Note: This column contains spoilers of Gangs of New York and There Will Be Blood.
Daniel Day-Lewis is my favorite American actor, even though he’s not American and rarely acts. In his last two major motion pictures, Day-Lewis brilliantly projects both sides of a quintessential American coin. In Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York, Bill the Butcher is the embodiment of raw political talent. Likewise, Daniel Plainview is a flawless portrait of economic determination in Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. Both characters take the American persona to its logical extreme, and Day-Lewis’ portrayals are rife with the passion and zeal that make these historical caricatures unassailable in their Americanness. The essence of Bill the Butcher and Daniel Plainview have shaped this land politically, economically, and culturally for the last 400 years. In all their grotesque splendor, these two men, more than any other combination of adjacent characters, are who we are. This nation rose to prominence on ambition, aptitude, and ruthless opportunism. And like this nation, these two men are propelled by their need to be masters of their environment and lust for absolute control, even when it means sacrificing any trace of humanist spirit. And indeed, they conquer everything in their path, until they learn (coincidentally at the moment each loses his adopted son) that all things are impermanent and the unmanageable nature of existence ultimately triumphs.
In real life, Daniel Day-Lewis is very much the opposite. When Scorsese located him to do Gangs of New York, the Academy Award-winning actor was living under the radar in Italy, obsessed with the craft of shoemaking to the point that locals thought he was apprenticing to become a cobbler. Day-Lewis hadn’t worked in almost half a decade, and dreaded returning to Hollywood. However, once he took the role, he fully immersed himself. For the duration of the shooting, on and off camera, he was the American tyrant, an inhuman icon willing to sacrifice everything in order to dominate the landscape. And he made everyone else involved in the world of cinema that year look like an understudy. After the film, he retreated from public view again, and aside from a role in an independent film made by his wife, Day-Lewis stayed away from the big screen for another half-decade. Then, a few months ago, he returned, playing another tyrant, this one an obsessed hunter of the black blood that has dominated American life throughout the last century.
The Bill the Butcher/Daniel Plainview vanguard is the current model of American leadership. They made this nation the way it is, and they are who we are destined to become. The leaders of this land treat other world leaders as, at best, contrivances to do our bidding, and at worst, ideologue hell-bent on our destruction. Most importantly, they are never treated as equals. The U.S. government writes their policy, exploits their resources, and/or threatens their viability. And our leaders do this offensively, like bullies, because they have always done things this way, and it has always worked.
I have tremendous respect for a man who is fascinated by and spends years of his life observing the art of making shoes, especially if the man has the talent and charisma to dominate.
But will it continue to work? If one day the world changes and populations can no longer be bullied, coerced, and manipulated, or even worse, if it becomes apparent that our political and economic might will no longer protect us from the realities of life outside of our borders, will our leaders be able to adapt and retract themselves? Will they be able to do what the Daniel Day-Lewis characters could not, or will they insist on continuing to trample the Earth, riding high on wheels out of kilter? Will the powers that be sacrifice our soul in order to dominate the environment?
I think of myself as a simple person. I aim to be content with what I have, and I intend to constantly appreciate the beauty of this existence. Therefore, I have tremendous respect for a man who is fascinated by and spends years of his life observing the art of making shoes, especially if the man has the talent and charisma to dominate. This man knows the true meaning of enrichment, and in the 21st Century, the quality is rare. Among the individuals who lead our nation, the quality is non-existent. I try to imagine what the world could be like if these leaders were rational individuals, free from the desire to impose their will on all they see. But I can’t, because I can’t imagine any American of significant power willing to submit humbly to a simple cobbler.
Andrew Williams lives in Brooklyn and battles entropy in Manhattan. He enjoys epic sagas and bicycling.
-Andrew Williams