There Will Be Blood

After briefly satisfying the small percentage of my personality which might still fall under the romantic classification with a viewing of Becoming Jane, the majority of me soon felt it was time to bring out some teeth.

"When ambition meets faith..."

Daniel Plainview and his son, H.W.

That is the tagline for a Golden Globe and Oscar-winning movie I would have tagged more directly as "This movie kicks some serious ass, emotionally and physically..."

Plainview: Are you an angry man, Henry?
Henry Brands: About what?
Plainview: Are you envious? Do you get envious?
Henry Brands: I don't think so. No.
Plainview: I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people.
Henry Brands: That part of me is gone... working and not succeeding- all my failures has left me... I just don't... care.
Plainview: Well, if it's in me, it's in you. There are times when I look at people and I see nothing worth liking. I want to earn enough money that I can get away from everyone.
Henry Brands: What will you do about your boy?
Plainview: I don't know. Maybe it will change. Does your sound come back to you? I don't know. Maybe no one knows that. A doctor might not know that.
Henry Brands: Where is his mother?
Plainview: I don't want to talk about those things. I see the worst in people. I don't need to look past seeing them to get all I need. I've built my hatreds up over the years, little by little, Henry... to have you here gives me a second breath. I can't keep doing this on my own with these... people. [laughs]

This entire movie is worth watching for this scene. That is, of course, if you happen to be an angry, resentful misanthrope...

And no one needs to point out the resemblance of this fictional character to one I have known in another life. I am naive, but not entirely stupid.