up anger and frustration. This is the embodiment of an archetypal bully picking on easy prey.  Plainview’s ultimate pleasure seems to be to humiliate, and tread on Eli and  he has no self control over this. Oil and wealth only seems to darken the soul of Plainview and we have to ask, what ultimately are its rewards.

       He eventually buys himself a large house, with sources of amusement, like a ten pin bowling alley, but it is empty, there is nobody for him to play with and indulge in these trinkets of wealth, and it is a house devoid of life. Finally, Plainview is found sleeping on the floor, he is a miserable drunk, a broken man, who has no self respect or limits to his actions. His house is certainly devoid of love and companionship.  When it comes to setting up business deals and all elements to do with the oil industry Plainview is a professional, sharp and clinical, wily and fiercely astute, but in matters of the heart, he is crippled and painfully flawed.  This is not to say he is totally charmless, because sometimes his behaviour though eccentric, can be witty and amusing.

       It is amazing the lengths people will go to extract this black foul pungent smelling dense liquid, risking their lives. At least the end products of gold and silver can be beautiful. In a way this foul liquid has in directly caused wars and conflicts and deaths and which threatens our environment and the future of future children. It has made many rich, but maybe like Plainview it has darkened their souls; they are distanced from their fellow human beings, filled with mistrust, and possess a gluttonous urge for more wealth.  It can corrupt anybody and even tarnish and discredit people purporting to be religious men as in Eli, the insipid  charlatan, always overtly acting,  to people easily taken in, peddling  religion, easy for the gullible and simple folks  to be mesmerized,  but less so for the pragmatic more knowing like Plainview.

       It is plain Eli is blinded by prospects of riches. It begs the question can religion and in  more recent times capitalistic institution of the oil industry live side by side or will mans lust for money prove overbearing and morality and goodness corrupted.  This film is unrestrained in showing the ugliest side of human nature, its message is undiluted and harsh.  It is also a very powerful film visually, showing the power of nature and its inherent dangers.  It seems to have early biblical parallels. It is essentially a parable about life.  It is well crafted and imaginative, well conceived by director Paul Thomas Anderson.

       The film is lead by an imperious actor Daniel Day Lewis and its atmosphere underpinned by a haunting sound track. Was the birth of the oil industry the beginning of the end of the environment and ultimately the end of the world?  More is the pity we are all dependant on this dark liquid destroyer.