Follow Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) a silver miner turned oil tycoon, on his ruthless and unending quest for wealth.
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A few months before production began, director Paul Thomas Anderson was asked if this film would make any sort of "statement" about the politics of the oil industry. Paul's reply was that, "...if we can just sort of focus on the small things, the big things might accidentally end up taking care of themselves hopefully."(1) Looking at the completed film, this was absolutely the right plan of attack. This film could easily have become yet another preachy hack/slash critique of the Bush Era. Instead it became a fascinating examination of a man rapidly descending into sociopathic madness...that also happens to have sociopolitical resonance.
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