What exactly drove him as a character? In his "I hate most people" monologue he claims that he desires wealth to indulge in his misanthropy without consequence, but that doesn't seem to be true.
At the end of the film, when he is alone and extremely wealth, he seems to be at his lowest point in terms of personal fulfillment and sanity. So what did he actually want?
I don't know, the third act of the film is unwatchable.
He just wants to drink your milkshake.
Why?
edgy nihilism mostly but the characters don't really make much sense anyway. I agree with this and I even liked the first 2/3rds
He doesn't really know what he wants, and realises when he has everything that he actually has nothing.
I WONDER IF THIS COULD BE A COMMENT ON AMERICAN MATERIALISM AND THE PURSUIT OF WEALTH AS AN END IN ITSELF, MMMM
I think he was just crazy
Just because a character says something doesn't mean it's really true, just like real life
He was clearly the happiest when he was alone with his adopted son when he was a boy, and that seemed to be the only thing giving him relief.
He liked the innocence and the purity of the boy it seemed, and in the final act he demonstrates how he loathes how the son grew up to be something vastly different from what he was -- completely loyal and compliant in every way.
So I guess all he wanted was power and wealth, but never realizing it on a conscious level that what gave him the most joy was raising the boy. I think he felt embittered in the end because he never started a family. I think he may have been sterile.
Do you think this was really his brother?
bump
He outright told him he wasn't.
so you're saying you don't think he was his brother?
of course not, ((((Beni)))) can't hide from nobody.
He wanted power and control over his own destiny. To do this he started his own company and controlled all aspects of it, including using his adopted son as a prop. He resented being cucked by Eli at the church. He wasn't upset that he was forced to admit he abandoned his son, he was upset that someone else not only had power over him, but was forcing him to submit to the highest power of all (God). At the end of the movie he has essentially achieved the peak of his power and is miserable because theres nothing left for him to gain that he doesn't already have or control... except for revenge on Eli, who just happens to waltz in his door. He revels in his last chance to demonstrate his control and power with the milkshake speech and bashing in Eli's skull. He says "I'm finished." at the very end because he has fulfilled his entire purpose in life and no other action will amount to anything.
I thought it was more left more ambiguous than that? Didn't he find a letter on his body afterwards that indicated he might be, making Daniel cry?
I agree with you for the most part, but I disagree that he was only upset that someone else had power over him in the church, I think he was upset because he was being forced to reveal his true emotions in himself, to himself.
It's obvious that he wasn't just some robotic psychopath who only wanted money and power -- I think to him it was an escape to cope with the fact that he was sterile and incapable of producing his own offspring. He cares a great deal about family (as demonstrated when he basically immediately made his brother he didn't even know his new business partner, kicking his old partner of many years to the side.)
In the end, he's left with all he wanted on the surface level of his psyche, but left with nothing of what he really wanted, which is a family.
I think he just was a robotic psychopath, desu. I don't see any evidence to the contrary in the movie
>He cares a great deal about family (as demonstrated when he basically immediately made his brother he didn't even know his new business partner, kicking his old partner of many years to the side.)
Address this then.
I agree that he was upset about revealing his emotions, although I'm divided on whether or not he was a psychopath. His entire relationship with his son, the killing of Henry and the killing of Eli shows that he is far detached from human decency and normality. I feel like any instance of him show any sort of human emotion or feeling was him acting just decent enough to not be outright gunned down by his own workers or thrown in jail. It was all an act.
Yeah Plainview definitely resented Eli for making him admit his wrong doings. I don't believe it was because he felt guilty, we see at the end that he hates his son. I think it bothered him to be forced to submit to Eli, as they have this constant tug of war for power in the town.
>like any instance of him show any sort of human emotion or feeling was him acting
You´re wrong, because after his son leaves his office in the final act, he has a flasback of the past when he was raising the boy, and genuinely being happy. The flashback reveals that he feels regret, and thus proving he isn't as cold as he appears on the surface.
he was impotent
this was spelled out in the original script but is only implied in the movie.
Good point. Perhaps he felt obligated to do it>
>82175602
Psychopaths can be impotent too
the impotence is the driving force for the psychopathy
he can't be intimate with women so it makes him a misanthrope driven to overcompensate by amassing wealth and power...all so he can swing his figurative dick around
his only genuine moments of happiness are with his "son," because that tragedy is the only way he'll have a family legacy, and when henry comes into his life.
which is also why he goes apeshit when he learns Henry isn't his brother and that H.W. wants to open his own business. those are the only two moments in his adult life where he's let down his armor and feels ultimate betrayal for it
fwiw PTA didn't want to give the character explicit motivation in the movie so the audience would have to fill in the blank themselves
You're close, but he's not impotent, just sterile.
It's verified in the church slapping scene when Eli is reprimanding him for having slept with a lot of women.
i thought eli was complaining about Planview's crew going around being lecherous drunks, not Daniel himself
Money, and with money comes power and control. He wanted to control his own destiny, but he had to secure the financial means to do it.
???
He was crying because he lost the only man he could connect with, he believed in that guy, just to be scummed. The letter was his actual brother's letter taken after he died.
Fpwp
He had an unbelievable drive for wealth and crushing those that stood in his way.
It's just boring and feels off the initial point of the movie.
I am a false meme, dubs are a superstition