There Will Be Blood Post

There Will Be Blood

            I believe the movie There Will Be Blood includes the theme of revenge in it a lot. I think Plainview feels that he needs to get revenge at many times in the film. In the beginning he says this. “I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people.” So when Daniel is being baptized and having Eli slap him around and telling him what to do, it is very demeaning for him. He doesn't play into it at first and is just doing it to get it over with. But as Eli is making Daniel shout all these things in front of the whole congregation, Daniel realizes what he actually did to his son when he left him on that train. In order to get revenge from this and gain control again, at the end of the movie, when everything is different, Eli comes to talk to Daniel about a lease and getting money for another place that has oil. Daniel says that can happen but only if he admits that he “is a false prophet” and that “G-d is a superstition”. This is exactly what Daniel had to do earlier in the movie, so he is competing like he always does and needs to be right. To make matters worse, once Eli does this and admits all of that multiple times, Daniel tells him that the areas he wanted have already been drilled and he took all of the oil underneath that land. This is just one example of the revenge and the fact that Daniel always has to do what’s best for himself, even if it means hurting other people or even abandoning his own son when he is sick/injured.