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girlofpreyPairing Picspam!
There Will Be Blood: Daniel/Eli
This is going to be a little bit quick, because I do want to get it finished tonight.
Which is not ideal for this pairing really, because it's one of the ones I love most and could probably talk for ages about. But even so.
Right. There Will Be Blood is basically a film about an oil driller, Daniel Plainview, in America at the turn of the century. Except it's mostly about Daniel Plainview being a terrible person and kind of a psycho and hating everyone, which is largely expressed through his interaction with hisboyfriend enemy, a young preacher named Eli Sunday.
Anyway. We first meet Daniel in 1898, when he is digging for gold in a hole.
It is clearly hard, terrible, dangerous work, but it pays off for him, because he finds gold and gets rich. A few years later he gets into oil drilling, and a few years after that he's very very rich, and is, as he likes to call himself, an 'oil man'.
And not long after that he meets a young man.
Named Paul Sunday. I know what you're thinking, but bear with me. Paul wants to sell Daniel some information about some land that has oil. A bit of hard dealing and bantering later, Daniel pays Paul and ends up going up to this land, supposedly on a 'quail hunting' expedition with his son. His son, by the way, is not actually his son, he's the son of one of the workers on one of Daniel's previous oil derricks, who got killed on the derrick. Daniel takes him on and raises him as his own, since he is never seen with any women or having his own children. His son doesn't know, and neither does anyone else as far as we see, but it's something that comes up pretty frequently throughout the film. At any rate, when Daniel and his son get there they meet Paul's family, the Sunday family, who own the land. And eventually, they meet Eli.
Yes, Eli and Paul are played by the same actor, but Paul doesn't turn up again, so it doesn't get too confusing. But Daniel and his son notice it about as much as the audience does.
Anyway, so Daniel and his son go wandering around the Sundays' land, and find oil, and are very happy about it. Daniel's son asks him how much they're going to pay the family for their land. Daniel says they're not going to pay them oil prices. They'll pay them quail prices.
That night Daniel and his son have dinner with the Sunday family, and Daniel says he has some business to discuss with the father of the family, Abel. The women get sent away, but Eli stays. Daniel starts talking about the land, and how great it is, and how much he loves hunting quail, and how his son has been sick and needs fresh air, so he'd like to buy their ranch, and wants to know how much they'd want for it. Abel hesitates and can't think of an answer. Eli jumps in with "$6 an acre".
I can't tell if that's high or if Daniel just wasn't expecting him to speak, but he seems a little taken aback, and then thanks Eli and tries to talk to Abel again. He's still talking about quail, but Eli suddenly starts asking about their oil, they have oil here, isn't that worth something? And Daniel is clearly rattled, and starts asking if what, they think they have oil here? Have they found someone to come and drill it for them? Eli asks why Daniel has come here. Daniel is all "FOR THE QUAIL".
I'm including this picture because the part where Daniel moves his arm and basically stops trying to talk to Abel, because he has realised where the conversation is REALLY at, is basically one of the best parts of the conversation.
But Eli keeps banging on about the oil, he's sure there's oil here, what would Daniel pay them for it if there was oil here?
This is Eli's face having come across something about oil and their land that Daniel "doesn't know".
Eventually, Daniel just gives up and stares at him, and asks him "What do you want, Eli?". And Eli replies "I want 10,000 dollars."
Daniel asks "What for?", and Eli replies "For my church." And Daniel does this:
And tells him "That's a good one".
Basically they agree that he'll pay them some money, and give Eli's church $5,000 if there is oil there and he sets up a well and it begins to produce.
This is Eli's face when Daniel mentions that actually, he does happen to do a bit of oil drilling now and again:
But anyway, they finish the deal, and Daniel goes to shake Eli's hand, but Eli wants to go him one better.
But Daniel isn't having that for very long.
It's an amazing scene. I probably haven't nearly done it justice, but then I never really thought I would be able to for this pairing at all. I have only pictures and words. But oh well.
Anyway. The next scene with them together is Daniel holding a meeting for the whole town to talk about the drilling he's going to be doing, and all the wonderful things he's going to be doing for the town and that will come to the town because of it. Then he asks if there are any questions. Only Eli has a question, and it's about whether the new road Daniel will be building will lead to the church.
Daniel assures him that the church will be the first place it will lead to, thanks Eli.
Later on, Daniel hears Eli and his followers singing near his derrick. He gets up to check it out.
Eli is trying to poach his workers to be part of the congregation at his church, at which he is at least partly successful.
Later on, Eli comes to see Daniel in his office.
He wants to know if there's anything Daniel needs, from him. If there's anything his church can do for Daniel. Daniel says no, thank you. Eli nods, and says he's heard that Daniel has asked the townspeople to gather around for when the derrick begins to drill, and Daniel says yes he has. Eli says he will bless the well.
Daniel is underwhelmed.
Eli basically outlines a whole scenario he has thought up, complete with words Daniel can say about him as he comes up to bless the well. Daniel is like "...fine." There is silence, and as if sensing that this is not what his boyfriend would like, and the various problems he has with it, Eli quietly assures him that it's a simple blessing, but an important one, it's just a few words, it won't take long.
Daniel says that's fine.
But he doesn't look fine.
We cut to the opening of the derrick, and Daniel starts making a big speech about the derrick, but then says he's not much of one for big speeches, so he'll just do a "simple blessing". He basically cuts and pastes most of the words Eli asked him to say in a speech he himself is giving, and calls Eli's younger sister Mary a "proud daughter of these hills" - something Eli asked him to say about him - while occasionally looking at Eli in the crowd.
