Based on Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel Oil, the movie is a film about the growth and fall of an oil tycoon, set in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, during the golden age of the booming oilfield industry, where the protagonist, Daniel Plainview, was originally just an impoverished silver miner, who, through unremitting hard work and brutal means, gradually Through relentless hard work and brutal means, he gradually creates his own oil empire.
The film’s religious elements are striking, and the title itself carries strong religious overtones, derived from a line in the Bible – Exodus, which heralds the coming of sacrifice and redemption.
Through the conflict between the oil tycoon and the missionary, the movie shows the entanglement of interests between religion and capital, which is not only reflected in the competition for oil resources, but also in the different understandings of human nature, faith and morality.
In the film, religion symbolizes a potential path to spiritual redemption, but this redemption pales in the face of materialism and greed.
2007 / USA / Drama / Paul Thomas Anderson / Daniel Day-Lewis Barry Del Sherman
In 1898, silver miner Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis) breaks his leg in an underground accident, but he is blessed with secret oil information.
He uses his adopted orphan, HW (Dillon Freasier), to trick the townspeople into winning oil land, and soars to great heights.
However, he is not happy being an oil tycoon. After an accident in which H.W tragically loses his hearing, HW’s resentment towards him grows, and the only brother he recognizes as his own is actually an impostor.
Preacher Eli Sandy is nothing more than a villain who lends his religion to demagoguery.
In a mining accident, Daniel’s workers are tragically killed.
When he expects Eli (Paul Dano) to help, the other man humiliates him, and the two men begin to fight each other ever since ……
