Summary
We cut to Daniel speaking to a group of townspeople about the prospect of drilling for oil on their land. The camera begins close to his face, then backs off, revealing the boy, H.W., who now appears about ten years old. Daniel attempts to sell the people on his trustworthiness as a family man and on his experience and expertise. However, the people keep interrupting him and arguing with each other, causing Daniel to leave, telling one of the townspeople that he has no interest in working with people who are not on the same page. A title card reveals the year to be 1911, and Daniel and H.W. walk over a small stream to leave the town.
Later, we see Daniel negotiating with an older couple who live north of the original oil finding. He is apparently attempting to circumvent the townspeople and access the oil before the others get organized. He makes basically the same pitch as before, but when the woman asks where Daniel’s wife is he lies and says she died giving birth to H.W. We cut to oil spraying forth from a well, the extraction apparently successful.
A man named Paul Sunday approaches Daniel in his office and offers to give him the location of a deposit of oil in exchange for a finders fee. Daniel attempts to pry the information out of him but it becomes clear that Paul will not reveal anything without an explicit promise of money. Paul asks Daniel what church he belongs to, to which Daniel responds that he follows no faith in particular (“I like them all, I like everything”). Daniel remains skeptical of Paul until he reveals that Standard Oil (the biggest oil company of its day) is buying up land nearby. Daniel and his associate Fletcher Hamilton ask a few more questions about the condition of the land before agreeing to pay Paul, who reveals that the deposit is under his family ranch in Little Boston, California. Daniel thanks him, then threatens severe retribution if he finds that Paul has lied to him.
Daniel and H.W. drive to Little Boston, a decrepit ghost town, then hike up to the Sunday ranch. They meet Abel Sunday, Paul’s father, and ask to set up camp nearby under the pretense of hunting quail. Abel offers them food and help with their camp, but Daniel insists that he and H.W. do most of the camping work themselves. While setting up, Paul’s twin brother Eli brings them firewood and introduces himself.
Later, Daniel and H.W. go out hunting. They shoot at some birds, but soon their attention is caught by their true objective: oil seepage. H.W. finds some and Daniel examines it, setting a little bit on fire. He tells H.W. that it was likely shaken loose by an earthquake, and that the prospect of a large oil source on the land is good. He also explains his plan to build a pipeline to transport the oil to the coast to sell to Union Oil, so as to bypass the exorbitant shipping costs of the trains owned by Standard Oil. H.W. asks what they will pay the Sunday family for the land, and Daniel implies that he intends to pay less than the land is truly worth, exploiting the Sundays’ ignorance.
That night, Daniel and H.W. are having dinner with the Sundays and Abel sends his wife and daughters out of the room. Daniel offers to buy the ranch under the pretense that he wants to take H.W. quail hunting with regularity. Abel is taken aback, but Eli quickly rejects Daniel’s initial offer and brings up the presence of oil. Daniel reluctantly drops his pretense and explains the difficulty and cost of drilling for oil, to which Eli responds that he is willing to sell for ten thousand dollars, which he claims will go to his church. Daniel counteroffers five thousand dollars only after oil is found. Abel is clearly overwhelmed and defers to Eli, who agrees. Daniel reaches to shake Eli’s hand, but Eli takes both of Daniel’s hands in a prayer circle instead, much to Daniel’s bemusement.
Daniel goes to the town real estate office and begins filing offers to buy all the surrounding land. A train pulls in and the town hums to life as Daniel calls Fletcher. Some competing oilmen get off and Daniel tells them that he has bought everything there but that he suspects there is good land to the east if they can get to it before the larger oil companies. Daniel and Fletcher take measurements in the hills while Mary Sunday, the youngest daughter, asks H.W. questions about the oil business. That night at camp, H.W. tells Daniel that Mary revealed to him that Abel beats her when she does not pray.
