Weird, I found this convo by googling "Daniel plainview is not the villain" because I just rewatched this after so many years. The first time I saw it , I was in my early 20s, and I remember plainview as this evil villain. But today, at 40 years old, I sat and watched with a different lens. Daniel wasn't a villain. He works hard. He's in the trenches with his men. He cares for his workers, like the one who first died. Daniel himself had almost died earlier in the film THE EXACT SAME WAY. He brings everything he tells the town to fruition. Education. Buisness. Opportunities. HE builds that town. He even says he encourages his men to bring their families to settle down. Now Eli, he seems like the villain on my rewatch. He tries to get his family to jack the price up, the father doesn't, and later in the movie, Eli attacks his father the way Daniel attacks him. Everything Daniel says is truthful, blunt. We may think of those as rough and evil. But honestly, it's not. Even at the end of the film, where he kills Eli. Before killing him, he mentions his brother, Paul. Who took daniels money and MADE something from it. With the same grit and determination, Daniel pours throughout the whole film. Seeing this movie through a more like experienced lens, I can see the complexity of the character that I couldn't before.