Then he sends his son up to start the derrick without ever mentioning Eli.
It's a bit like that bit in Foundations by Kate Nash where she talks about how her boyfriend will "humiliate me, in front of our friends". Not that I've ever thought of vidding Daniel and Eli to Foundations by Kate Nash. Never.
Anyway. Relations are frosty between Daniel and Eli. Then one of Daniel's men dies on the oil derrick, and when going through his things Daniel finds one of the crosses Eli and his dudes were pinning to people when they were recruiting them on the derrick. So he goes up to Eli's church, during a sermon.
Eli's sermons turn out to be a self-touching, old woman-caressing type of affair. But Daniel is unmoved. There's a bit in a scene from the trailer but not in the film where Eli's parents say he's a healer, and this is basically the first bit we see of it in the actual film. Eli claims he's going to heal the arthritis in one of his congregation's hands.
The sermon we see is actually a rather impressive mix of ridiculous, passionate, and kind of terrifying. But again, Daniel is unimpressed, and looks kind of furious.
That's Eli's hand behind his shoulder, by the way.
It's unclear really whether Daniel is more furious at Eli, for being a bit crazy and ridiculous, or at the congregation, for being people who are jerks and won't just let him do what he wants and screw them over, but this is apparently what they love, and believe in. It's probably a bit of both.
After the sermon Daniel goes to talk to Eli.
I love how they stand together. Anyway, Daniel asks Eli if he's heard about the recent tragedy at the derrick, about the man dying. Eli says yes, and is sad, and says it's a shame to think it could all have been prevented if Daniel had just let him bless the well. They have one of their rather beautiful trying-to-talk-over-each-other arguments. Daniel starts talking about how his workers aren't all rested up because they're always at church. Eli says he's seen Daniel's men drinking, doesn't Daniel think that's a problem? But Daniel wins because he says if the men aren't rested up the well can't produce and blow gold everywhere, and Eli is only getting his bonus if the well blows gold everywhere, so he has to shut up.
Then Daniel leaves, telling Eli that was "one goddamn hell of a show" he'd put on in the church.
Not that Daniel cares about Eli or what happens with him and his church. In no way.
Things develop. The well comes in, really violently, which means there's a lot of oil down there, but also causes an accident that permanently deafens Daniel's son. Daniel splits his time between trying to look after his son and getting him a teacher, and bringing in his new well.
Not long after that, Eli goes to see him. To ask when he and his church are going to get their money.
Daniel doesn't take it very well.
He wants to know isn't Eli a preacher, and a vessel for the holy spirit? Isn't he coming around to make Daniel's son hear again? Can't he do that? Daniel slaps Eli a LOT. Then they have THIS FIGHT:
And Daniel tells Eli he's going to "bury him underground".
Later that night, Eli doesn't seem over their fight.
And he decides that if Daniel isn't going to be the only one who gets to straddle someone, and Eli picks his father, which I'm sure Daniel would only approve of.
More things happen. I'm cutting out whole scenes and in some case years here. Only to get to the good bits. A man turns up claiming to be Daniel's half-brother and wanting to work with him, who Daniel sort of falls in love with. Daniel confesses to him how much he hates most people, and wants "no-one else to succeed", and just hates everyone basically, but likes having his brother around, saying if this hatred is in him it must be in his brother as well. Daniel's son either gets jealous of Daniel's relationship with his newfound brother or is just generally angry at Daniel, and tries to burn their house down, and Daniel ends up sending him away to a teacher in some other city. Rather horribly, he does this by getting on a train with his son, then pretending to be going to get something and sending one of his men into the carriage to hold his son down while the train sets off and he walks away, and goes off to get on with his work.
Daniel then has a new project in mind. He wants to build a pipeline of his own to the sea, so he doesn't have to pay the railroad's shipping costs. But, he needs land that belongs to the only person in town who didn't sell their land to him when he first came to the town. So Daniel and his brother set off on a trip to see this man and ask about buying/leasing his land, and to plot out the route of their pipeline to the sea. The man they want to buy from isn't in, so they carry on and get to the coast.
And there - and I didn't quite work this out until a review I read some months or years later suggested it - Daniel makes a remark which I guess is about his and his brother's old hometown, but his brother doesn't get it. So Daniel waits until they're sleeping out in the woods and wakes him up holding a revolver to his face, demanding to know if he's really his brother. And the man, Henry, says no, he was a friend of a man who claimed to be Daniel's half-brother, and they were travelling together, but that guy died of an illness on his way to finding Daniel. So Henry thought he could just take the guy's journal, and a letter that Daniel's sister wrote to their half-brother about their and his dad dying, and go find Daniel and pretend to be his half-brother. He said he didn't mean any harm, he was just desperate and unemployed and thought Daniel might give him a job if he thought he was his brother. Henry says he'll go, he'll just leave if that's what Daniel wants, but Daniel shoots him in the head, and buries him in the woods, and spends the rest of the night reading his brother's journal and crying about the brother he never knew.
He wakes up the next day to find an old man sitting over him. It's the man he went to see about leasing his land so he could build his pipeline. He talks a bit about what he wants the land for, and how the pipe wouldn't be very big and could be buried if this guy wants to, and then the guy says that God has spoken to him, and told him what Daniel needs to do. Daniel is like "...what?". The guy says that Daniel needs to be baptised, Daniel says don't worry, he already has been. The guy says he wants him to be baptised again, and it's the condition of Daniel leasing his land. He says Daniel can take his baptism at their local church in town. The one that Eli runs. This is Daniel's face:
He offers the man $3,000. Then $5,000. The guy says no, he needs to be baptised again, to be cleansed of his sin. Daniel asks 'what sin?', and the guy tosses the revolver he used to kill Henry at him. Daniel clenches his jaw. He's going to have to be baptised. By Eli.
