...Why did you run away from home? I know you have a bad relationship with your father.
Daniel:
I worked for the Geological Survey and went to Kansas.
I can't stay at home, impossible.
I don't like to explain my behavior.
...
Daniel:
Are you an angry man, Henry?
Henry:
What is angry?
Daniel:
Are you jealous? Are you jealous of others?
Henry:
I don't think so. Not jealous.
Daniel:
I have a competitive heart.
I don't want to see others succeed.
I hate most people.
Henry:
I don't have that kind of heart anymore...
Hard work but I can't succeed-all the failures make me... I don't care.
Daniel:
I have it in my heart, and I have it in your heart.
Sometimes I stare at the crowd and can't see anything worthy of my love.
I just want to earn enough money to keep me away from everyone.
...
Daniel:
I don't want to mention those things.
I see the ugliest side of people, Henry.
I can get everything I want, there is no need to see what is behind those ugliness.
After so many years, my hatred has accumulated bit by bit.
Your coming here gave me a chance to breathe. I can't hold on by myself... pestering with these people.
In my limited vision, this is the most shocking movie I have seen in the past few years; the above is the most important part of the movie, the protagonist Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his brother A conversation with Henry.
"I don't like to explain my actions."-This reminds me of the quotation of Teacher Luo Yonghao that was once popular on the Internet: "A fierce life does not need to be explained." The protagonist Daniel's life can be called "audacious", and he does rarely explain himself, but the sentence itself is an explanation. This conversation with Henry was the only time Daniel confided and explained his heart. Not only that, it also explains Daniel's life before and after.
(Ms. Luo's words are also explanations. He did not explain to the girls when he was misunderstood, but after he said to the students in the class that "a fierce life does not need to be explained", he was precisely explaining. And quoted Mr. Luo People with famous sayings are also trying to explain that their lives are "savage".)
This conversation—it's more of Daniel's inner monologue—occurs roughly in the middle of the movie. Before that, there was no one talking in the footage for nearly twenty minutes. Digging wells alone, alone guarding the bonfire at night. The leg broke. Someone died in the well. Loneliness grows in silence. Finally, he spoke, in order to buy land, drill for oil, and convince homeowners who have oil at their feet. But these people are greedy, cunning and stupid. He "sees the ugliest side of people" and "cannot see anything worthy of love". He became more and more lonely, hatred more and more toward people and the world. Henry came, and he suddenly had a brother. "I have it in my heart, and you have it in my heart." He thought so naturally that Henry was the same as him, and he was no longer alone in the world.
He asked Henry if he was angry? Jealous? It happened to explain the later behavior of adopted son HW. HW is illiterate. When he flipped through Henry's diary, he took the book upside down and only looked at the photos and the gun on the newspaper clippings. He set the fire not because he discovered that Henry was fake, but because of inaudible anger and jealousy-Daniel and the newcomer (Henry) were so close. Daniel did not punish HW's extraordinary behavior, because he is the person who understands anger and jealousy most.
However, this brother is a fake. Daniel can't tolerate such deception, although the fake brother is not malicious. In the second half of the film, Daniel's wealth continues to grow, but people fall and perish in loneliness and hatred. In this dark to almost desperate film, the only warmth is Daniel's adopted son HW. He grew up healthy in a silent world, found love, and wanted to leave his father to start his own life. This is the person Daniel really loved. He was jealous of his purity and happiness, and he hated him and betrayed him like everyone else. He murmured at each other and cut off the affection between father and son with his own hands. But he loved him after all, and let him go.
The missionary Eli Sandy came to Daniel's house. Daniel was so drunk, he opened his eyes when he heard Eli's name. The hatred he had accumulated for many years, the hatred against Eli himself, and the hatred against all the people of the world, all burst out. "Jehovah told Moses, ... to make water turn into blood. Everywhere in Egypt, no matter wood or stone, there must be blood." There was blood in several accidents under the drilling platform, but all we could see was blood. Black oil; when Daniel killed Henry, there should have been blood, but the shots were not shown; until now, in Daniel’s cries of "I am the third revelation of God", Eli Weiton Falling to the ground, blood poured out. In the battle with the world, Daniel persisted to this moment alone, except for wealth, only hatred. Eli is dead, and Daniel is over. "I'm finished", he said.
The original novel "Petroleum! "Is a much longer story. The author Sinclair believes that all art is propaganda, and he also practises it personally, conveying his ideas as a socialist in the novel. At that time, many writers, including Sinclair and Brecht, tried to introduce social concerns and political discussions into the creation of novels and dramas. Lu Xun apparently agreed with them too, and he cited Sinclair's "The Art of Worshiping Money" in his essay "Rousseau and Appetite".
Fast forward, eighty years after the novel was published, in PT Anderson's pen, after the rebirth of this borrowed story, the class conflict in society is completely invisible. People may be able to see the themes of oil, capitalism, and religion. In my opinion, these are just backgrounds. This two-and-a-half-hour movie highlights the struggle of a person. He fights for power. He fights with loneliness and hatred. He won what he wanted and lost himself. Since the beginning of art, artists have debated the purpose of art. In the first half of the last century, many artists made art carry too much meaning. Since then, some people have been making efforts to clean up and delete. When American contemporary playwright David Mamet talked about his writing, he inherited Aristotle's tradition that "art is for pleasure". Art has no obligation to preach, it should be pure. Anderson's script undoubtedly got rid of the constraints of the original political novel. He releases people from the class,-calling him escape or sublimation-restores the story to a personal level, allowing the film to become a communication between the author and the viewer, and between people.
In fact, even this kind of simple interpersonal communication is extremely difficult. The lead actor Daniel Day-Lewis has said many times in interviews that it is difficult to describe a role clearly. When you describe him, you also limit him. We are all alone, because of the difficulty of inner communication, it is almost impossible.
However, after all, what we saw in the movie. The screenwriter/director Anderson wrote the story of such a person, and the actor Daniel Day-Lewis showed us such a person. Both of these are great.
Daniel Day-Lewis's voice is hoarse, muddy, slow, not as old as the godfather Don Vito Corleone, but it is also the style of a generation of heroes.
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