“I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people.”
To all appearances, this self-confession by Daniel to the man who may be his half-brother is utterly true. Daniel appears particularly misanthropic toward almost everyone, save for his (as it turns out, non-blood-related) family. In this quote, he reveals that his greed and ambition go beyond a mere desire to accumulate wealth or status. This quote suggests that these also come from a contempt for the very idea of other people having anything for themselves, an inability to accept the social compact of having to share the world with others. His driving ambition to make money and to gain power could be a result of that misanthropy, or the hatred of others could well be a consequence of the effect of dealing with others who are either just as competitive as he is or lack the drive to further his own ambition. A chicken or egg conundrum, to be sure, and one of the enigmas of Plainview’s personality that makes him so fascinating and unpredictable.
“…ladies and gentlemen, if I say I'm an oil man, you will agree.”
Daniel’s standard, boilerplate template for introducing himself to the folks living where he plans to drill is directed toward just one thing: establishing himself as a unique creature in the landscape of America, the oilman. Oil has only recently displaced cotton as king of the American exporting business, and by this time people are finally beginning to understand the potential and the oilman is already on its way to become a mythic American hero like the ranchers and cowboys of the past century. Daniel Plainview recognizes the power of creating this myth and presents a persona that exceeds every expectation. He creates an image of himself as refined yet rugged, polite yet determined, an expert but also an adventurer. But the Daniel we come to know is more raw and primal, more a force of nature than an ordinary businessman. He is less a single man and more the embodiment of a great American archetype.
“What's this? Why don't I own this? Why don't I own this?”
The Bandy tract. That is what Daniel doesn’t own. One single section of land within a larger section of land he had made deals with. But Bandy won’t sell. And he never will. And so that means Daniel cannot access the oil beneath that land. A state of affairs that is going to loom large as the film progresses toward its final climactic showdown amid talk of milkshakes and movie stars. Daniel's urgency, frustration, and disbelief show a man who cannot even process, let alone accept, the idea that there is something he wants but cannot possess. “Why don’t I own this?” is the central question and motivation for Daniel throughout the entire film; to covet is as natural to Daniel as to breathe. He will ultimately do anything to possess Bandy’s land, including severe personal humiliation. But own it he must.
“We have a sinner with us here who wishes for salvation. Daniel, are you a sinner?”
There Will be Blood pits capitalism against Christianity in a battle to become the one true religion in America. Of course, the title indicates this battle will result in bloodshed, but the result reveals a surprise ending to the war. Peace will be made between the seemingly irreconcilable ideologies of capitalism and Christianity and create a new form of religion embraced by the faithful despite directly contradicting the teaching the savior toward whom all that faith is entrusted. This assertion and admonition from Eli (religion) to Daniel (capitalism) symbolically represents the starting point of that unlikely integration. By “saving” Daniel, Eli in truth hopes to subjugate him to his will, declaring his capitalist ideology to be morally bankrupt and make an example of him for the congregation.
“I have abandoned my child!”
As part of the battle for the soul of the community—which is a microcosm of America at large, of course—Eli has managed to get Daniel to admit in front of his entire congregation that he is a sinner who abandoned his child. The child is literally H.W. whom Daniel has sent away for caring, education and treatment after losing his hearing as the result of a drilling accident. But in a figurative sense, Daniel is forced to admit to abandoning much more as he pursues a non-Christian existence of greed, ambition and selfish aggrandizement. H.W.’s presence gave Daniel a kind of legitimacy as an honest family man in the eyes of people like the Sundays. Now that ruse is up, and Daniel is laid bare. This is either one of the few moments of genuine anguish for Daniel, or his most convincing performance yet as he reckons with the falseness of his constructed identity. The rift between religion and capitalism never seems so wide and the promise of there being blood so stark. And yet, as history proved, that chasm is now non-existent.
“I am a false prophet! God is a superstition!”