But come the day he's happy, he's enthusiastic:
And then we get the BAPTISM SCENE. Eli is doing a sermon, and asks if there are any sinners in the congregation who wish to be saved. Daniel doesn't reply at first, but then stands up and comes up to stand next to Eli. Eli asks him if he is a sinner. He says he is. Eli says oh, the Lord cannot hear him, he will have to say it louder. He makes Daniel get down on his knees.
Eli rails at him for being a sinner, for being a backslider, which I think is to do with promising certain churches money and never paying them. He says Daniel has lusted after women, to which Daniel responds with a cocked eyebrow. Then he brings up the fact that Daniel abandoned his child. Daniel basically has to repeat whatever he says, all the insults, all the personal stuff, all the religious stuff. Eli brings up the fact that Daniel abandoned his child repeatedly, until Daniel looks like this:
Eli tells Daniel to beg for the blood, Daniel says "Give me the blood, Eli. Give me the blood so I can get out, so I can get away". Then Eli starts slapping him, supposedly slapping the devil inside him and telling it to get out.
And Daniel is suddenly thrilled, because he knows exactly where he is with Eli and with this baptism now. Eli continues to slap him, and Daniel eggs him on, saying "Where is God, where is he Eli?, and when Eli slaps him, "There he is!". Finally Eli puts Daniel's head back, asking if he wants to be baptised, and Daniel says he does, and Eli pours the water over his head. I cannot screencap the way his hand moves over Daniel's hair while he does this, so I'm not going to. But Daniel shakes himself, gets up, and apparently suprises Eli by going to shake his hand.
Because he has a few choice words to say to him (which we don't hear):
But he clearly took some of Eli's words to heart, because the next thing we see is Daniel building his pipeline, and bringing his son back to live with him. His son is understandably still pretty angry with Daniel. But they seem to be getting along okay.
Some time later, Daniel sees Eli at the train station, talking to someone about how he's leaving town, "going on a mission" to some other towns.
Not that Daniel cares. "Stupid kids and their stupid religions", he probably thinks.
This next bit is the ending. We are talking massive massive spoilers, so if you have any intention of actually watching the film and have gotten this far, you will probably not want to read the rest of this.
SPOILERS
Right. Okay. We shortly after that cut to some years later. Daniel's son is grown-up and marrying Mary Sunday, Eli's little sister. Daniel is living in a big house, and is clearly very rich, and is spending his days not shaving and shooting his furniture:
His son comes to see him to say that he wants to set up his own company and do his own drilling, down in Mexico. Daniel informs him that that would make him Daniel's competition. Daniel's son insists he wouldn't be, Daniel insists he would. He finally asks his son to tell him exactly why he's going, without his translator, to tell him to his face. Daniel's son tells him he's going to Mexico with his wife, to get away from Daniel. Daniel finally tells him that he isn't even Daniel's son, he was an orphan he found in a basket, and that he took him because he needed a sweet face to help him buy land. Which is partly what he did use him for, but he also clearly loved him too. But that's not what he says to his son. He tells his son he's just a bastard and there's nothing of Daniel in him. Daniel's son says he thanks God there's nothing of Daniel in him, and leaves.
Daniel gets drunk that night, seemingly, and either the next morning or some time afterward, has fallen asleep on the floor of his bowling alley. And his butler is trying to wake him up because he has a visitor.
Eli tells the butler it's alright, he can leave the two of them. He attempts to wake Daniel up - we've seen Daniel be an odd and heavy sleeper at a number of points throughout the film. Eli shrieking "Daniel Plainview, the house is on fire!" doesn't wake him, but Eli putting a hand on his shoulder and quietly saying "Daniel. It's Eli" does.
Eli goes off to fix them both a drink. He starts talking about how Daniel's house is amazing, and they're totally both brothers, brothers by marriage, and how they've known each other for so long and are such "old friends", while Daniel prepares for a conversation with Eli as best he can:
And then they sit and have a conversation. A conversation that is amazing. Eli talks about the travelling and preaching he's been doing, and seems to have been successful at it, but drops tiny hints that he's not doing very well, although he won't admit to it when Daniel asks him. He says he's come to tell him that their friend, the guy who wouldn't sell Daniel his land until he'd been baptised, is dead, and that the man's grandson wants to come to Hollywood, and is interested in selling the drilling rights - which Daniel didn't have - to Daniel.
Eli wants to enable this sale, and get paid for doing so. Daniel says he will work with Eli regarding that land, but only on the condition that Eli says he is a false prophet, and that God is a superstition. Eli says that that's a lie, and he can't say it. He wants to know how long it would be before the well could be brought in, and that he wants a $100,000 signing fee, and the $5,000 Daniel owes his church, plus interest. Daniel says not long, and that that's only fair. And just looks at him. So Eli says, quietly, that he is a false prophet and that God is a superstition. If that's what Daniel believes, then fine, he'll say it. Daniel tells him to say it louder. He tells him to stand up. And to imagine that he's in his church, and he has a full congregation, and to say it like he'd say it to them. He makes Eli say it over and over again, until Eli's nearly crying, AS THOUGH HE'S BEING FORCED TO FACE UP TO SOMETHING HE'S BUILT HIS WHOLE LIFE ON AND MAYBE HAS ALWAYS SECRETLY DOUBTED.
Then Daniel tells him that that land has been drilled.
