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. I want to earn enough money that I can get away from everyone. … I see the worst in people. I don’t need to look past seeing them to get all I need. I’ve built my hatreds up over the years, little by little, … I can’t keep doing this on my own with these… people.
–Daniel Plainview, There Will Be Blood
Good movie. Not great.
I think the biggest failing is the lack of a competitor for the protagonist. I know the preacher/huckster was supposed to be the foil. What I don’t know is whether the actor or the character failed to make himself able to meet Plainview eyeball to eyeball. It is pretty tough for anyone to meet any of Daniel Day Lewis’s characters on the same level.
Wouldn’t this have been a hell of a film if the huckster was as full of oily power as the oilman?