In this strange, intense movie, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (BOOGIE NIGHTS), the earth is a harsh, dangerous mistress, poised at any moment to reverse pressure on those trying to suck oil out of it and impale them with parts of a drill rig.

It’s a hard forge and a harder man aims to hammer it.

Early 1900s rural California is meticulously recreated, a barren landscape, virtually devoid of women.

Plainview is an oil seller, but a snake oil salesman. Every word he speaks is a carefully considered brick in a wall of scamming. Every conversation has coiled-up violence behind it. More Machiavellian than Machiavelli seems to be his motto.

He’s not a people person, because he hates people. All people. But at least initially he’s pretty good at faking it, bringing along his small son (he claims to be a widower) to sales pitches because people can’t resist a cute kid, and a puppy couldn’t do chores.

He buys up all the land in a small California town and finds his only opposition is a young fire-and-brimstone minister.

This is a better performance than a movie, but it’s riveting. Almost certain to get an Oscar nomination. At times Daniel Day-Lewis seems to be channeling the John Huston character in CHINATOWN.

This isn’t really even a tale of greed, because money ultimately gives no pleasure to this man.

Strangely, at times I found myself rooting for the guy. There’s a malicious fun to be had in watching the gears turning in his head, as he finds ways to turn anything anyone says to him to his advantage.

To quote the villain in SUPERMAN III ostensibly quoting Genghis Khan, “It is not enough that I succeed. Everyone else must fail.”

Incidentally, the last Upton Sinclair novel adaptation was the 1967 Disney musical THE GNOME-MOBILE!