As with «The Crucible,» Day - Lewis» big explosion — this time into outright stark -
raving, animalistic rage, drooling and towering over Eli while pushing at him to tease him — wouldn't count for much if not for the slow - burn of the rest of the performance, with the actor's gradual shift from at least somewhat human to All - Powerful American Businessman as a
Monster shown
by his body going from upright to crooked, his face from quietly hateful to anything but.