Paul Thomas Anderson's towering epic is commanded almost completely by Daniel Day-Lewis, whose performance as cantankerous, misanthropic oil baron Daniel Plainview stands as one of the greatest ever committed to film. Somewhat ironically, despite the movie's title promising a bloodbath, there's very little of the red stuff throughout the movie, at least up until the concluding section set in 1927, in which an aged Plainview is a filthy rich but lonesome alcoholic. After shooing away his own adopted son, he's visited by Paul Dano's loathsome preacher Eli Sunday, who wants to broker a deal. Plainview toys with Sunday, getting him to declare "I am a false prophet; God is a superstition" numerous times before rubbishing his deal and shouting various phrases at him (most famously, "I...drink...your...milkshake. I drink it up!"). Eventually, Plainview smashes Eli's head in with a bowling pin, and this wakes up his live-in butler, who comes down to check on Daniel to find him sitting in the bowling alley, next to Eli's corpse, before declaring, "I'm finished" as the movie ends. Eli's death serves as a final, brutal exclamation point on Plainview's journey throughout the movie.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