The next day, all the landholders gather for a meeting to strike a deal with Daniel, but one man, William Bandy, holds out, asking for Daniel to come meet him at his home. Daniel decides to proceed without Bandy’s land and meets with the townsfolk. Daniel makes a similar pitch as we have seen before, emphasizing the economic rejuvenation the town will go through, including a new main road, a new school, and irrigation for better crops. As he speaks, we cut back and forth between the meeting and scenes which presumably take place in the coming days and weeks. First we see workers getting off the train and setting up a camp and the foundation of an oil derrick. We also see men beginning to construct the school. Back at the meeting, Eli asks if the new road will lead to the church, to which Daniel responds that the church is the first place it will lead.
Analysis
This sequence introduces us to Daniel’s duplicitous nature as a businessman. In almost every encounter with another person, he misrepresents either his intentions or his background. He presents himself as a family man despite not being an affectionate or attentive father to H.W. (not to mention lying to H.W. and others about how H.W. came to be his son). He lies about his religious beliefs, hedging against any possible denomination he might have to do business with by claiming to have an interest in all faiths (in a deleted line from the original screenplay, Daniel pretends to belong to a fictitious denomination called “The Church of the World”) despite showing frequent suspicion towards any practice of religion. He pays lip service to supposed community improvements that will come about as a result of his drilling. In the first town, he goes behind the people’s backs to buy drilling rights from an isolated family, presumably for much less money. When meeting the Sundays, he even lies about his motives for buying the land in the hopes of cheating them out the profits of their land. When speaking to people who he is not specifically trying to make a deal with, Daniel’s lofty rhetoric and polite manner suddenly turns curt and harsh, sometimes openly hostile.
Day-Lewis also embodies the shift between these modes of speaking in his performance, both vocally and physically. When Daniel wants to make a good impression, Day-Lewis modulates his voice to be smooth and gentle; he speaks in a slow, almost rhythmic fashion. He smiles, and either stands or sits with his back straight, facing the person he is talking to. Conversely, when Daniel does not feel the need to be polite, Day-Lewis makes his voice much gruffer. He speaks more quickly, as if he is impatient to dispense with the current conversation. Syllables escape his lips in little barks. Day-Lewis also adjusts his posture to be more slouched, like an animal staring down its prey. These performance tics tell us that Daniel has a deep-set misanthropic mindset that he must hide in order to conduct his business.
The only people Daniel seems both honest and cordial to are H.W. and the rival oilmen who come into town. H.W. is obviously his son, but his attitude toward the oilmen is telling. They are entrepreneurs, like himself, and are also fighting to build their businesses in the shadow of Standard Oil. Though he has already locked down the Little Boston area, Daniel happily gives them advice on where they might find other oil reserves. Though the film will primarily follow Daniel’s conflict with Eli, this scene and the scene where Daniel tells H.W. about his plan to bypass Standard Oil’s shipping costs indicates that Daniel sees Standard Oil as the primary antagonist of his life and career. This attitude is the mindset of the classical American entrepreneur: no matter how powerful they are, and whether they are exploitative or benevolent, they will always see themselves as the little guy fighting to get their piece from the big corporations.
This sequence also introduces us to the Sundays, the Christian clan which will permanently affect the course of Daniel’s life. Abel is not unlike the other ordinary citizens who Daniel dupes along the way. Eli and Paul, however, are different. They are both far shrewder than the typical person Daniel encounters. Both are hyper-aware of the possibility that Daniel is trying to swindle them for profit. Daniel is frustrated by them and becomes combative, but he also respects them on some level for their hard-dealing ways (and later he will also come to respect Eli’s showmanship as comparable to his own). There is also an interesting moment at the end of Daniel’s business meeting with Eli: Daniel reaches out for a handshake but Eli instead takes his hands in a prayer circle. This telegraphs their conflict: the handshake is the traditional ritual of the western businessman, and the prayer circle a ritual of American Christians. These two must work with each other, but they each come from fundamentally different value systems.
