Many critics consider Daniel Day-Lewis the most talented character actor living today. Some go as far as calling him the best character actor of all time. In 2017, Day-Lewis announced his retirement from the business. Whether this retirement is permanent or temporary remains to be seen, but the 60-year-old Day-Lewis made this announcement at a time when his career was full of possibility.
Day-Lewis has brought some of the biggest and most controversial characters to life on the big screen. That said, few compare to Daniel Plainview, the obsessive oil prospector he plays in Paul Thomas Anderson's 2007 masterpiece, There Will Be Blood.
Daniel Plainview: Day-Lewis Imbues The Character With Intense Voracity
In There Will Be Blood, every step traversed and every word uttered by Daniel Plainview feels exacting and intentional. Day-Lewis's ability to convey this determination and strength of character in Plainview attests to his supreme acting abilities.
Plainview may be calculating, but he is a ferocious businessman who is willing to take out anyone who gets in his way. His insatiable desires, not just to amass oil, but to control other people, knows no bounds.
Alternative: Abraham Lincoln (Lincoln)
Playing the most recognizable American president of all time, Abraham Lincoln, is no easy feat. But if anyone was up for the job of bringing this 6-foot-4-inch political figure to life, it's Daniel Day-Lewis.
In Steven Spielberg's well-received 2012 biopic Lincoln, which features a screenplay from Tony Kushner, Day-Lewis demonstrates how the 16th president toiled through the final months of the Civil War and abolished slavery before he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 15, 1865. Day-Lewis earned his second acting Oscar for Lincoln.
Daniel Plainview: He Epitomizes Greed
In one of There Will Be Blood's most harrowing scenes, Plainview agrees to repent in Eli Sunday's church so the oilman can build a pipeline across Sunday's land. Plainview sees Sunday, played by Paul Dano, as a hack preacher deceiving his own congregation.
Still, the agnostic Plainview kneels before Sunday in his freshly-built church, where Sunday provokes him into a screaming fit. This scene shows Plainview and Sunday are not very different, as greed and prosperity are more important to them both than anything else.
Alternative: Christy Brown (My Left Foot)
Day-Lewis gained widespread critical acclaim, as well as his first Oscar, playing Irish writer and artist Christy Brown in 1989's My Left Foot. Brown, born with cerebral palsy, was only able to control his left foot.
Brown spent years struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts as a result of his condition, but he was able to work through these emotional and physical upheavals with the help of an attentive caregiver named Eileen Cole, played by Fiona Shaw. Eventually, Brown became an accomplished novelist and painter. In fact, My Left Foot is based on his 1954 memoir of the same name.
Daniel Plainview: His Monologues Are Unforgettable
"I drink your milkshake! I drink it up!" Plainview delivers some of the most quoted and recycled lines in recent cinematic history in There Will Be Blood.
With his ferocious tone and indignant attitude, Day-Lewis gives viewers access to his character's disturbing inner workings through Plainview's monologues. By the end of the film, Plainview makes it clear he has no interest in the opinions of others; his voice should rise above the rest.
Alternative: William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting (Gangs Of New York)
In Martin Scorsese's 2002 period crime drama Gangs of New York, Day-Lewis is almost too believable as the villainous Bill the Butcher. Based on the 19th-century gang leader William Poole, Bill leads the Nativist Protestants in Manhattan's infamous Five Points.
Bill possesses absolutely zero redeeming qualities, and he clearly enjoys murder, mayhem, and whatever else he can stir up against local the local Irish Catholic gang helmed by Leonardo DiCaprio's character, Amsterdam Vallon. Day-Lewis earned one of his many Oscar nominations for his performance in the film.
Daniel Plainview: Day-Lewis Emphasizes Plainview's Physical Decline With His Performance
For much of There Will Be Blood, Plainview relies on his physical strength to literally carve his own oil business out of the unforgiving deserts around Los Angeles. There's no doubt he works hards, toils, and sweats in order to become financially successful.
However, when the film flashes forward to 1927, Plainview is an old man with a stiff back and a drinking problem who has clearly experienced years of physical decline. He hobbles around his mansion by himself, unable to even stand up straight, which raises a vital question central to the film: what was all that hard work even for?
Alternative: Hawkeye (Last Of The Mohicans)
Michael Mann's 1992 epic about the 18th century French and Indian War sees Day-Lewis playing James Fenimore Cooper's "Hawkeye," a white man who was adopted and raised by the Mohican tribe in New York. Considered a beautifully-shot dive into early American history, The Last of the Mohicans showcases the tragic clashes between Indigenous groups and settlers.
While it plays loosely with history, the film's drama and tension hinge on Day-Lewis's engrossing performance. He manages to create depth and dynamism for a character who could easily be very one-dimensional.
Daniel Plainview: It Earned Day-Lewis His Second Oscar
With three Academy Awards under his belt and six nominations, Day-Lewis is only behind Jack Nicholson, who has three wins and 12 nominations, for the most acting Oscars. It's no surprise one of Day-Lewis's wins would be for There Will Be Blood.
Day-Lewis manages to play up Plainview's mysterious past while slowly exposing his character for who he really is: a self-serving metaphor for the "American dream." Like the true method actor he is, Day-Lewis totally loses himself in Plainview's thirst for oil.
Alternative: Reynolds Woodcock (Phantom Thread)
Whether or not Day-Lewis returns to acting, his performance as British dress designer Reynolds Woodcock in Paul Thomas Anderson's 2017 romantic drama, Phantom Thread, will remain a stand-out moment in the actor's impressive career. As Woodcock, Day-Lewis plays an obsessive haute couture icon who finds his latest muse in a foreign waitress named Alma (Vicky Krieps).
To call their relationship tumultuous is an understatement. Woodcock, prone to outbursts and fits, slowly develops a toxic co-dependency with Alma that works as well as it does due to Day-Lewis's unrestrained acting skills.