[Blood is coming]-A very "humanistic" capitalist capital accumulation epic film. It presents the personal capitalist epic of the oil tycoon Daniel Pranvi who believed in the exploitation of oil and capital in the early 20th century, hardworking, persistent, persevering, greedy, ruthless, rational, cruel and cunning, and strong desire for control.
The film's religious (Christian) metaphor implies that it is everywhere. The director’s meticulously laid out plot and character settings are all tied to the story of the [Bible]. There are also fans’ interpretations that the film mainly describes how the protagonist [Daniel] has transformed from a flawed person into the darkening history of Satan's human nature step by step because of the oil extraction that symbolizes hell. It symbolizes that the pursuit of capital makes people become Satan and go to hell.
The development of capitalism in the West has always been accompanied by ideological trends that lead people to action. There is no West without religion. While shaping [Daniel], this flesh-and-blood greedy and cruel capitalist, the film also matched him with a respectable religious fanatic [Ilay] who wanted to use religion for profit, gaining attention and dignity, in order to fit the development of capitalism. Inseparable relationship with religion. The religious meaning and enlightenment of the film is also natural. The main theatrical conflict of the film, the battle between capitalism and religion are all completed through the interaction between [Daniel] and [Eli].
Regardless of the level of appreciation, [Blood Color is Coming] is an unquestionable classic light and shadow presentation. It explores the nature of human beings in the belief process of chasing money.
Let's first look at the unfolding and development of capital and accompanying religious stories:
At the end of the 19th century, Daniel, who was digging alone, wanted to become the chosen people of God who rewarded his diligence. While digging a silver mine, he broke a leg and fell into the bottom of the well. Relying on a tenacious will and a strong desire for the first pot of gold, he crawled out of the mine and across the wilderness, watching with sharp eyes chasing capital, and the silver mine he had acquired in exchange for his fate evolved into the first pot of gold. .
He was cruel enough to himself, he was strong enough, in exchange for the initial accumulation of capital.
In the early 20th century, when Daniel took his mining team to drill for oil production, he witnessed a worker being killed by a dropped tool. Daniel adopted his son HW in the worker's cradle.
Daniel, who regards capital as his faith, is accompanied by a cute face HW, which has shaped the image of the capitalist father of the Gu family, and has laid a very efficient favor for renting land and buying land to extract oil.
One day, a young man named [Paul] approached Daniel and sold business news about oil from his own field in Little Boston. After visiting Paul for many rounds, Daniel believed him, and under the guise of hunting quail with his son, he approached Paul’s house and inspected the oil reservoir. He also met Paul’s father Job, younger sister [Mary] and Paul’s twin pastor brother 【Eli】.
When he found that what Paul said was real, Daniel decided to buy the property at the price of quail land. But the shrewd [Elay] immediately knew that the buyer was coming for the abundant oil reserves in and around him, so he sat on the ground and raised the price. In addition to the land money, [Elay] also asked Daniel to pay to support his church. In the end, Daniel bought the land for 5,000 dollars and agreed to pay another 5,000 dollars to support the church if the oil is produced.
The ambitious Daniel also bought and rented almost all the oil-retaining land (except for an old man named "Bandy") through the local real estate bureau in Little Boston, and promised to develop the town in all aspects through oil. . Eli hopes that he can be strongly introduced and preached at the start of the oil exploration ceremony, because many workers are also his congregation.
On the day of oil extraction, Daniel used the language Eli used to preach, bypassing Eli, and announced the start of the work with the assistance of his son HW and Mary. Soon after the start of work, a worker was accidentally beaten to death by a tool. A somewhat guilty Daniel went to church to ask Eli to recite the scriptures for the dead, but saw that Eli was playing tricks to exorcise an old woman's rheumatism. Eli also blamed the accident because Daniel did not allow himself to preach blessings on behalf of the church at the groundbreaking ceremony.
The oil extraction was successful, the oil blowout, and the oil field caught fire. The momentum also caused HW who was watching the oil well to completely lose his hearing. Daniel regretted it, but was even more shocked by the huge oil profit that was rushed out. He put down his deaf children to take care of others, and first went to command and take care of the out-of-control oil field.