Eli is all shocked, and crestfallen, and disbelieving. He says no it hasn't. Daniel explains that it totally has, he's drilled it, it's called drainage. Basically, there was just one big deposit of oil under the town, apparently, and by drilling around that guy's land, he got all the oil that was underneath it anyway. Eli then BREAKS DOWN. He starts talking about how he's doing REALLY BADLY, and he's let the devil grab hold of him in ways he couldn't even imagine, and he's so full of sin, and Daniel is all "God sometimes tests us, doesn't he Eli?", and Eli starts screaming that yes, he does, and Daniel couldn't look like he loves it more:
And Eli talks about how God has let him down. This is Eli saying he would take the Lord's hand if he could, while looking up at and reaching out to Daniel:
Eli says God didn't warn him about the current economic depression they're having, FOR SOME REASON, and Daniel says it's because he's not the chosen brother. It was Paul, Paul who is great and who was chosen. He knew about the oil and came to find Daniel, and Daniel says he paid him $10,000 up front for the information, which is a lie, and that Paul's doing really well now, which makes Eli cry. He basically talks as if he is God, and Paul did the right thing by coming to find him. He continues on with a tirade of insults that are half properly hateful, and half mock-affectionate/pitying. It's basically one of the best things I've ever seen.
While Eli either cries or begs Daniel to please just take the lease, which makes Daniel scream about drainage. This is when he does his famous milkshake speech, to which Eli reacts about the same as you would if someone was in the middle of insulting you, and then suddenly started talking about milkshakes:
He talks about Eli having a milkshake, and him having a milkshake, and him having a straw that reached acrooooooooooss the room, and into Eli's milkshake.
And he says that Paul sent him to their town to do what Paul could never do, which he did, "I beat you and I broke you". But it's about then that Eli gets some of his spirit back, and says "Don't bully me, Daniel!". Which REALLY sets Daniel off.
He throws Eli onto the floor of his bowling lane, and starts ranting at him about how HE is the Third Revelation, and frankly Daniel, if you wanted Eli to worship you, you should probably have just said. He seems pretty up for it. He starts flinging bowling balls and things at Eli, while talking about how he's the Third Revelation, and the Chosen One, because he's smarter than Eli, and he's older than Eli, while Eli begs him to stop, and says they're brothers, and old friends, and tries to get away.
Finally Daniel chases him around and clubs him one of his bowling skittles.
And then just stands over him, staring and smiling at his unconscious body, and then hits him again with the bowling skittle, on the head, and then again.
Then he sits down next to Eli's body, which is losing a lot of blood pretty fast, in a clearly fatal sort of way.
The last scene we get is of Daniel's butler coming to see what's going on, and Daniel looking around from where he's sat next to Eli's body, and saying "I'm finished!".
So. Yes. It's a pretty fucked up pairing, again. But I love it so much. I sincerely doubt I have done it any justice, I didn't really think I would. So much of the pairing is about what they don't say, or how they say what they do say, or how they look at each other. I LOVE THEM. People will probably try to tell you that this is a very serious film about capitalism and bringing in oil wells, and it sort of is, but it's also sort of the story of two men who were probably perfect for each other, but were slightly too crazy to be able to really deal with each other. Well, like I have said, Eli seemed pretty happy about it, but Daniel clearly wasn't. And I just. Daniel clearly hated dealing with Eli, but he also clearly REALLY ENJOYED dealing with Eli. A lot of people talk about how Eli barely fought back and was a bit pathetic, but actually, Eli fought back quite a bit when he was pushed, and THAT WAS THE THING MADE DANIEL THE ANGRIEST. He clearly wasn't looking for much of a fight from Eli, he wanted to be able to push him down in mud and straddle him. And their arguments were amazing, and he had so much trouble trying to get Eli to do what he wanted, Eli was sort of just smart enough and just savvy enough to be able to see what Daniel was really doing most of the time. And just smart enough to be able to take his own opportunities when he could, to help out with what would make him successful, like getting new members for his congregation from Daniel's men. But not quite good enough to be able to beat Daniel at his own game.
In a way Eli symbolised everything Daniel hated: he was what appealed to people in general, while Daniel hated people in general. Daniel needed people to sell him their land, and people to work on his derricks, but after people signed their land over he could basically do what he wanted, it was his own business. Eli really needed his congregation to stay with him for him to be successful, and that's what he was good at, and what Daniel hated, and what Daniel wasn't very good at, either. But if he'd managed to find a way to deal with Eli, and taken him on as his PR man, or used the reputation of Eli and his church to help out his business, they probably would have been unstoppable. And Eli - is odd. A lot of people talk about how great Daniel Day-Lewis' acting was in the film, and it really was, but I thought Paul Dano did a pretty brilliant job as Eli, too. It was really a little bit ambiguous how much Eli believed in what he was saying, and how much he was using it to be successful. Or how much he forced himself or was forced to believe it - there's a bit where Daniel's son says Eli's sister Mary told him her father beats her if she doesn't pray, and if their father treated all his children like that, it doesn't seem unlikely that in order to cope with it, maybe Eli went a little bit mad and started believing he was a prophet sent from God. Or made himself believe it as a way to sort of beat his dad, or get away from him at least. He's pretty clearly using the baptism as a way to get his own back own Daniel for the beating Daniel gave him, whether he really realises it or not, but at the end he really seems to be in turmoil over his owns sins, and how God has let him down. I probably love Eli better than Daniel. But he would probably have been better off being with Daniel than on his own.
And. Um. Yes. I love Daniel/Eli. I love it a whole bunch. This is my massively spoilery picspam. Which was clearly not quick in any way.
