1. There Will Be Blood
This is a tricky one. By the end of this masterpiece, Daniel Plainview
(SPOILER) has fallen into misery, alcoholism and isolation. He has also amassed tremendous wealth. So the moral of the story is that money doesn't buy you happiness. But I don't think it's as black and white as all that. Before he loses himself, Plainview is able to build up his business from nothing. He begins his journey lying, broken almost, at the bottom of an oil well. He ends it still lying, finished, on the floor of a bowling alley in his mansion. In between these shots he has lived the American dream and it has destroyed him. This is a film about the power of the capitalist ideal, so potent in turn of the century America. It's an all consuming ambition that can chew you up and spit you out. Plainview rises to the top, yet it is his own bitterness that eats away at him, about the fact that his adopted son isn't his, about the things he does not yet own or control. Plainview is someone who lives for the fight, whose sole purpose was to build an empire. Once he's accomplished this, he has nothing left but the empty halls of his vast house. Plainview is one of early American capitalism's victors. The system delivers all that it ever promised - possessions, wealth, power. Yet it's not enough. It's not capitalism that's flawed, it's Plainview himself. Did we miss any films that celebrate capitalism? Share your picks in the comments thread.