Religion and Capitalism in *There Will Be Blood*

I watched There Will Be Blood for the first time last night. I was blown away. Aside from the incredible direction, acting, music, and cinematography, I was most struck by the portrayal of competition between religion and capitalism. American history is dominated by the interplay of these two forces; Manifest Destiny and robber barons defined American ideology for decades, even to this very day. I am still digesting this masterpiece, does anyone have thoughts about these themes?

God that piece of shit was so boring.

Eli Sunday was a punk ass bitch.

if you found it boring you're objectively dumb as a bag of hammers

It's dad-core. Not even close to a masterpiece.

Ignore these faggots.
It was pretty close to being a fucking masterpiece.

Well worth the watch, but is overrated.

your a dorable

I like Daniel Day-Lewis.

Sup Forums isn't where you hash-out your undergrad film review theses OP.

Undergrad film review theses are better than retarded memes and dozens of capeshit threads.

DRAINAGE

>>>r/true film

Liked it, the music was a bit too much/annoying sometimes, too much stimulus for me since I am autistic

Really love this film too OP.

I feel like capitalism and religion are definitely present themes in the film but when I watch it I see it mostly as a character study of Daniel. Capitalism and religion relate to Daniel and Eli respectively but I wouldn't say it completely defines their characters.

Daniel involves himself in capitalism very heavily because, he's a man of high ambition who's worked hard for everything he has.

He hates Eli because he's never worked for anything he has and leaches off of others. He tries to use Paul's oil discovery and Daniel's oil drilling for his own gain, and can use religion as a shield from accusations of selfishness, because he can say that it's the will of God and not just himself.

Just my thoughts user.

You were struck by something that is so blatantly obvious even Helen Keller could understand.

>Daniel involves himself in capitalism very heavily because, he's a man of high ambition who's worked hard for everything he has.

It's only partially through. Yes, he is ambitious, so ambitious that he doesn't stop no matter. Which includes lying, adopting someone else's kid just because it makes his business deals easier. Not to mention that he's a killer.

He is also definitely partially a leach. He leaches off the people that own the lands, he manipulates them, he lies to them, he makes them promises about building schools and shit.

Daniel hates Eli because he sees lots of himself in him. They're both charlatans, one does it with business and one with religion.

This.

The only difference being when things go wrong for the religious... they blame who, exactly? They have no one to blame. They cry out to god even harder. Where as, when Planview's "customers" don't get what they wished for, they blame him.
He is their god and he most certainly has a face. He can feel the consequences of his fuck ups where as Eli can shift the blame away elsewhere to the man in the sky.

Why did Daniel bother to force the Sunday father to stop abusing the little Sunday daughter?

Just a power play to crush the Sunday family more?

Because H.W. liked her?

It is also the unofficial biography of John Davison Rockefeller Sr. & Scrooge McDuck live action

Could be many reasons. I thought it was random when I watched that part t b h

To show that he hates injustice and is a good guy,
or that he is a hypocrite, as he essentially "hits" those who can't defend themselves all the time (and gets paid for it)

Kind of both I reckon. As a shrewd business man he'd want to keep the Sundays in line. I think because H.W. showed a fondness towards her was a part of his reasoning as well. Even though he probably only adopted Eli initially as a cynical business move, I feel like he developed a genuine care towards him.

Lol what a pleb

I think he developed a true fondness for H.W. too

>tfw Daniel crumples in grief after attacking H.W. at the end

Deep down he probably knew he'd been a poor father and subconsciously his whole "Bastard from a basket" monologue was, because he knew H.W. would be better off without him.