Latest / All The Right Movies / There Will Be Blood (2007) | Ep. 19 - Part 1

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There Will Be Blood (2007) | Ep. 19 - Part 1 · All The Right Movies

0:04
Other movies, if you have a milkshake and I have a milkshake
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and I have a straw, there it is. That's a straw you see watching.
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My straw reaches across the room and starts to drink your
0:27
milkshake. I drink your milkshake.
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Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood was released in
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2007 as an instant classic. The story of an oil tycoon's
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rise to power in 1900s America, the film was a critical smash
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award darling and is now acclaimed as one of the great
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films this century. My name is John and with me
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today are a couple of sinners asking for salvation.
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That's Matt. They should have put you in a
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glass jar on the mantelpiece. And Westie.
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You're just a bastard from a basket.
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Bastard from a basket. All the right movies are the
1:03
third revelation, and we're talking a 21st century classic.
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There might be milkshake. They'll probably be oil.
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There will be blood. Hello and welcome to all the
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right movies. Or all the right movies in this
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case, isn't it? Let's talk about bread.
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The podcast on classic and hit films It is.
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Today we've slithered out of our mother's filth to talk one of
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the most acclaimed films of recent years.
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It's Paul Thomas Anderson and the two Daniels D Lewis in
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Plainview. As we talk, There Will Be Blood
1:58
where he had to deliver some good old fashioned plain
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speaking, right? All right.
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Yeah, definitely. Yes, we are royal men.
2:06
Before we do that though, should we mention Patreon do you think?
2:09
I think we should. I think that's a great idea.
2:12
So if you're a fan of what we do when would like us to keep doing
2:14
it, please help support that by becoming In All the Right
2:16
movies. Patron patrons gain access to
2:19
Patreon only podcast shows and access to our full archive of
2:22
classic episodes like this one. The archives pretty huge and
2:26
right now there's about 200 hours worth of podcasts to
2:28
listen to in there and growing. So if you like PTA, Boogie
2:32
Nights is in there. Yep, and lots of classics.
2:35
Jaws read those of the Lost ark, the Godfather, Alien, all in
2:39
there and more. Yep.
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Absolutely. If you sign up for that, then
2:43
you will have struck oil and if enough of you sign up, so will
2:47
we. So when?
2:48
When? Gold all over the place.
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Good news all around. So to find out more in Sign No,
2:53
please visit patreon.com/all the Right Movies.
2:57
Yes, please do. For now, though, it's back to
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the crazy oil prospector. It's There will be blood and you
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put this one up, Matt. So why was that?
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Because I think this one, it just could through immediately
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on release and it just felt, ah, he's a film people will talk
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about for a long time. You know, as soon as he came
3:17
out, people were yelling drainage and milkshake.
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And I didn't know the sad line and sort of saw the film.
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And I'm a huge PTA fan anyway, you know, every film's great so
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far, but this one just feels like a real statement from him.
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And you mentioned that, John, the last podcast we did before
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we took a break to do Youtubes of what's Boogie Nights.
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And I think it's going to be really interesting to contrast
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how he's developed from that film to this one.
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And so far, we've never talked about Daniel Day Lewis, an
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absolute living legend. So for a film that you can
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describe as well, an oil man gets in a conflict with the
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local pastor, there's a hell of a lot to get into about it.
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Yeah. There is, and for me, I don't
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really remember this coming out on its release.
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It slipped under the radar a bit for me at the time, and I think
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I only really became aware of it when we got to award season
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because it was up for so many different awards and so many
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different categories, like the direction, the writing, acting,
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cinematography, music, all acclaimed in this movie.
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And we're going to be talking about all those aspects of the
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film. Obviously some big names in
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there. Paul Thomas Anderson, one of the
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big directors of the last 20 years I saw, and Daniel D Lewis,
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one of the biggest acting talents of the last 20 years I
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saw. Some great and hilarious behind
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the scenes stories as well. So stick around as it should be
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a good one. Yeah, definitely.
