"I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt not worship other gods before me. I am your Lord thy God! You cannot worship any other gods except me!" ——The first commandment in [Ten Commandments] .
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There is no dialogue at all in the first ten minutes of the film, only the protagonist Daniel is persistently planning his future in the pit after another. We can't see him communicating with people. In his world, he is the only creator. He has to create his own material world with his own hands. But after all, he is a man or not a god. He slipped off the ladder and broke his leg. There was no one around to rescue him. He could only rely on the animal survival instinct to crawl out of the pit with a broken leg. But before surviving, he didn't forget the meaning of his being here. He stuffed a piece of silver ore dug into his pocket and brought it out.
German Karl Benz invented the first car in 1886. From then on, the dark liquid that came out of the ground became invaluable. The speculators who pioneered in the western United States are no longer pursuing traditional gold, but black gold.
After the worker died in the accident, Daniel took in the baby who was still in swaddling clothes. He regarded HW as his child from the beginning. Although taking children with him when he is out lobbying can objectively greatly increase his credibility, in several scenes Daniel showed his true sustenance and closeness to HW. He hardly laughed in the whole film, the only time he and his son were exploring the landforms together to find the oil floats that burst out after the earthquake. They seemed to have discovered a big treasure that no one else knew yet. The father and son put their hands on each other's shoulders, and their excitement and joy were beyond words. Daniel told HW of his plan pertinently, just like sharing an operating plan with a co-founder. After the oil well was completed and the ceremony was started for the first time, HW personally moved the valve. He sees HW as an extension of his body and will. At this time, Daniel, in the vision of the edge of entrepreneurship, firmly reserved an area. This area is used by Daniel to store his yearning for family, family, and self-continuity. At that time, his future was not limited to pure pursuit of profit and commercial achievements. Some warmth can also be found in his eyes.
Daniel's chance to revolve from time to time was brought to the door by the young man named Paul Sunday. Faced with this seemingly weak and melancholic young man, Daniel did not pay attention to it at first, but after a few short conversations, Daniel had to set up his position and start a gunpowder-filled negotiation with the boy. Just like a martial arts contest, both sides have their own big moves, and Paul is always incapable of grasping like a loach. Can't make sense of what he said. Faced with various temptations and questions, Paul instead asked which church Daniel belongs to. Daniel couldn't guess what he meant, and responded in very diplomatic terms. After the various fake actions of the two sides were evasive, Daniel had to pay in order to obtain this potential oil field location. When the transaction was completed, Daniel held the young man's hand, calmly showing his ferocity. He said: "If I go there all the way and I can't find the resource you mentioned, I still have to come to you. By that time, it's not just money that I will get back. You No objection?" This shot of Daniel facing everyone and shaking hands with the teenager will appear again in the back of the film.
Soon Daniel took his son HW to the farm of the Sunday family and found the treasure as he wished, so he immediately decided to buy all the sites here for mining. But the process of negotiating with the old man, the head of the family, quickly turned into a sharp bargaining with Eli, the old man's son. Eli and Paul, who exchanged information for banknotes before, are twin brothers. They look exactly the same, but their personal demands are completely different. Paul went out and wandered around and exchanged his capital-that is, information about the oil field-for the start-up capital. After that, he disappeared into the crowds chasing profits and never appeared again. Eli, who stayed at home, already had his career, which was his gospel church.
In this passage, director Paul Thomas Anderson's narrative style with the lens is very clear. The colors are uniform but not bright; the composition is exquisite but not gorgeous; and the use of different scenes is simple and clear. When Daniel offered to discuss business matters with the old man, a fixed-position panoramic camera included all four people present. The old man is talking but we can't see his face, implying that his position and voice are not so clear and important. Daniel's face has been in the shadows, as obscure as his hidden true intentions. Eli was completely exposed to the light, watching the negotiation content curiously.
But when Eli revealed that Daniel's real attempt was oil, the shot changed to a close-up shot. The old man has been excluded from the shot, and the composition has become a one-on-one between Daniel and Eli. Daniel tried to squeeze the persimmons several times and looked for the old man with his eyes, but the old man couldn't put his mouth in anymore, so he had to deal with Eli's single-handed approach. When it comes to the price, Eli said, "We have oil in the land. The land must be worth the money. How much do you give?" Daniel said, "I don't know!" Eli said, "There are also things you don't know..." Almost stiff. The bargaining went into fierce heat, and the camera immediately switched to a very oppressive close-up.
