Terri Murray tells us about a Hollywood hero beyond good and evil.
https://philosophynow.org/issues/74/There_Will_Be_Blood
There Will Be Blood
Re: There Will Be Blood
It seems like you have misunderstood the film's ultimate meaning by projecting a slight misinterpretation of Eli's character. Your examination of philosophy in the light of the film is instructive, but zoom out another layer and see that the filmmaker is not critiquing religion not promoting self-interested philosophy. It is about the unique rise of the United States and role deeply flawed characters played by manipulating capitalism and religion. It's a cautionary tale that the most destructive path is insincere religion. It will always lose to raw power when it engages it head-on.
You make good points regarding Plainfield being more connected to the earth and struggle. But the filmmaker presents his desire to keep others from succeeding as his tragic flaw. He's not just happy he struck oil he's enthralled that he believes nobody else can control it.
But in the end, we see the flawed elements when US residents put their trust without adequate discernment in evil business or religious leaders. And it's Plainfield who is the devilish presence that activates the greed that destroys the soul of a community. Plainfield can hardly be seen as anything but a pathetic figure at the end. Sure he defeated false religion but what has he won? No HW, no family, no friend to speak of and no future. He cannot enjoy the fruits of his labor and violence. He's finished but there's nothing left for anyone. (His crucifixion is complete but with no true victory won.)
Therefore: keep the devil of greed out of your garden. Oil seemed so endless and natural but making it a god has threatens our very civilization. It's exposing the flaws of Nietzsche or reinterpret the death of god as an ironic statement. Elevating greed in the place of God leading to devastation for all.
You make good points regarding Plainfield being more connected to the earth and struggle. But the filmmaker presents his desire to keep others from succeeding as his tragic flaw. He's not just happy he struck oil he's enthralled that he believes nobody else can control it.
But in the end, we see the flawed elements when US residents put their trust without adequate discernment in evil business or religious leaders. And it's Plainfield who is the devilish presence that activates the greed that destroys the soul of a community. Plainfield can hardly be seen as anything but a pathetic figure at the end. Sure he defeated false religion but what has he won? No HW, no family, no friend to speak of and no future. He cannot enjoy the fruits of his labor and violence. He's finished but there's nothing left for anyone. (His crucifixion is complete but with no true victory won.)
Therefore: keep the devil of greed out of your garden. Oil seemed so endless and natural but making it a god has threatens our very civilization. It's exposing the flaws of Nietzsche or reinterpret the death of god as an ironic statement. Elevating greed in the place of God leading to devastation for all.
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Re: There Will Be Blood
His character is basically evil. It's only because he fits into the ideological milieu of 20thC American capitalism that no one notices just how fucking evil this guy is.
We tend to be more conditioned to seeing a serial killer, the pawn of his own desires, as an evil, as what he does is most obviously blood thirsty and murderous.
But the character is There Will Be Blood is a cold hearted calculated greedy and ruthless person who engineers his own enrichment without any regard for the needs and welfare of others: a true American Hero.
We tend to be more conditioned to seeing a serial killer, the pawn of his own desires, as an evil, as what he does is most obviously blood thirsty and murderous.
But the character is There Will Be Blood is a cold hearted calculated greedy and ruthless person who engineers his own enrichment without any regard for the needs and welfare of others: a true American Hero.
Re: There Will Be Blood
Dup
Last edited by Walker on Sat Mar 26, 2016 9:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: There Will Be Blood
He was what folks call a self-made man, much like yourself and he made himself according to the limitations of his conditions and the capacity of his intelligence. He found the boundaries of what his environment offered, as did the first twin who quickly moved on, and the second twin who could not let go of his ideology. The oil man found worth in the worthless land where people could barely scratch out a living, ignorant of how to extract the lubricant of progress. In order to scrape the future from the earth and not just worthless clay … his had to be a relentless pursuit of truth. He didn’t strive to fudge the facts into his own image, or the image in his mind, as if truth is clay to be manipulated. His intent was to understand the science of geology. He wasn’t the type of realist to gain fortune as a Climate Scientologist. 
Invest your capital and fudge the geology facts, you’re just foolin yourself again. On the other hand, the armchair warrior intellectual, particularly the miserable variation, pursues the chimerical reflections of his conditioned ideology and pretends that bears reference to truth.
And when the man lied to him and pretended to be his brother, he had no mercy.
Invest your capital and fudge the geology facts, you’re just foolin yourself again. On the other hand, the armchair warrior intellectual, particularly the miserable variation, pursues the chimerical reflections of his conditioned ideology and pretends that bears reference to truth.And when the man lied to him and pretended to be his brother, he had no mercy.