Daniel Plainview ultimately will respond in kind. Just as Eli forced Daniel to assert the awful truth, later does Daniel force Eli to assert his own awful truth. By this point, Christianity is already beginning to take on a shape which embraces the selfish qualities of capitalism to a point where the seemingly irrefutably faithful and pious Eli of earlier barely looks recognizable. Instead, Eli very much seems to resemble someone like an evangelical mega church preacher with his fancy clothes and focus on business ventures outside of church affairs. We can’t say for sure whether Eli’s faith was always false, just as we could not tell if Daniel’s confession was genuine, but this is more about Daniel humbling Eli and subjugating him to his will. He wants to humiliate Eli before killing him, so he is hitting Eli where it hurts most.
“I... drink... your... milkshake!”
Perhaps the most famous quote from There will be Blood was inspired by historical fact. The Teapot Dome Scandal—the most far-reaching Presidential scandal in American history until Watergate—is behind this seemingly mysterious line. The Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, used the milkshake analogy to illustrate the necessity of selling rights to preserves (at a princely little benefit to himself in the form of bribes, of course.) Plainview’s justification for drinking the milkshake that rightfully belong to the Bandys is really no different: oil drainage would have ruined the property, making the land unfit for farming anyway. But this quote isn’t really so much about the Bandy tract as it is about how capitalism routinely dips its straw into the milkshake that is everyone’s resources. It knows no limits, either practical or moral. If there is an opportunity to gain profit, a person like Daniel will take it, because in his heart he believes that he is entitled to all things.
“I’d like it better if you didn’t think I was stupid.”
Daniel’s business strategy is based less on creation than exploitation. He is reliant on, if not quite stupidity, then at least gullibility on the part of people he works with. He seeks out people who are susceptible to the charms of a clean-cut and intelligent businessman. Paul is signaling that he is not such a person. He is, like Daniel, a savvy participant in capitalism. He may not have the experience and resources that Daniel possesses, but he understands how to leverage his situation to his advantage. Paul has intel on something he knows Daniel wants, something that Paul cannot exploit himself. But he will trade whatever assets he has to make his start in the world. It is also interesting that this quote equates intelligence with guile and even cut-throat behavior. Paul is willing to sell out his own family and the money to which they should be entitled to make a petty (though substantial) sum for himself. Daniel is noticeably impressed by Paul for this reason, and sees him as a peer.
Plainview: What else would I do with myself?
H.M. Tilford: You asking me?
Plainview: What else would I do with myself?
H.M. Tilford: Take care of your son. I don't know what you would do.
This quote demonstrates Tilford’s fundamental apathy towards Daniel and by extension any businessman too small to be a genuine threat to Standard Oil (which was all businessmen at the time). Tilford is so used to accumulating money and then throwing out large sums of it to make more, he has never even considered what life would be like for someone who took the money and got out of the business. His upward trajectory is unlimited because he is one of the chosen few to lead a supermassive corporation with endless aspirations for growth. Daniel, on the other hand, is very limited despite his own endless ambition. Daniel knows this and resents Tilford for it, while Tilford is not even aware of why Daniel might find his words objectionable. Tilford’s suggestion to “take care of your son” is basically a shrug. He has so little conception of what Daniel wants and values beyond money that he simply defaults to boilerplate notions of what an average man should be doing. Daniel is incensed because the suggestion is so obvious, and it implies (correctly, in this case) that Daniel might not otherwise prioritize care for his son. But Tilford will move on. He is the one person in the film on whom Daniel has no substantive effect.
"That part of me is gone. Working and not succeeding—all my, uh... failures has left me, uh... I just don't... care."
This quote frames Henry as a foil for Daniel, his opposite. Where Daniel is constantly moving forward, constantly looking for new ways to feed his ambition, Henry is looking to settle, to create a stable life for himself. In this way, Henry is not so different from the kinds of people who Daniel often exploits in the course of his business. People like Abel, and the other people of Little Boston and Signal Hill. Some good people, some bad people, and some in between; all just want to live decent lives and provide for themselves and their family. Daniel exploits this kind of complacency by taking advantage of people’s trust for profit. Henry has probably been on the receiving end of this kind of exploitation in the past, from bad actors in business or law enforcement. Ironically, in this case Henry is exploiting Daniel by impersonating his brother. Perhaps Henry has come to understand the necessity of some unscrupulous tactics when the world is set against you.
