Daniel was not "evil" or a sociopath

Evil sociopath, I agree with the quotes below from other reviewers, while adding one other comment.

He viewed his son as a resource -In order to promote the idea he was family operation expressly to the folks with children. That's how he won the deal.

He abandoned his boy, because he was deaf and no longer could listen to him rambling. Instead he used his "brother" as a listener. -Then brutally murdered him.

He didn't even bother to learn 'sign language' to communicate with his son

Even his son realized his father never loved him in the last flashback. First it seems like a loving gathering, then Daniel puts Mary instead of H W. on his knee, and cruelly dismisses H. W., kicking and turning his back on him while stomping back up to the rig. You can then see the comprehension hit H. W., it was always like that.

I agree with your comments. This is one thing that bothered me about the movie. I did not find Daniel evil. He did some bad things, but most of them were somewhat gray. The final murder I thought was really not supported by everything leading up to that; nothing justified that, and it was not really consistent with Daniel's prior behavior. (E.g. as you note the prior murder had at least some justification.) The movie would have made more sense (and probably become more cliche) if in fact Daniel had devolved into a purely evil person (e.g. killing or torturing people for no reason, or using violence to obtain land rights etc.); but all the way along he was just mostly bad, with some good traits (e.g. seeming to occasionally show true affection for the boy; e.g. when he took the boy from the explosion and tended to him, and then got the boy a teacher; these are not acts of an evil person). His treatment toward the preacher (leading up to the murder) could be justified as his desire to show the hypocrisy of the preacher. I just found a big disconnect in Daniel's character. Perhaps if Daniel became an evil person we would be saying that this was too predictable, and the movie shows the complexity of human nature; but I found it odd.

It's all in the name: Plainview. He despised anyone who wasn't straight and up front with their motivations in any sort of interaction, whether it was with corporate oil hustlers pretending to have any interest in helping him or HW, with Eli's proselytizing (which Plainview saw purely as an attempt to control him), and of course his phony brother "Henry," the worst offender of them all. There was plenty of hypocrisy in Plainview's anger toward those he perceived as deceptive, since he himself entered situations under false pretenses, as when he first set foot on the Sunday ranch. One could argue he had to be this way occasionally by necessity of his trade, and if we could ask him he'd probably excuse himself for exactly that reason.

He's a brilliant character worthy of much discussion. I wouldn't call Plainview evil, but I would say he exhibited sociopath behavior. When Plainview threatened to cut the throat (and mean it) of the jerky guy from Union Oil, that was way over the line and the best indicator of his sociopath tendencies. As for murdering Henry, if that were Plainview's only instance of his anger and his uncharitable view of humankind leading to a most antisocial act, then I'd forgive that as a crime born of an intense burst of understandable rage. After that he killed Eli for similar reasons, ridding his life of a deceptive person who thought he could control him. If he wasn't locked up for this killing, then more surely would've followed.

I agree that everyone misinterprets Daniel as an evil sociopath, especially in regards to HW. Often I find people just regurgitate someone else's analysis of a film because that is the common conception, rather than looking for evidence they see within the film to support their argument.

When looking for meaning in films, it's often important to take note of scenes and situations which have parallels to other scenes and situations in the film, as these often show change within the story and characters between those moments. For example, one situation that is repeated in the film is Daniel sitting in the train with HW.

Early on, when HW is still a baby, we see them sitting in a train together. HW is tugging on Daniel's moustache and Daniel smiles happily. They are about to start a new life together. Later on, when HW is being sent off to a school for the deaf, Daniel tells HW he is going to see the conductor, and we can clearly see tears of sadness coming from his eyes when he leaves him. Their bond is about to be broken.

These two moments of genuine emotion show a side of Daniel that a lot of viewers tend to ignore when trying to paint him as a sociopath. Given his emotional reaction, it's clear he feels upset and guilty at sending HW off without him, and this is not something a sociopath would do.

He was a narcissistic anti social power hungry alcoholic sociopath For almost three hours

Dude, we all have problems and hate the world from time to time but we don't don't go around killing and destroying those who are weaker than us. Plainview is pure sociopath scum.