Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Symbolism, Allusion and Allegory in "There Will Be Blood"

The email has been pouring in recently, all with the same request. "Roman," my readers plead, "I just saw There Will Be Blood, and I didn't get any of the symbolism that all the critics are talking about. Could you please explain it to me?'"

As almost a Film Studies major at a major Amish University, I'll do my best to clear this up.

Daniel Day-Lewis plays Daniel Plainview, a hard-working prospector who isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. After all his co-workers die in tragic accidents, he decides to move into management. Clearly it's the director's intent to make him symbolic of Exxon, if not Capitalism as a whole.

One day a stranger appears, and he tells Plainview about oil on his family's land. Young, naive, and desperate for cash, Paul Sunday has travelled halfway across the country to tempt Plainview, so we can see him as representative of Real Estate Agents. Plainview follows Sunday's directions to the family plot. Sensing oil beneath their feet, he buys up all the land and begins to drill.

When one of his employees dies, Plainview adopts the man's son, either showing that Capitalism has a soft spot for Innocence or plenty of use for the Dumb. After the boy loses his hearing in an accident, it's clear he symbolizes Trust. It's a match made in heaven: Capitalism cannot work without Trust, and without Capitalism Trust would be just a frustrated old librarian with a mole on her lip.

A homespun preacher named Eli turns up at the oil field, offering to bless the wells. In a stroke of casting genius, he's played by the same man as the Real Estate Agent. Either this is due to budgetary constraints or it's Anderson's sly way of saying Real Estate Agents always have day jobs too. Plainview spurns his offer, sending the humiliated preacher away. Clearly Capitalism cannot aid Religion unless churches take credit cards.

Throughout the movie, Plainview shows absolutely no interest in adults of the opposite sex. In one pivotal scene, he tentatively touches a little girl. The director seems to be suggesting that Capitalism is a pedophile, though maybe it's just maladjusted and shy. The girl jumps back in horror. Purity wants nothing to do with Capitalism unless the Disney Studios are involved.

A later scene reaffirms this reading. Someone takes Plainview to a brothel to celebrate, but rather than partake in the upstairs offerings, he resolutely remains downstairs. Why? Now the director's message becomes crystal clear. Either Capitalism is only interested in seducing our children or else it's really, really gay.

After Plainview becomes fabulously wealthy, a character appears claiming to be his long-lost brother. Henry asks for nothing more than honest pay for an honest day's work, obviously portraying the Working Class. Plainview tricks him into admitting he's a fraud, perhaps subtlely showing Capitalism's dependence on old "Facts of Life" reruns. Capitalism then shoots the Working Class in the head and buries him in the wilderness. The parallels here will be obvious to anyone who's ever worked in fast food.

Fast-forward several years in the future. Capitalism is now a crazy old man who lives alone on a hill, spurned by society, cobwebs growing on his fabulous possessions. Evidently it's not enough to be filthy rich: you have to live in a hot neighborhood too. Eli the preacher turns up on the doorstep, similarly crazy. He's lost his faith and is deeply in debt, and turns to Capitalism out of desperation. Capitalism refuses to help, providing an object lesson for anyone who's ever wondered why so many churches now offer Bingo. "Where's your God now?" Capitalism asks. "Nowhere! Money rules the world!" Religion has no choice but to agree. And in a move familiar to anyone who's watched TV on Sunday, Religion gets clubbed to death by Sports.

You're welcome. Next week: the hidden subtext behind the Bratz dolls.

12 comments:

debono said...

have you seen "There Will Be Blood"? and do you understand the the meaning of symbolism!?

Anonymous said...

Wow. You totally missed the points here and also wrote symbolism into some of these segments.

The movie was about misanthropy, control, power, and Manifest Destiny. In a very vague manner it has connections to capitalism and its relationship to Christianity, but not in the manner you portrayed, and certainly nothing like what you said about "Trust."

Unknown said...

This article picked every aspect apart at the exact moment it happened, such as "his child goes deaf, so he must be trust" is too narrow and doesn't look at anything as a whole. Therefore, your theories of the symbolism is shallow at best.

There are greater and more broad themes at play here rather than the obvious in-your-face metaphor of Exxon and real estate, Paul Thomas Anderson isn't that stupid, he can make a deeper movie than that, don't insult the man!

corin said...

is this a joke?

Anonymous said...

Well, I think you got it right. :-)

Good Luck and keep at it!

RomanHans said...

> [Y]our theories of the symbolism is shallow at best.

My theories of symbolism are GARBAGE, because the movie itself is garbage. You say "Paul Thomas Anderson isn't that stupid": well, give me another explanation for why somebody'd rewrite Upton Sinclair.

Let's summarize the movie's plot: a selfish businessman who doesn't seem to like women gets selfisher. An odd, seemingly honest religious man is ruined by gambling. We've got a couple strange, not particularly compelling or believable characters who are so arbitrary they don't mean a damned thing. Put them together and you don't exactly get the Battle of the Century.

Yes, we see "misanthropy, control, power, and Manifest Destiny," but we don't learn a damned thing about them. What's the moral, the lesson? "Some dudes are weird"? Unfortunately, the movie doesn't get any deeper than that.

Anonymous said...

This movie is just a look at a mans life. It shows how he rises to the top and is very greedy. Its about the struggle for power between Eli and Daniel. Eli wants his church to prosper and Daniel wants his oil business to prosper. Daniel outspokenly has control issues and through the whole movie he takes down people that get in his way and it ends with him and Eli clashing and Daniel killing him. Thats the line, "I'm finished"

I think your views on the symbolism have SOME ground but thats not the whole take on the movie. You even have some of your facts wrong.

That was his fake brother that took him to the brothel. He didn't join in because he has realized the guy was a fraud and it upsets him. The fake brother is begging him for money during the scene and only angers Daniel more and the scene immediately following is where he shoots him after he gets the man to admit to his lies.

And you missed a big BIG point in your summary that Eli and Paul, the man that informed Daniel of the oil, are twins. Not just the same actor. They did that for a reason, not for budget issues. That wouldnt make any sense at all to do that for budget issues. Come on. When Paul introduces himself he even says he has a brother, Eli, back at home. Thats why at the end Daniel is saying Paul was the chosen one not Eli. Eli was just the after-birth. Eli is useless. He is just trying to bring him down. Just to show that he has won over Eli and Eli cannot be bigger than Daniel.

Anonymous said...

This is based off an Upton Sinclair novel. You're reading way too politically into it and completely missing the larger metaphorical / symbolic meanings of characters, their roles, etc. This movie was hardly a political statement in comparison to the other elements in the film. Just because you're getting a degree doesn't mean much.

Anonymous said...

whether or not certain elements of this movie are symbolic is part of what makes it so intriguing. take all of the symbolic parts out and it is still superbly written and the acting and directing are first rate.

Anonymous said...

I like how you ended this in "You're welcome" - was this supposed to be some type of favor? It was off point :(

Anonymous said...

This was hilarious. Clearly no one understands what sarcasm and satire is anymore.

anon said...

You haven't the first idea what you're talking about, and if you now actually are a film major then your college is a joke. Even completing a decent bachelors with such a shoddy level of film comprehension is impossible.

StatCounter