Lyrics
She came from Providence,
the one in Rhode Island
Where the old world shadows hang
heavy in the air
She packed her hopes and dreams
like a refugee
Just as her father came across the sea
She heard about a place people were smilin'
They spoke about the red man's way,
and how they loved the land
And they came from everywhere
to the Great Divide
Seeking a place to stand
or a place to hide
Down in the crowded bars,
out for a good time,
Can't wait to tell you all,
what it's like up there
And they called it paradise
I don't know why
Somebody laid the mountains low
while the town got high
Then the chilly winds blew down
Across the desert
through the canyons of the coast, to
the Malibu
Where the pretty people play,
hungry for power
to light their neon way
and give them things to do
Some rich men came and raped the land,
Nobody caught 'em
Put up a bunch of ugly boxes, and Jesus,
people bought 'em
And they called it paradise
The place to be
They watched the hazy sun, sinking in the sea
You can leave it all behind
and sail to Lahaina
just like the missionaries did, so many years ago
They even brought a neon sign: "Jesus is coming"
Brought the white man's burden down
Brought the white man's reign
Who will provide the grand design?
What is yours and what is mine?
'Cause there is no more new frontier
We have got to make it here
We satisfy our endless needs and
justify our bloody deeds,
in the name of destiny and the name
of God
And you can see them there,
On Sunday morning
They stand up and sing about
what it's like up there
They call it paradise
I don't know why
You call someplace paradise,
kiss it goodbye
While this certainly is not a bad song, The Eagles have never made a song even remotely as good as Hotel California. Still it is undeniable that they are very intelligent. Many bands write songs critical of society. But they are aren't usually this intelligent and serious. You get the feeling that the Eagles really know what they are talking and that they really care about it. According to Eagle member, Don Henley this is a song criticizing America's decadence. It was fairly tough to link a movie to this song. While there is lots of symbolism in the lyrics, the song takes a very clear, unironic critical look at American society. There aren't many (American) cultural objects that do this. It may be surprising that in the end I chose a very recent movie. But it is a movie about American entrepreneurs buying land in order to create civilization. It is also a movie about the often damaging influence of God on American society. And lastly it is a movie that in the end claims that decadence will eventually ruin the even the richest and most powerful men. It is also one of the best movies of this century.
The Movie: There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)
I am a fan of Paul Thomas Anderson. Boogie Nights is one of my favorite films. That film cares so much about its, sometime, tragic and flawed characters, while at the same time being one of the most joyous and energetic films I've ever seen. It is obvious that everyone working on that film gave his absolute best effort and had a lot of fun doing it. There Will Be Blood is no Boogie Nights, but it is a flawless, great film. I would say it is the best film of the 21st century after Inglourious Basterds, 25th Hour and A Serious Man. Now that I am listing films I'd say Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is the no. 5.
One of Anderson's main interests seems to be working class people. He deeply cares about people who do not necessarily have great jobs or great lives, but try to live the best life they possibly can. They may have no great luck or great minds, but they do their best. This was true for the porn people in Boogie Nights, more specifically it was true for the Don Cheadle character whose lifelong dream is to sell radios. Porn may not be an honorable business, but it's work. And these people are good at what they are doing. It provides a living for them and their families. The same was also true for everybody, but especially for the cop and nurse in Magnolia. And it is very true for Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood. The film starts audaciously with 15-20 minutes without dialogue. We just see Daniel, and other workers, working hard, digging for oil in California. This is not just a gimmick, but it is important for the rest of the film. It establishes right away that Daniel is a tough man, willing to do hard, dangerous work. One of his colleagues even dies. It also makes understand better why, when he later on in the film becomes rich, he is a bit arrogant and doesn't have much patience with many people. Nobody has to work as hard, as he had to do at the beginning of the film. It's quite understandable that he doesn't have much use for complaints.
After this sequence we cut to 5 years later, with Daniel being a relatively successful oilman. He is helped in this by the son of Daniel's dead colleague. After his colleague died Daniel adopted his orphaned son and now uses him as a prop to make oil deals. He establishes trust by pretending to be a family man. This is obviously not very nice to do. But in most reviews I've read about this film, it was basically a given that Daniel Plainview is an evil man. I remember, since this film came out at the same time as No Country for Old Men, there were lots of fun and serious articles comparing Daniel to Javier Bardem's Anton Chigurh. When I first watched this film I was utterly surprised by this. Now that I've seen it a second time, I am even more surprised. I even think that Daniel Plainview is a very good person, who is unfortunately driven to do some evil stuff. To explain this means that most of my review will be about Daniel Plainview.
