Beneath the superficial conflict between religion and capital, there is another pair of concepts running through the film. Their relationship is only superficial at first glance, but the film has endowed it with a profound meaning of allegory. Oil and blood, two somewhat similar-looking liquids that symbolize wealth and death, form the metaphor at the heart of the film.
Daniel's oil business has been inseparable from blood from beginning to end. As early as the day when Daniel's first oil well produced oil, an accident occurred underground. The worker who went down with Daniel was killed on the spot. Daniel, who survived, adopted the baby of the deceased worker. Although the warmth of humanity still remained in Daniel's heart at this time, the barrels of oil were already stained with blood.
Later, Daniel came to the farm where Eli's family lived. After promising a bright future to the locals, Daniel erected a tall oil well here. But soon after the start of construction, a worker was killed underground. At this time, Daniel may have been used to this kind of thing. He only cared about his own interests and targeted Pastor Eli, thinking that he was taking up the rest time of the workers.
As Daniel's oil business flourished, the good part of his personality was also lost a little bit. This is also reflected in his attitude towards blood, from caring and sympathy for the dead, to numbness and indifference, to callousness, and finally to the level of bloodthirsty.
At the end of the film, Daniel frantically smashes pastor Eli's head with his bowling pin, blood seeping slowly from under Eli's face, like black oil seeping from the earth. Calm down, Daniel slumped on the ground and said the last line of the whole film: "I am finished." The wealth of black death gushing out from the earth finally ended in blood.
View more about There Will Be Blood reviews