There Will Be Blood: Daniel/Eli
This is going to be a little bit quick, because I do want to get it finished tonight.
Which is not ideal for this pairing really, because it's one of the ones I love most and could probably talk for ages about. But even so.
Right. There Will Be Blood is basically a film about an oil driller, Daniel Plainview, in America at the turn of the century. Except it's mostly about Daniel Plainview being a terrible person and kind of a psycho and hating everyone, which is largely expressed through his interaction with his
Anyway. We first meet Daniel in 1898, when he is digging for gold in a hole.
It is clearly hard, terrible, dangerous work, but it pays off for him, because he finds gold and gets rich. A few years later he gets into oil drilling, and a few years after that he's very very rich, and is, as he likes to call himself, an 'oil man'.
And not long after that he meets a young man.
Named Paul Sunday. I know what you're thinking, but bear with me. Paul wants to sell Daniel some information about some land that has oil. A bit of hard dealing and bantering later, Daniel pays Paul and ends up going up to this land, supposedly on a 'quail hunting' expedition with his son. His son, by the way, is not actually his son, he's the son of one of the workers on one of Daniel's previous oil derricks, who got killed on the derrick. Daniel takes him on and raises him as his own, since he is never seen with any women or having his own children. His son doesn't know, and neither does anyone else as far as we see, but it's something that comes up pretty frequently throughout the film. At any rate, when Daniel and his son get there they meet Paul's family, the Sunday family, who own the land. And eventually, they meet Eli.
Yes, Eli and Paul are played by the same actor, but Paul doesn't turn up again, so it doesn't get too confusing. But Daniel and his son notice it about as much as the audience does.
Anyway, so Daniel and his son go wandering around the Sundays' land, and find oil, and are very happy about it. Daniel's son asks him how much they're going to pay the family for their land. Daniel says they're not going to pay them oil prices. They'll pay them quail prices.
That night Daniel and his son have dinner with the Sunday family, and Daniel says he has some business to discuss with the father of the family, Abel. The women get sent away, but Eli stays. Daniel starts talking about the land, and how great it is, and how much he loves hunting quail, and how his son has been sick and needs fresh air, so he'd like to buy their ranch, and wants to know how much they'd want for it. Abel hesitates and can't think of an answer. Eli jumps in with "$6 an acre".
I can't tell if that's high or if Daniel just wasn't expecting him to speak, but he seems a little taken aback, and then thanks Eli and tries to talk to Abel again. He's still talking about quail, but Eli suddenly starts asking about their oil, they have oil here, isn't that worth something? And Daniel is clearly rattled, and starts asking if what, they think they have oil here? Have they found someone to come and drill it for them? Eli asks why Daniel has come here. Daniel is all "FOR THE QUAIL".
I'm including this picture because the part where Daniel moves his arm and basically stops trying to talk to Abel, because he has realised where the conversation is REALLY at, is basically one of the best parts of the conversation.
But Eli keeps banging on about the oil, he's sure there's oil here, what would Daniel pay them for it if there was oil here?
This is Eli's face having come across something about oil and their land that Daniel "doesn't know".
Eventually, Daniel just gives up and stares at him, and asks him "What do you want, Eli?". And Eli replies "I want 10,000 dollars."
Daniel asks "What for?", and Eli replies "For my church." And Daniel does this:
And tells him "That's a good one".
Basically they agree that he'll pay them some money, and give Eli's church $5,000 if there is oil there and he sets up a well and it begins to produce.
This is Eli's face when Daniel mentions that actually, he does happen to do a bit of oil drilling now and again:
But anyway, they finish the deal, and Daniel goes to shake Eli's hand, but Eli wants to go him one better.
But Daniel isn't having that for very long.
It's an amazing scene. I probably haven't nearly done it justice, but then I never really thought I would be able to for this pairing at all. I have only pictures and words. But oh well.
Anyway. The next scene with them together is Daniel holding a meeting for the whole town to talk about the drilling he's going to be doing, and all the wonderful things he's going to be doing for the town and that will come to the town because of it. Then he asks if there are any questions. Only Eli has a question, and it's about whether the new road Daniel will be building will lead to the church.
Daniel assures him that the church will be the first place it will lead to, thanks Eli.
Later on, Daniel hears Eli and his followers singing near his derrick. He gets up to check it out.
Eli is trying to poach his workers to be part of the congregation at his church, at which he is at least partly successful.
Later on, Eli comes to see Daniel in his office.
He wants to know if there's anything Daniel needs, from him. If there's anything his church can do for Daniel. Daniel says no, thank you. Eli nods, and says he's heard that Daniel has asked the townspeople to gather around for when the derrick begins to drill, and Daniel says yes he has. Eli says he will bless the well.
Daniel is underwhelmed.
Eli basically outlines a whole scenario he has thought up, complete with words Daniel can say about him as he comes up to bless the well. Daniel is like "...fine." There is silence, and as if sensing that this is not what his boyfriend would like, and the various problems he has with it, Eli quietly assures him that it's a simple blessing, but an important one, it's just a few words, it won't take long.
Daniel says that's fine.
But he doesn't look fine.
We cut to the opening of the derrick, and Daniel starts making a big speech about the derrick, but then says he's not much of one for big speeches, so he'll just do a "simple blessing". He basically cuts and pastes most of the words Eli asked him to say in a speech he himself is giving, and calls Eli's younger sister Mary a "proud daughter of these hills" - something Eli asked him to say about him - while occasionally looking at Eli in the crowd.
Then he sends his son up to start the derrick without ever mentioning Eli.
