After 20 minutes of scrabbling in the hard earth, you hear the voice: a throaty thunderclap that growls into a barking baritone. then comes the face: grizzled, hirsute, eyes flashing with mad
brilliance.

Playing him, Daniel Day-lewis channels the spirit of John huston’s land tycoon Noah Cross in Chinatown and adds a touch of the Big Bad Wolf for good measure. the end result is a force
of nature, a misanthropic bluster that cares little for humanity or even god.

Yet nothing explains the sheer commanding power of his presence on screen. like the oil that Plainview covets, Day-Lewis’s bravura turn springs like a geyser from dark depths – summoned to the surface in an unstoppable torrent. as he strikes it rich, cinema does too.

Greatest moment: His theory of capitalism: “If I have a milkshake and you have a milkshake and I have a straw…”

Also See: Christy Brown (My Left Foot), Hawkeye (The Last Of The Mohicans), Gerry Conlon (In The Name Of The Father), Bill Cutting (Gangs Of New York).