There Will Be Blood Response - Religious Themes and Their Relation to the Industrial Revolution

One thing that really stood out to me throughout this movie was Daniel's sometimes passive-aggressive, sometimes all out physical conflict with Eli. It was no secret from the beginning of this film that these two were fundamentally different men. But the extent to which their conflict escalated was much greater than I could have ever anticipated. Their conflict seemed to stem from Eli's firm commitment to his religion, and Daniel's general disinterest and disgust towards it. Each character takes a turn forcing the other to say things that they do not believe. Daniel is forced to say "I am a sinner, I have abandoned my child" while inside Eli's church, and Eli is forced to say, "I am a false prophet, God is a superstition" in the film's final scene. In addition, one critic described the opening scene of the film, in which Daniel breaks his leg, and then crawls out of a pit, as him "crawling out of hell". All these religious references led me to believe that the film's core characters may represent something greater than themselves. In my opinion, the film is about how the industrial revolution affected America as a whole. Daniel, who represents those who profited from the revolution, is portrayed as evil, and devil-like. Eli, who represents those exploited by the revolution, is portrayed as good, and religious. In the end, Daniel beats Eli to death with a bowling pin, and "evil" triumphs over "good", thus revealing the overall theme of the movie: The intense greed and motivation for success that the industrial revolution created was a triumph of immoral values over moral ones.