"I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people ... There are times when I look at people and I see nothing worth liking. I want to earn enough money that I can get away from everyone ... I see the worst in people. I don't need to look past seeing them to get all I need. I've built my hatreds up over the years, little by little, Henry...to have you here gives me a second breath. I can't keep doing this on my own with these...people."
- Daniel Plainview, from There Will Be Blood
Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson excels at exploring the nasty, soul-shattering effects of sin upon individuals, families, and communities. His films have portrayed graphic and raw images of sinful behavior. He reminds me of Dante and Flannery O'Connor, albeit more secular. I've heard Anderson is a lapsed Catholic; whatever his religious practices (if any), he's retained a bit of Catholic imagination.
Anderson accurately and brutally depicts the destructiveness of vice, and unlike some filmmakers today who have a great grasp of evil but no sense of the sacred, he seems open to the mysterious work of grace in the world. Magnolia was a film in which the characters were open to receiving grace. There Will Be Blood, which my wife and I saw this evening, plays more like a tale told to the Pilgrim in Dante's Inferno.
It’s tense, fascinating, and morally tragic. The character names are very intriguing, and have me wondering if this film is not an allegory on some levels.