It's a bit like that bit in Foundations by Kate Nash where she talks about how her boyfriend will "humiliate me, in front of our friends". Not that I've ever thought of vidding Daniel and Eli to Foundations by Kate Nash. Never.
Anyway. Relations are frosty between Daniel and Eli. Then one of Daniel's men dies on the oil derrick, and when going through his things Daniel finds one of the crosses Eli and his dudes were pinning to people when they were recruiting them on the derrick. So he goes up to Eli's church, during a sermon.
Eli's sermons turn out to be a self-touching, old woman-caressing type of affair. But Daniel is unmoved. There's a bit in a scene from the trailer but not in the film where Eli's parents say he's a healer, and this is basically the first bit we see of it in the actual film. Eli claims he's going to heal the arthritis in one of his congregation's hands.
The sermon we see is actually a rather impressive mix of ridiculous, passionate, and kind of terrifying. But again, Daniel is unimpressed, and looks kind of furious.
That's Eli's hand behind his shoulder, by the way.
It's unclear really whether Daniel is more furious at Eli, for being a bit crazy and ridiculous, or at the congregation, for being people who are jerks and won't just let him do what he wants and screw them over, but this is apparently what they love, and believe in. It's probably a bit of both.
After the sermon Daniel goes to talk to Eli.
I love how they stand together. Anyway, Daniel asks Eli if he's heard about the recent tragedy at the derrick, about the man dying. Eli says yes, and is sad, and says it's a shame to think it could all have been prevented if Daniel had just let him bless the well. They have one of their rather beautiful trying-to-talk-over-each-other arguments. Daniel starts talking about how his workers aren't all rested up because they're always at church. Eli says he's seen Daniel's men drinking, doesn't Daniel think that's a problem? But Daniel wins because he says if the men aren't rested up the well can't produce and blow gold everywhere, and Eli is only getting his bonus if the well blows gold everywhere, so he has to shut up.
Then Daniel leaves, telling Eli that was "one goddamn hell of a show" he'd put on in the church.
Not that Daniel cares about Eli or what happens with him and his church. In no way.
Things develop. The well comes in, really violently, which means there's a lot of oil down there, but also causes an accident that permanently deafens Daniel's son. Daniel splits his time between trying to look after his son and getting him a teacher, and bringing in his new well.
Not long after that, Eli goes to see him. To ask when he and his church are going to get their money.
Daniel doesn't take it very well.
He wants to know isn't Eli a preacher, and a vessel for the holy spirit? Isn't he coming around to make Daniel's son hear again? Can't he do that? Daniel slaps Eli a LOT. Then they have THIS FIGHT:
And Daniel tells Eli he's going to "bury him underground".
Later that night, Eli doesn't seem over their fight.
And he decides that if Daniel isn't going to be the only one who gets to straddle someone, and Eli picks his father, which I'm sure Daniel would only approve of.
More things happen. I'm cutting out whole scenes and in some case years here. Only to get to the good bits. A man turns up claiming to be Daniel's half-brother and wanting to work with him, who Daniel sort of falls in love with. Daniel confesses to him how much he hates most people, and wants "no-one else to succeed", and just hates everyone basically, but likes having his brother around, saying if this hatred is in him it must be in his brother as well. Daniel's son either gets jealous of Daniel's relationship with his newfound brother or is just generally angry at Daniel, and tries to burn their house down, and Daniel ends up sending him away to a teacher in some other city. Rather horribly, he does this by getting on a train with his son, then pretending to be going to get something and sending one of his men into the carriage to hold his son down while the train sets off and he walks away, and goes off to get on with his work.
Daniel then has a new project in mind. He wants to build a pipeline of his own to the sea, so he doesn't have to pay the railroad's shipping costs. But, he needs land that belongs to the only person in town who didn't sell their land to him when he first came to the town. So Daniel and his brother set off on a trip to see this man and ask about buying/leasing his land, and to plot out the route of their pipeline to the sea. The man they want to buy from isn't in, so they carry on and get to the coast.
And there - and I didn't quite work this out until a review I read some months or years later suggested it - Daniel makes a remark which I guess is about his and his brother's old hometown, but his brother doesn't get it. So Daniel waits until they're sleeping out in the woods and wakes him up holding a revolver to his face, demanding to know if he's really his brother. And the man, Henry, says no, he was a friend of a man who claimed to be Daniel's half-brother, and they were travelling together, but that guy died of an illness on his way to finding Daniel. So Henry thought he could just take the guy's journal, and a letter that Daniel's sister wrote to their half-brother about their and his dad dying, and go find Daniel and pretend to be his half-brother. He said he didn't mean any harm, he was just desperate and unemployed and thought Daniel might give him a job if he thought he was his brother. Henry says he'll go, he'll just leave if that's what Daniel wants, but Daniel shoots him in the head, and buries him in the woods, and spends the rest of the night reading his brother's journal and crying about the brother he never knew.
He wakes up the next day to find an old man sitting over him. It's the man he went to see about leasing his land so he could build his pipeline. He talks a bit about what he wants the land for, and how the pipe wouldn't be very big and could be buried if this guy wants to, and then the guy says that God has spoken to him, and told him what Daniel needs to do. Daniel is like "...what?". The guy says that Daniel needs to be baptised, Daniel says don't worry, he already has been. The guy says he wants him to be baptised again, and it's the condition of Daniel leasing his land. He says Daniel can take his baptism at their local church in town. The one that Eli runs. This is Daniel's face:
He offers the man $3,000. Then $5,000. The guy says no, he needs to be baptised again, to be cleansed of his sin. Daniel asks 'what sin?', and the guy tosses the revolver he used to kill Henry at him. Daniel clenches his jaw. He's going to have to be baptised. By Eli.