Finally Daniel gave in. After the negotiation, the camera also retreated to the position of the middle shot, allowing the audience to return to a relatively loose composition from the tense atmosphere.
The internal force competition between Daniel and Eli began at this moment. On the surface, they are talking about money and land, but they are opposed to two completely different values. What Daniel speaks for is the primitive accumulation of capital. The means of squeezing profits efficiently and his appetite for devouring everything were clearly shown in a montage after he bought the land. The originally slow shots and editing suddenly rushed into a completely different rhythm. The music composed by Jonny Greenwood for this passage is also like a full-powered train, roaring in, tearing through the original silence between the poor mountains and the bad waters.
Eli also wants money, and a lot more, Daniel gives five thousand, and he opens his mouth for ten thousand. But what he speaks for is his faith, his chapel. As the Lord's spokesperson in the world, he has the mission of propagating faith, curing diseases and eliminating evils to these ignorant villagers.
Of course, in the final analysis, what makes two people face each other is still fighting for authority in coexistence. This is not because of their different positions, but because of the high similarity of their consciousness and methods. Both Daniel and Eli use their own language to convey information in exchange for the trust of all the people. Daniel spoke vividly about the economic benefits that oil extraction can bring to the local area and how to improve the quality of life. Eli brings God's blessing to these people who don't see much hope in their daily lives because of their narrow cognitive boundaries. Both of them have to decide for the local villagers what ideology they should hold and what kind of life they should live.
The oil well was about to start, and Eli came to find Daniel in person, and in the voice of the spiritual leader of the people in the town, he verbally instructed Daniel, saying: "What do you want to say when you cut the ribbon tomorrow? Pray, bless your oil well." Daniel agreed without saying anything. But on the second day, in front of everyone, Daniel pulled Eli's little sister as a guest, completely ignoring the church's tradition of inferiority between men and women.
Daniel stared at Eli, who was standing in the middle of the crowd and waiting to speak on stage, while he said everything Eli had to say. It's like the oil painting of Napoleon's coronation by French painter Jean Louis David. In the painting, the emperor Napoleon wearing a crown of laurels set aside the pope, the spiritual leader of the entire Christian world, and personally crowned Queen Josephine.
After watching the lively crowd dispersed, Eli still poked there, his emotions after being teased made him stiff. But he is not the kind of person like Daniel who runs the rivers and lakes. The dissatisfaction in his heart is like a lunch of indigestion, only squirming silently in his chest and abdomen, while his face still has the humility and calmness that a clergyman must have. Soon, Eli finally waited until Daniel came to ask for his chance. An underground work accident resulted in the death of a worker. To reassure everyone, Daniel had to ask Eli to bless the site. Witnessing the process of inviting God, Daniel also saw all the magic power of Eli in front of the believers.
The two of them spoke for a long time, before leaving Daniel, he left a comment:
"That was one Goddamn hell of a show!"
All the taboos that can be committed are taken up in one sentence.
Daniel finally got the oil. The wealth he exchanged with effort and sacrifice finally spewed out with a spasm on the ground. But at the same time, his son HW was also injured and completely lost his hearing. It seems that while God rewarded Daniel, he also deprived him of what he treasured most. The son couldn't hear him anymore, and he couldn't maintain the communication with Daniel. It was tantamount to throwing Daniel back to his own lonely track from the atmosphere of family and affection.
Hidden under the feet of this group of poor people, the oil that has not been cared for for many years has now become a torch more than ten meters high, desperately releasing energy that has been stored for millions of years. In the dark night, the flames reflected the faces of all spectators into blood red.
Blood is coming
The real protagonist in the original book " Oil! " -oil, the artery that allowed American industry to take off, was cut first on this night in the early twentieth century. In the following hundred years, the automobile industry and light industrial products created by oil directly gave birth to the unique consumerism phenomenon of the United States, and at the same time made it a key strategic material affecting the global landscape.
Eli chose this time to collect debts, and said straightforwardly, "When will you give the money you owe our church?" Daniel was upset by his son's deafness, and the oil extraction went smoothly. Seeing that he was rich and rich, he didn't bother to tolerate it anymore. The boy who pretended to be a ghost to challenge his authority. The accumulated aversion to Eli from the inside to the outside also erupted like a blowout, and he pushed Eli into the mud and beat him up. Eli used to have a humble smile and an elegant manner like an angel with a three-pointed spirit. But when he brought traditional values, God's gift, and redemption to Daniel's capital train that had already started to accelerate, when he tried to get a share of the pie and let it go, all he asked for was ruthless crushing.
