This brings a question: did Plainview adopt H.W. He takes a kind act, adopting an orphan, and lies to turn it into a means to promote his business. He is capable of good but ultimately is looking out for himself. Here the audience begins to see the complexity of Plainview. Plainview takes advantage of the embedded family values for capitalistic self-promotion. Here the audience sees another vein of American culture: the mixing of family values and capitalism. He uses the child to help him look like a family man, even to the point of making up details like his “wife” dying in childbirth, so that he can get investors. Plainview adopts the child (or pretends to), named H.W. A worker is killed on his site leaving an orphan. He has a contempt for other people and a pursuit for wealth. This entire first scene can be read as foreshadowing for the film to come, taking a metaphorical look into Plainview’s personality. The first scene ends on the same barren landscape that started the film, bookending with the representative wasteland. From the beginning, Plainview is cast as a representative of this self absorbed search. Columbus was looking for a route to India the 49’s were looking for gold etc. There is a similar vein in American history of people seeking their fortune for themselves by themselves. He does not seek help, and he pays for this by having to drag himself through the desert. The audience sees the hyper-individualism of Plainview as he mines for silver. This scene establishes him as a man dedicated to his trade he undergoes a considerable deal of pain to get his money. He walks with a limp for the rest of the film, representing the stifled moral character of Plainview. While mining he falls and breaks his leg, and Plainview drags himself to civilization to trade in his silver. The plot starts with Plainview mining for silver. The audience sees in this landscape both the bankrupt values of Plainview and the emptiness of Americanism. There Will Be Blood opens on a barren landscape. What is America? In There Will Be Blood, Paul Thomas Anderson explores the basis of American culture through the character of Daniel Plainview. There is a direct link between Plainview and this term: both are enigmatic. From the beginning of the film, Plainview is cast as a representative of what I will call Americanism.
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