But come the day he's happy, he's enthusiastic:
And then we get the BAPTISM SCENE. Eli is doing a sermon, and asks if there are any sinners in the congregation who wish to be saved. Daniel doesn't reply at first, but then stands up and comes up to stand next to Eli. Eli asks him if he is a sinner. He says he is. Eli says oh, the Lord cannot hear him, he will have to say it louder. He makes Daniel get down on his knees.
Eli rails at him for being a sinner, for being a backslider, which I think is to do with promising certain churches money and never paying them. He says Daniel has lusted after women, to which Daniel responds with a cocked eyebrow. Then he brings up the fact that Daniel abandoned his child. Daniel basically has to repeat whatever he says, all the insults, all the personal stuff, all the religious stuff. Eli brings up the fact that Daniel abandoned his child repeatedly, until Daniel looks like this:
Eli tells Daniel to beg for the blood, Daniel says "Give me the blood, Eli. Give me the blood so I can get out, so I can get away". Then Eli starts slapping him, supposedly slapping the devil inside him and telling it to get out.
And Daniel is suddenly thrilled, because he knows exactly where he is with Eli and with this baptism now. Eli continues to slap him, and Daniel eggs him on, saying "Where is God, where is he Eli?, and when Eli slaps him, "There he is!". Finally Eli puts Daniel's head back, asking if he wants to be baptised, and Daniel says he does, and Eli pours the water over his head. I cannot screencap the way his hand moves over Daniel's hair while he does this, so I'm not going to. But Daniel shakes himself, gets up, and apparently suprises Eli by going to shake his hand.
Because he has a few choice words to say to him (which we don't hear):
But he clearly took some of Eli's words to heart, because the next thing we see is Daniel building his pipeline, and bringing his son back to live with him. His son is understandably still pretty angry with Daniel. But they seem to be getting along okay.
Some time later, Daniel sees Eli at the train station, talking to someone about how he's leaving town, "going on a mission" to some other towns.
Not that Daniel cares. "Stupid kids and their stupid religions", he probably thinks.
This next bit is the ending. We are talking massive massive spoilers, so if you have any intention of actually watching the film and have gotten this far, you will probably not want to read the rest of this.
SPOILERS
Right. Okay. We shortly after that cut to some years later. Daniel's son is grown-up and marrying Mary Sunday, Eli's little sister. Daniel is living in a big house, and is clearly very rich, and is spending his days not shaving and shooting his furniture:
His son comes to see him to say that he wants to set up his own company and do his own drilling, down in Mexico. Daniel informs him that that would make him Daniel's competition. Daniel's son insists he wouldn't be, Daniel insists he would. He finally asks his son to tell him exactly why he's going, without his translator, to tell him to his face. Daniel's son tells him he's going to Mexico with his wife, to get away from Daniel. Daniel finally tells him that he isn't even Daniel's son, he was an orphan he found in a basket, and that he took him because he needed a sweet face to help him buy land. Which is partly what he did use him for, but he also clearly loved him too. But that's not what he says to his son. He tells his son he's just a bastard and there's nothing of Daniel in him. Daniel's son says he thanks God there's nothing of Daniel in him, and leaves.
Daniel gets drunk that night, seemingly, and either the next morning or some time afterward, has fallen asleep on the floor of his bowling alley. And his butler is trying to wake him up because he has a visitor.
Eli tells the butler it's alright, he can leave the two of them. He attempts to wake Daniel up - we've seen Daniel be an odd and heavy sleeper at a number of points throughout the film. Eli shrieking "Daniel Plainview, the house is on fire!" doesn't wake him, but Eli putting a hand on his shoulder and quietly saying "Daniel. It's Eli" does.
Eli goes off to fix them both a drink. He starts talking about how Daniel's house is amazing, and they're totally both brothers, brothers by marriage, and how they've known each other for so long and are such "old friends", while Daniel prepares for a conversation with Eli as best he can:
And then they sit and have a conversation. A conversation that is amazing. Eli talks about the travelling and preaching he's been doing, and seems to have been successful at it, but drops tiny hints that he's not doing very well, although he won't admit to it when Daniel asks him. He says he's come to tell him that their friend, the guy who wouldn't sell Daniel his land until he'd been baptised, is dead, and that the man's grandson wants to come to Hollywood, and is interested in selling the drilling rights - which Daniel didn't have - to Daniel.
Eli wants to enable this sale, and get paid for doing so. Daniel says he will work with Eli regarding that land, but only on the condition that Eli says he is a false prophet, and that God is a superstition. Eli says that that's a lie, and he can't say it. He wants to know how long it would be before the well could be brought in, and that he wants a $100,000 signing fee, and the $5,000 Daniel owes his church, plus interest. Daniel says not long, and that that's only fair. And just looks at him. So Eli says, quietly, that he is a false prophet and that God is a superstition. If that's what Daniel believes, then fine, he'll say it. Daniel tells him to say it louder. He tells him to stand up. And to imagine that he's in his church, and he has a full congregation, and to say it like he'd say it to them. He makes Eli say it over and over again, until Eli's nearly crying, AS THOUGH HE'S BEING FORCED TO FACE UP TO SOMETHING HE'S BUILT HIS WHOLE LIFE ON AND MAYBE HAS ALWAYS SECRETLY DOUBTED.
Then Daniel tells him that that land has been drilled.
