Oil! and There Will Be Blood

I should begin by saying I chose Oil! because I had seen There Will Be Blood and I thought that the character of Daniel Plainview would be fantastic as the start of the "villain as the central character in the story" run in this independent study (ending with American Psycho and Patrick Bateman). So I was very surprised when I started reading Oil! and realized that "Dad" (James Arnold Ross, the character Daniel Plainview is based off of in the movie) is not only not the central character of the novel but also is not the main villain. I would argue that the main "villain" and antagonist of Oil! is not one person but Capitalism and the exploitation of laborers.

Oil! is very much the story of Bunny, son of James Arnold Ross. He is the narrator and the novel follows his life from his early teens until a little after his father's death. The novel is more of a battle between ideologies than characters. We see this battle through the eyes of a privileged, upper class son of an oil company owner who becomes friends with Paul Watkins, who becomes the main advocate in the novel for socialism. WWI is a very large factor in the book, causing Paul to go to Russia and discover socialist ideas. Ross ends up having to run to Canada from the government and through Bunny's eyes is a victim, himself, in a way.

Because of these factors, it is difficult to compare the two villains because they are not the same. Daniel Plainview is based off of Ross but is definitely not Ross. Bunny and his life is extremely different from H.W. Plainview. For starters, Bunny is the actual son of Ross, while H.W. is "adopted" by Plainview and only finds this out at the end of the movie. The movie is not the story of H.W., who is really a victim of Plainview. Although they both begin to question their father's work tactics, H.W. loses his hearing and is disowned by Plainview, while Bunny only misses out on a large part of his inheritance.


There Will Be Blood is really a character study of Plainview. The conflict is between himself, his ambition and Eli Sunday along with the rest of the town. WWI is not a factor in the film and Plainview has not made his millions until the end of the film. Plainview seems to believe that the world (Eli, the town, other oil companies) is out to destroy him. In the end, he has the wealth he wanted throughout the movie but destroys himself through alcoholism and isolation.


So what makes Plainview such a great villain? Why did this character push me to read Oil! even though it ended up not being about him? I think it is because, like so many villains, they expose a darkness in ourselves. With Plainview, it is the danger of ambition and desire for wealth and success. How far will we go to achieve our goals? For Plainview, there is nothing he won't sacrifice for success and wealth and that is what makes him interesting. He is what many fear their will become. I can't really talk about Daniel Plainview, without mentioning the spectacular performance of Daniel Day-Lewis. Another reason why Plainview is so captivating as a character is because Day-Lewis keeps you at the edge of your seat. He adds a dangerous undertone to the oil business man that culminates in a final, all out murderous act at the end.