American Rhetoric: Movie Speech

"There Will Be Blood" (2007)

Eli Sunday Exorcises an Arthritis Demon at the Church of the Third Revelation

Windows Media Video of Address delivered by Paul Dano

Eli Sunday: I had a vision. Yes, last night I had a vision. And I felt God’s breath flow through me, and it moved down into my stomach. It sloshed around. And my stomach spoke in a whisper, not a shout: “Touch this woman with your hands, and caress her.” My dear Mrs. Hunter, you have arthritis, don’t you?

Mrs. Hunter: Yes, I do, Eli.

Eli Sunday: Yes, the Devil is in your hands and I will suck it out. Now, I will not cast this ghost out with a fever, for the new spirit inside me has shown me I have a new way to communicate. It is a gentle whisper: Get out of here, ghost. Get out of here, ghost. Get out. Get out of here, ghost. Get out of here, ghost. Get out of here, ghost.

  Get out of here and don’t you dare turn around and come back. For if you do, all the armies of my boot will kick you in the teeth. And you will be cast up and thrown in the dirt and thrust back to Perdition. And as long as I have teeth I will bite you. And if I have no teeth, I will gum you. And as long as I have fists, I will bash you. Now get out of here. Get out of here, ghost. Get out of here ghost...And it left!