That night, Eli sat at the dinner table with mud all over his body. The close-up shot put his contemptuous eyes and the honesty of his father's face face to face.
At this time, Eli's tone was like an arbiter appointed by God himself, with deep disappointment with the descendants of the Garden of Eden, directly calling his father's name and calling him an idiot. And what made him finally burst out was when the old man said somewhat aggrieved: "I followed his words. I followed his instructions." This phrase, which has always been used only when talking about God, his old man, is full of a The piety of believers. Eli swooped up and pressed his father to the ground, pinched the old man like Daniel pinched him earlier, and judged this cowardice and ignorance instead of God: "God won't save stupid people!"
A man claiming to be Daniel's younger brother Henry came to Daniel. The sudden appearance of this family member who had been lost since childhood brought Daniel a touch of family warmth. But it's only a trace. In the conversation between the two, Daniel mentioned his distrust of everyone around him and his paranoia to be the only successful person. The oil pipeline was about to be opened from the oil field to the beach. During the survey, the two brothers jumped into the water to swim. When talking about childhood memories, Henry's vague answer made it instantly clear to Daniel, who had just put down his guard, whether this person was his brother or not. They didn't say anything to each other, but the hearts of the two people were like meeting each other on a narrow road in the wild, and they both saw each other's birds of prey and prey.
Henry sat in the shadows, his face buried between his knees, only when he raised his head was he barely swallowed by the darkness.
Daniel sat in the sunlight next to him, his lips twitching under his mustache. He got up and went down to the sea, swam a certain distance, and turned his head to stare at the figure on the shore fiercely. Behind him, a row of superimposed huge waves is rising higher and higher.
After killing the counterfeit, all Daniel has left is the diary of the deceased relative and a photo from decades ago. Although he didn't have much effort to use a gun to solve the liar who wanted to dazzle him, the loss of a relative really made him extremely frustrated. After he drank the wine in the jug, he fell asleep on the ground where the corpse was buried. When he woke up, Bundy, the old man holding a shotgun in front of him, threw back the pistol Daniel used last night. The extremely passive Daniel had no choice but to accept the conditions and go to the church to confess and baptize to atone for his sins, so as to finally allow the oil pipeline to pass through the territory of the bundle.
As the spiritual leader of the church and believers, Eli finally waited for this home court opportunity. The baptism ceremony he presided over was very complete, and the big mouth that helped Daniel exorcise evil was also very complete. Baptism uses clear water that has been opened, and this clear water represents the blood that Jesus shed for sinners all over the world. Crucify him and redeem everyone.
Blood is coming
The baptized Daniel stood up wet, turned his back to everyone again, and shook hands with the boy. You can see what his mouth is moving, and you can see Eli's face suddenly become stiff as he listens.
After the completion of the oil pipeline, the wealth created by oil has also poured in continuously. More than a decade later, Daniel's residence has changed from a small wooden house at the beginning of his business to a magnificent mansion. The bowling alley that belongs to him was built underground, and the above ground is also gorgeous and expensive. But the mansion is empty and not popular. The grown-up son HW came to bid farewell, and he was about to set up his own oil industry.
What Daniel saw was a lost relative and an added opponent. The warmth they once shared was now extinguished in the cold light of the lens. Daniel told HW angrily: "You are just a bastard picked up in a basket!"
Daniel has gained the benefits he pursued in his life's struggle, but once something is obtained, it will deprive him of the meaning of existence. Irish writer Oscar Wilde said:
'There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.' ."
Daniel was born with no love, and kept himself drunk day and night. There seems to be nothing in this world that he has to chase and accomplish. Until Eli, who was already a little down, appeared again, he personally came to Daniel to ask for funding. The economic depression in 1922 put Eli's finances and beliefs on the verge of bankruptcy. He wanted to decipher the Lord's mysterious style of doing things, why would he be such a devout believer, who has spent his entire life in preaching for the Lord, to live so hard.
God works in mysterious ways.
Daniel discussed his understanding of revelation with this evangelist who claimed to be the "Lord's Third Revelation".
Blood is coming
After smashing Eli's head with a hardwood bowling pin, Daniel sat on the ground in relief. His last sentence was: "I'm finished." As for what he meant, it was his long-cherished wish and his No one knows his career, his revenge, his meaning, or his life.
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