Eli is all shocked, and crestfallen, and disbelieving. He says no it hasn't. Daniel explains that it totally has, he's drilled it, it's called drainage. Basically, there was just one big deposit of oil under the town, apparently, and by drilling around that guy's land, he got all the oil that was underneath it anyway. Eli then BREAKS DOWN. He starts talking about how he's doing REALLY BADLY, and he's let the devil grab hold of him in ways he couldn't even imagine, and he's so full of sin, and Daniel is all "God sometimes tests us, doesn't he Eli?", and Eli starts screaming that yes, he does, and Daniel couldn't look like he loves it more:
And Eli talks about how God has let him down. This is Eli saying he would take the Lord's hand if he could, while looking up at and reaching out to Daniel:
Eli says God didn't warn him about the current economic depression they're having, FOR SOME REASON, and Daniel says it's because he's not the chosen brother. It was Paul, Paul who is great and who was chosen. He knew about the oil and came to find Daniel, and Daniel says he paid him $10,000 up front for the information, which is a lie, and that Paul's doing really well now, which makes Eli cry. He basically talks as if he is God, and Paul did the right thing by coming to find him. He continues on with a tirade of insults that are half properly hateful, and half mock-affectionate/pitying. It's basically one of the best things I've ever seen.
While Eli either cries or begs Daniel to please just take the lease, which makes Daniel scream about drainage. This is when he does his famous milkshake speech, to which Eli reacts about the same as you would if someone was in the middle of insulting you, and then suddenly started talking about milkshakes:
He talks about Eli having a milkshake, and him having a milkshake, and him having a straw that reached acrooooooooooss the room, and into Eli's milkshake.
And he says that Paul sent him to their town to do what Paul could never do, which he did, "I beat you and I broke you". But it's about then that Eli gets some of his spirit back, and says "Don't bully me, Daniel!". Which REALLY sets Daniel off.
He throws Eli onto the floor of his bowling lane, and starts ranting at him about how HE is the Third Revelation, and frankly Daniel, if you wanted Eli to worship you, you should probably have just said. He seems pretty up for it. He starts flinging bowling balls and things at Eli, while talking about how he's the Third Revelation, and the Chosen One, because he's smarter than Eli, and he's older than Eli, while Eli begs him to stop, and says they're brothers, and old friends, and tries to get away.
Finally Daniel chases him around and clubs him one of his bowling skittles.
And then just stands over him, staring and smiling at his unconscious body, and then hits him again with the bowling skittle, on the head, and then again.
Then he sits down next to Eli's body, which is losing a lot of blood pretty fast, in a clearly fatal sort of way.
The last scene we get is of Daniel's butler coming to see what's going on, and Daniel looking around from where he's sat next to Eli's body, and saying "I'm finished!".
So. Yes. It's a pretty fucked up pairing, again. But I love it so much. I sincerely doubt I have done it any justice, I didn't really think I would. So much of the pairing is about what they don't say, or how they say what they do say, or how they look at each other. I LOVE THEM. People will probably try to tell you that this is a very serious film about capitalism and bringing in oil wells, and it sort of is, but it's also sort of the story of two men who were probably perfect for each other, but were slightly too crazy to be able to really deal with each other. Well, like I have said, Eli seemed pretty happy about it, but Daniel clearly wasn't. And I just. Daniel clearly hated dealing with Eli, but he also clearly REALLY ENJOYED dealing with Eli. A lot of people talk about how Eli barely fought back and was a bit pathetic, but actually, Eli fought back quite a bit when he was pushed, and THAT WAS THE THING MADE DANIEL THE ANGRIEST. He clearly wasn't looking for much of a fight from Eli, he wanted to be able to push him down in mud and straddle him. And their arguments were amazing, and he had so much trouble trying to get Eli to do what he wanted, Eli was sort of just smart enough and just savvy enough to be able to see what Daniel was really doing most of the time. And just smart enough to be able to take his own opportunities when he could, to help out with what would make him successful, like getting new members for his congregation from Daniel's men. But not quite good enough to be able to beat Daniel at his own game.
In a way Eli symbolised everything Daniel hated: he was what appealed to people in general, while Daniel hated people in general. Daniel needed people to sell him their land, and people to work on his derricks, but after people signed their land over he could basically do what he wanted, it was his own business. Eli really needed his congregation to stay with him for him to be successful, and that's what he was good at, and what Daniel hated, and what Daniel wasn't very good at, either. But if he'd managed to find a way to deal with Eli, and taken him on as his PR man, or used the reputation of Eli and his church to help out his business, they probably would have been unstoppable. And Eli - is odd. A lot of people talk about how great Daniel Day-Lewis' acting was in the film, and it really was, but I thought Paul Dano did a pretty brilliant job as Eli, too. It was really a little bit ambiguous how much Eli believed in what he was saying, and how much he was using it to be successful. Or how much he forced himself or was forced to believe it - there's a bit where Daniel's son says Eli's sister Mary told him her father beats her if she doesn't pray, and if their father treated all his children like that, it doesn't seem unlikely that in order to cope with it, maybe Eli went a little bit mad and started believing he was a prophet sent from God. Or made himself believe it as a way to sort of beat his dad, or get away from him at least. He's pretty clearly using the baptism as a way to get his own back own Daniel for the beating Daniel gave him, whether he really realises it or not, but at the end he really seems to be in turmoil over his owns sins, and how God has let him down. I probably love Eli better than Daniel. But he would probably have been better off being with Daniel than on his own.
And. Um. Yes. I love Daniel/Eli. I love it a whole bunch. This is my massively spoilery picspam. Which was clearly not quick in any way.