Also shocked, there was also [Eli] who regretted that he did not wait for the price any further. So he went to Daniel to ask for the 5,000 dollars he agreed to support the church. Daniel, who was deaf and anxious for his son, beat Eli in the oilfield. After returning home, Pastor Eli vented his anger on his father Job and cursed Paul, who had left home, and sold the news that there was oil in his home to Daniel.
Daniel continues to chase capital. At this time, a self-proclaimed half-brother [Henry] came to join him. The capitalist is hardworking and persistent in his belief in the cold pursuit of interests, and his rhythm was disrupted by the sudden affection, which also made Daniel express his heart in front of this younger brother: He wants to succeed in making money, and he doesn't like seeing others succeed, what he saw It is full of ugliness of human nature, accumulating a lot of hatred for people. Want to make enough money for yourself and stay away from others. But Henry's arrival gave him another hope.
So, instead of HW, Henry became Daniel's assistant and partner in business negotiations everywhere. For this reason, HW, who fell out of favor, looked through Henry's luggage and tried to burn Henry to death.
At this time, Daniel, who had mixed feelings about HW, sent his deaf adopted son to boarding school. But Henry, the fake brother, was quickly spotted by the shrewd and cunning Daniel. Daniel, who was very controllable, shot and crashed, pretending to be his brother who had died of tuberculosis in order to survive (Henry and his real brother were former workers). Seeing Henry's brother's diary in his luggage, the fierce Daniel couldn't help crying bitterly.
In order to successfully build the pipeline, Daniel must pass through [Bandy]'s home. But the prophet-like old man Bandy made a request to him and was baptized into a believer in Eli's Third Revelation Church. In order to pursue the "faith" of capital, Daniel was humiliated, slapped, and finally baptized in the church by Eli, who avenged his private vengeance. In the process, he was forced to repeat "I am guilty, I abandon my son" loudly and painfully. The insult of being baptized was soon temporarily concealed by Daniel's statement that "oil pipe is in play".
Daniel asked HW to take HW back from the school, let HW look at the tubing he was building, and asked a deaf teacher to teach dumb speech. Daniel, who saw HW again, was excited, gratified, self-blaming, and even full of paternal love. But HW has begun to alienate this profiteering father, and spend more time with [Mary].
In the 1920s, HW, who had married his childhood sweetheart [Mary], had the courage to have a showdown with his father when he grew up, and wanted to stand on his own and extract oil. Daniel, who felt betrayed by his son and regarded his son as a competitor, turned into anger and bitterly said: You are not my own person. I adopted you only because of your beautiful and gentle face, which can help me buy land and extract oil.
In 1927, Daniel, who lost HW and drank in the mansion all day, ushered in [Eli] who left his hometown to preach the Lord's gospel.
The hypocritical Eli also hopes to make a fortune from Daniel by peddling information about [Bandy's] oilfield extraction, just like his brother [Paul] many years ago. But Daniel of the old rivers and lakes pretended to agree and succeeded in getting Eli to repeat "I am a false prophet, God is a superstition". After Yixue was ashamed of being baptized by Eli to humiliate herself, he treated Eli who was financially desperate. Further insults. He told Eli that the oil produced by Bandy Field had long been sucked up by himself.
Eating steaks seemed to be eating Eli, the rich and lonely [Capitalist Daniel], and [Priest Eli], who was well-dressed, wearing a cross and drinking wine like holy blood, communicated in the mansion. The tyrannical capitalist humiliated and killed the priest who wanted to make a fortune by selling information on oil resources. Daniel is alive, but the battle between him and Eli is the arrival of blood, as in the movie title: there will be blood.
Daniel finally looked at Eli's body and said to the butler: I am finished-I am finished (my grievance with Eli, and even my grievance with the world ended in blood sacrifice).
As many senior movie fans have said, this is the most underrated great movie of the 21st century. The two laurels for Best Actor and Best Photography in the Oscars are not enough to commend the religious capitalism, the universal torture of human nature, and the in-depth analysis of personal capitalism.
It took two years to prepare for the role of [Daniel] Daniel Day Lewis (DDL), presenting the most memorable great performance in the history of world film. DDL is the capitalist. Every breath that DDL exhales in the film carries with the capitalists who made their fortunes on oil in the early 20th century, and the copper-smelly beliefs on the road to make their fortunes mixed with perseverance and cruelty. [Paul Dano], who played the twin brothers of Paul and Eli, also contributed a very wonderful interpretation. He and DDL were baptized in the church and faced off at the final mansion. They are the light of the most popular movie fans and are worthy of repeated observation. The film's religiously inspired light and shadow use and role positioning also leave a large space for the audience to reflect.
