Daniel Day-Lewis has gotten an almost historic amount of praise for once again returning to movies every five years. “”There Will Be Blood” features Day-Lewis as the bitter, greedy, and ultimately crazed Daniel Plainview, an oilman who loses his mind looking for a big strike. This may be Day-Lewis’s most worshiped part since the last time he played a psychopath five years ago. In “Gangs of New York” Day-Lewis played the bitter, greedy, and ultimately crazed Bill the Butcher, an 1860’s gang leader who loses his mind looking for a big strike against Irish immigrants. Daniel Plainview and Bill the Butcher are cutthroat, evil people, so it appears Day-Lewis is repeating himself by playing a villain twice in a row. At least that’s how it looks at first. But Plainview and Bill have a lot more differences behind their respective, Day-Lewis inspired madness.
Occupations
Bill the Butcher: A Civil War era gang leader in New York.
Plainview: A turn of the 20th century oil man in California- a true East Coast vs. West Coast comparison.
Motivation for their evil deeds
Bill the Butcher: Wants to drive every single immigrant out of New York’s Five Points, one way or another.
Plainview: Wants to make enough money to seclude himself from humanity.
The one thing that softens them
Bill the Butcher: His love for America.
Plainview: His love for his son H.W.
Level of bloodthirsty-ness
Bill the Butcher: Kills an endless supply of his enemies the whole way though.
Plainview: Subdued until the end.
Young arch-enemies
Bill the Butcher: Revenge seeking Amsterdam Vallon, the son of the immigrant leader he killed 16 years ago.
Plainview: Equally scheming preacher Eli Sunday.
Level of respect for enemies
Bill the Butcher: Amsterdam’s father is the only enemy he’s ever killed worth remembering, and he honors his defeat every year. Initially embraces Amsterdam as a son until he discovers who he actually is, yet he spares his life when he could have killed him much earlier.
Plainview: Completely and utterly loathes Eli and all he stands for.
Mode of getting what they want
Bill the Butcher: Doesn’t even bother to manipulate his enemies- he just chops them up with a butcher’s axe.
Plainview: Sweet-talking investors when not downright manipulating them, draining oil from competitors land. But he doesn’t kill any of them….most of the way through.
Level of success
Bill the Butcher: No matter how many immigrants he kills, they just keep coming and coming, making his quest a lost cause to everyone but him..
Plainview: Slowly but surely gets richer, succeeds in tricking and holding off everyone except for Eli.
Closely confides in
Bill the Butcher: Amsterdam, until finding out the truth about him.
Plainview: His long lost half-brother Henry- who also has some secrets.
Level of insane behavior
Bill the Butcher: Constant most of the way through. A crazy killer almost from the start.
Plainview: Not until the last 20 minutes, but that more than makes up for the lack of over the top behavior beforehand. Still, he takes more time to lose his mind.
Craziest line
Bill the Butcher: “WHOOPSY DAISY!”
Plainview: ‘I….drink….your….MILKSHAKE!! SLUUURPPP!! I DRINK IT UP!!”
Biggest props
Bill the Butcher: The American flag.
Plainview: His son H.W.
Level of Daniel Day-Lewis praise
Bill the Butcher: About half of the critics loved “Gangs of New York” and half hated it- but the only thing they agreed on was that they loved Day-Lewis.
Plainview: Most critics loved “There Will Be Blood” but Day-Lewis was the main reason that several loved it enough to compare it to “Treasure of the Sierra Madre” and “Citizen Kane” among other legendary films.
Day-Lewis awards
Bill the Butcher: Day-Lewis split pre-Oscar awards with Jack Nicholson, but both lost the Oscar to Adrien Brody.
Plainview: Garnered Day-Lewis pretty much every major pre-Oscar award there is, and made him the gigantic favorite to win his second Oscar.
Do they win at the end?
Bill the Butcher: No way.
Plainview: Yes and no- he loses just as much as he wins.
Famous last words
Bill the Butcher: “Thank God….I die a true American.”
Plainview: “I’m finished!”