It is true that Plainview uses his son, H.W., to gain the trust of the people. But he does not lie. When he tells them that they run a family business it is quite true. He treats his son as if he is his real son. Even though, admittedly, Daniel doesn't tell H.W. that he is not his real son He always explains to his son what and why they are doing and his son does really helps him a lot. And it's quite obvious that Plainview loves him, even though he is not technically his. And the son obviously loves what he is doing and he loves his dad. He surely has a better life now then if Daniel left him alone. It is quite obvious that for H.W., this the best and perhaps only chance at a good life once his father has died.
In the middle of the film Daniel is greeted by Henry, a man who claims to be his 'brother from another mother.' This eventually turns out to be a lie, with horrific consequences. In his conversations with his 'brother' it becomes pretty obvious that Plainview does miss his family, but he comes from a poor upbringing so he can't go back there. Certainly not now he finally has a better life, after working so hard. He does care deeply about his brother though. So despite the fact that Henry has a criminal, vague history, Daniel not only offers him a job, but Henry basically becomes Daniel's assistant and confidant. When it turns out that Henry is a complete fraud and that he is impersonating Daniel's real now dead brother, Daniel kills him. This is bad, but we understand Daniel's fury. This revelation comes at an especially bad time, since H.W. has just been sent away to the big city to learn sign language. In an unfortunate accident involving the oil rig, H.W. has gone deaf.
During one of Daniel's conversations with Henry, Daniel confides to him that he hates people. In many reviews this was seen as an example of Daniel's evilness. But he is drunk when he says this. Besides actions speak louder than words. Through Daniel's actions in this film it is clear that Daniel cares a lot for people. He just doesn't have much patience for irrationality, blind faith, laziness and dishonesty. And there is a lot of that in this town. Worst of all is Eli, a priest who preaches a lot of irrational, potentially dangerous nonsense. He might not even believe it himself, but his followers eat it up. Daniel's workers meanwhile work less hard then he ever did. Yet some of them feel exploited and most hope God will one day save them from their troubles. But they are a lot better off with Daniel then without him. Sure Plainview doesn't work himself in the rigs and he earns most of the money. But his workers have better conditions then he ever had. And yes, these better conditions aren't all there because Plainview loves them so much, but because they are good for business. Plainview never pretended otherwise. Many movies have been made about brave people who stand up for the rights of those who are fragile. Well, this is not about such a man and most people at the beginning of the 20th century simply weren't like that anyway. For Plainview, like for most people back then, that is a luxury he can't afford. Besides no one cared for him when he worked his ass off and he never complained. He tries to do the best he can for him and the people he loves. And he does it all in a legal manner. Most of us would do the same.
At the end of the film we cut to 1929. Plainview lives in a big royal house. H.W. now older says that he wants to start as an oilmen for himself in Mexico. This makes him Daniels' competitor. This enrages Daniel of course, but we can understand both people's reactions. The enraged Daniel asks H.W. to say it to him with his own mouth and not via his translator. H.W. does this with a lot of effort and this does enrage Daniel even more and tells H.W. he is really a bastard son. In the next scene Eli comes to Daniel and asks him for money. In a scene completely over the top where Daniel seems to be completely mad he kills Eli. Again we can understand his madness. First of all, it is 1929. Eli says he's lost a lot of money. Well it's very probable that Daniel has lost quite a lot of money. Earlier in the film we saw that he is willing to take risks if that's good for business. He probably still does that and taking risks in 1929 was not very rewarding to say the least. Plainview might have lost a lot of his fortune. For a man who had to work so hard to earn his money that is a real tragedy. But that's obviously not all. Plainview's son, whom he learned everything he knows about being an oilman, is gonna start his own business, with money probably earned by Daniel and thus become his rival. What's more the first time in years H.W. has said something aloud, it was that he is gonna leave Daniel. Surely it must hurt him that his son only know put in an effort to do this. This after everything Daniel tried to make him speak again. On top of all this Eli comes to him to lend money from Daniel, while hypocritically posing as his friend.
Of course one can't end a post of There Will Be Blood without mentioning Daniel Day-Lewis who does indeed give a truly great performance. It's not one of the best ever however. He basically gives the same sort of performance as he did in Gangs of New York as Bill the Butcher. Of course that was a great performance too. What is more surprising in this movie is that Paul Dano as Eli acts great too.
There is obviously much more to write about this movie. Perhaps I'll do it in sometime in another post. For now I really wanted to concentrate on defending Daniel Plainview. I truly believe that to call him an evil man or a monster, is completely shortsighted, unfair and very unemphatic.