Regarding the theme of the film, I don't think it is mainly describing the blackening process of the male protagonist Daniel from "human" to "Satan" for the benefit. Rather, using the background of the late 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century after the gold rush, after 200 years of development of the slogan of the bourgeois action, "God rewards work", after the Western Reformation [Protestantism] promoted "productive work gains." It is a religious meaning and a kind of vocation. The success of business is interpreted as a sign belonging to the “voters”, so profit is not immoral.” The belief that “profits are not immoral” penetrated the entire capitalist world for more than 300 years and passed Daniel’s capital. The pursuit of the "voter" of accumulation and capitalization demonstrates the state of human existence under the American dream of capitalism.
Daniel is not a devil, he was a profit-seeking businessman who was ruthless to himself and others from the beginning. His plump and three-dimensional human image has all the greed, tenacity and viciousness of the capitalists of that era, as well as the paternal love and brotherhood that appeared while chasing money beliefs.
He is indeed using his adopted son HW, but in the process of using HW he also regards HW as his son, partner and heir to capital. He looked at HW’s gentle eyes, his pain and compassion after HW’s deafness, and hugged the fragile HW tightly after the fire was put out. He spread the anger of his son’s disability on Eli who came to ask for money, coaxed and sent his son away. After he shed tears and guilt, after killing the counterfeit brother Henry, he saw the diary of his deceased brother crying bitterly, asked his assistant’s son’s living conditions, the happiness after picking up his son, and finally became angry with the son who grew up to be self-reliant. Capitalists are focusing on the intermittent or simultaneous display of human sentimental moments of important money beliefs.
Daniel has some utilitarian love for HW. After having a fake brother, his neglect of HW also has many shadows of living parents. The love of parents for their children is selfless, which is more reflected in the fact that no matter what the child becomes, the parents will not give up his/her level. But the love of parents is inevitably mixed with the brilliance of utilitarianism. Parents all hope that their children will be promising, can lead a good life in the secular sense, and at the same time have light on their faces. Every parent wants their children to be healthy and considerate, and cannot bear to treat disabled children, but there are also many parents who abandon their unsound children.
In the end, Eli was killed, using Daniel's own rules to explain that it was revenge. It was Eli who took the initiative to seek death on his own initiative, and it was Eli who appeared at the wrong moment when Daniel was betrayed and abandoned by his son. But he was still an individual, an evil capitalist whose heart was finally soft and taken away. His belief is to pursue money, not to pursue the extravagant life that money brings. From this perspective, he is a person who pursues faith. He was cruel enough to himself to accumulate the first pot of gold, so he was cruel to the imposter brother who felt coveted his money, and he was also ruthless to Eli who wanted to come and ask for money in the end, because the fake Henry and Eli both touched him. Touched his holy faith.
Daniel has a chance to change into a less evil person. If HW does not leave him, his old age will only have his gratitude for family affection. It is possible that because of the economic advantage and the evolution of the Maslow's level of needs, he will expand into the growth of moral goodness. But the deaf son, who was abandoned, has been witnessing all kinds of his father, and he has married a real Christian [Mary], so he wants to get rid of his father. In the end, his own, other people's, and external factors created Daniel's madness and invincibility.
Let's briefly talk about Pastor Eli, who wears a religious cloak, who is actually chasing profit. He does not have the hard work of Daniel, but he wants to achieve secular benefits and be worshipped through religion. His cruelty to his father also revealed that he has only the cloak of religion without the kindness of Christ.
The three confrontations between Eli and Tangier (HW asked Daniel for money and was beaten after he was deaf, Daniel was baptized in the church, and Daniel was killed when he asked for money in Daniel's mansion). The development of capitalism is accompanied by the manifestation of the development of religious secularization. It is a confrontation between secular power and metaphysical power. It seems that secularism wins, but it hurts both.
In summary, the themes of the film cover capitalism, religion, human nature, and the complex emotions of the three. The director also used 150 minutes of film language to prove that he has the skill to cover so many themes in a film, and it is very profound!
(The original text was first published on my public account "Iron Rice", so stay tuned!!)
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