Daniel Plainview is the literal personification of capitalism. Whether he is the protagonist of the story, the antagonist, or an anti-hero is up for debate. Day-Lewis plays him with such enchanted panache that the fact that the story almost entirely focuses on him, or that this movie has almost no female representation, seems to become irrelevant. His capitalistic chicanery, his ploys, his well-versed and well-rehearsed sales pitch and his hate for all men makes him an overt monster of the present age of laws and bounds. “I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people,” he says. He is terrorizing and poignant, reassuring and fraudulent, but most of all, he regrets nothing. He is who he is because he desires money and power, and he won’t let any money hungry merchant disguised as an evangelical preacher stop him. Which brings me to Paul Dano, arguably the second most important character in the film. He plays Paul and the scone-faced Eli Sunday, and whether they are different people or the same person remains a mystery. He seems like a normal person in the beginning of the movie, but as the story unfolds, he turns into a giant shadow looming over your head, a church-man, a healer, a fraud and a disguised capitalist himself. The story is very much rooted in the hatred Daniel and Eli share for each other. We also have H.W. Plainview, Daniel’s adopted son and his “family”. Although Daniel uses him to gain people’s sympathies, simply as a prop, H.W. is nonetheless earnest and thankful to his father for raising him. Daniel does have people who care for him (like his brother, another earnest character in Daniel’s life), but he just doesn’t give a f*ck about anyone, that’s just who he is.