Little Boston: The Opening Scenes

You follow the life of Daniel Plainview through the whole movie seeing him climb to a place of power, both in his control over others and in his amassing of wealth. In the opening scenes you see him literally climbing up a ladder over and over illustrating his work ethic and stay-on-task drive, and then you see him fall breaking his leg at the bottom of the prospecting pit. In spite of his obvious pain he scrambles to find the silver he sought and gets himself to the surface. The pan up over the looming landscape, which separates him from civilization and help, was immense and full of obstacles, but you know he has no choice but to take it on.

You don’t see him do it, but you imagine him dragging his body up and over the mountains. Then you finally do see him lying on the floor staking his claim while he still lies there with his broken leg unattended. The help he needed was subordinate to his hell-bent focus on his task.  Embodied in these few scenes there is a huge insight into his character.It is the whole story metaphorically revealed. Something more than just a leg was broken in that man and what it was we are never really sure, yet we can know that the complications from it were huge.

With that opening scene showing that vast amount of ground to cover we begin to see how he maneuvers through situations, and it foretells something of what his life is all about. I thought these scenes were amazing.

Mise en Scene!

Thank you for all of these thoughts and responses. I believe that I have thought about this movie more than any other movie in recent times, yet it is quite impressive to see that there are so many others who are doing the same. The visual power of this film to me seems to be in large part why the film makes such an impact, but it is also the way this story is intertwined with the visual style. That fetching image of Daniel with the baby on the train as you say is indelible. So many visual images like that carry the story forward.

I am personally glad that the scene of Daniel dragging himself over the landscape was not included in the film now that you mention it was in the script. What a good call. It fits with a kind of less is more, minimalist feeling, but even more importantly it also draws in the viewer to make links, to visualize and think about what is being seen.

Then you finally do see him lying on the floor staking his claim while he still lies there with his broken leg unattended.

Actually, I noticed he was wearing a splint on his broken leg as he was lying on the floor. I don't know if he made it himself, but I doubt it. It looked pretty decent. I've broken my leg before and oh my god the pain...I couldn't imagine dragging my body across that landscape! I certainly agree with everything else you said though, Ann. I think even if someone helped him splint the leg, it was obvious that the leg wasn't as important as his greed.

I'm with you, EOTW. My grandfather, himself an oil field worker, in his old age would pull out by hand whichever of his teeth were giving him trouble. He lived to be 95 and was probably suckled on beer.

Thank you for your comments NickelDime, as I had not been thinking about the fall in the opening scenes to symbolize a break with spiritual quest or connection. I had not considered Jacob’s Ladder or the idea of the ladder in that sense. But there it is. I had not thought of that fall as significantly as that.

In the opening scenes I had considered that the fall was indicating that Daniel was carrying around in him something broken inside and in spite of that was able to push forward, although I had been thinking mainly about his early life and relationships with family. I also felt that what was “broken” within him basically fueled his momentum to move forward toward personal gain. I now see that a “spiritual break” has even more power to reveal insights and fits well with this idea of what is broken can fuel him on. It does in fact carry another level of interpretation to other scenes, maybe even a key to understanding some actions that take place later. I also see that both interpretations can still apply.

I don’t think that the mineshaft has to symbolize hell if Daniel does not have a heaven concept because there seems to be no evidence that he has a fear of hell. Ironically there seems to be a kind of hell-concept is what he makes of his life on earth. His heaven and hell concept may be one in the same or perhaps just eradicated as any guidelines for his life. I had not really been grasping the significance of the biblical symbolism.
The rebirth is like coming up out of the earth anew with wealth (not heaven) as his dream perhaps. It is possible to start thinking about a number of things in this direction. Daniel seems to become his own god-figure. As the story moves forward to the end Daniel ascends from dredging oil, anointed head to toe with oil and the touch of the soiling earth to dredging power and dominance metaphorically with “a straw”. He resides in his removed kingdom surrounded by the faceless, nameless men, perhaps his own avenging angels, yet no one can really live in the house of this Lord, Daniel---at least not happily or for very long. I can see this now as a symbolic image hinged to the spiritual/biblical realm because I can see “the fall” differently. Now I really have to see the movie again!

Just as an aside, if you have not checked out the documentary "Touching the Void" do so. It will give you some idea of what it's like to crawl across a mountain with a broken leg and the willpower it takes to do it. Incredible and gripping!

http://www.noordinaryjoe.co.uk/tvandfilm.asp