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Also love milkshakes. Me, do you love them?
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I will drink your milkshake, literally. $5.
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It's a pretty good. Movie fucking good milkshake.
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So I see why they will be good for you.
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It's was so big when I'd I'd heard, I got kind of annoyed
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when it came out at the cinema cause a fair few friends of mine
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have seen it and they were like, it's, it's, it's one of the best
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films I've seen in the decade. It's absolutely incredible.
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And when I hear that from that many people, I start getting
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pissed off. It's like, I just got into The
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White Stripes last week. I don't want to follow the
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trend. Do you know what I mean?
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And just dive on it. And then just being the same as
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everyone else. I was like, no, I'm gonna wait
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then no, I'm gonna wait. I'll go watch it in the on time
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and I did and it's just from when I was growing up, like
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watching films with me dad. It seems like every film that
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has oil in it is just massive. It's a giant hellfighters
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Armageddon. It's just like.
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I can't believe you've got Armageddon.
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There will be good. Podcast, It's a joke and it's
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just, yeah, it's brilliant. It addresses so many brilliant
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issues and the performances are just so mind boggling legal, the
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directions so assured. It looks amazed and it sounds
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amazed and it is amazed and it follows, like the birth of
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capitalism, the industrial revolution, it follows all of
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these kind of really heavy themes and it's just a
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brilliant, brilliant film. I've watched it four times in
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the last four days and I don't really think I've cracked it
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yet. So yeah, let's get into it.
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So when did you watch it for the first time then if you waited
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for it? It would have been a couple of
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years after, like you probably after the award season, right?
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And it was like, all right, Robert Elswick shot this and I
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was I got it on the special edition DVD.
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That was kind of like a little Bible, right?
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Pulled it out and I was like, OK, I'm watching this on you one
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time. And that once that faded out and
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everyone else talking about it, then I was straight on Facebook
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and There Will be Bloods and absolute masterpiece.
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And I was like, yeah, well, but knew that four years, which is
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classic me. So They Will Be Blood was
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produced by Gulardi Film Company and Scott Rudin Productions,
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distributed by Paramount and Miramax, and released on
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December the 26th, 2007. Filmed in Marfa, Texas and Los
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Angeles, it was written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
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and stars Daniel D Lewis's Daniel Plainview.
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Paul Dano was Paul and Eli Sunday, Kevin G O'connors Henry,
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Kieran Hinders, Fletcher Hamilton and Dylan Frazier and
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Russell Harvard as HW Plainview. No women, which is ridiculous.
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There will be men. But crank up the oil, Derek.
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Up next, we're talking the beginning of There Will Be
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Blood. The opening act of There will be
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blurred and reduces us to our main characters, the world of
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turn of the century oil prospecting and sets the story
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in motion. And we have two big moments to
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talk about. Daniel Plainview buying the land
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from the Sunday family that will become the setting for most of
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the film is coming up. First though, it's the opening
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on the introduction to Daniel, isn't it?
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So There Will Be Blood opens in late 19th century America, 1898
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New Mexico to be precise, as Daniel Plainview discovers gold
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in a near wordless opening 14 minutes we introduced to Daniel,
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see him getting involved in the oil business and adopt an orphan
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boy HW. Yeah.
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Very visual as an opening Westy. How was this as a way to start
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the film? It's an incredible piece of
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visual storytelling. It's a short film in itself.
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I think the only lines of dialogue is there.
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She is, yeah. It's fantastic.
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Just that the way it's paced, the way it moved.
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Blink and you'll miss it. There's so much in this opening
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sequence where you have to really engage and watch it.
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And that's what PTA is doing and saying you, you miss a second of
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this film. You lost.
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Yeah. It's like missing a train.
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It's gone and you can't catch up.
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It just moves at that pace, but it's slow.
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So he's basically by himself in the middle of Norway with that
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much drive to just dig a hole in the ground and look for
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something. And then you see that that push
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to the the mountains after he's broken his leg and you think
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he's got to get through there to get back to the town.
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He's got to do that by himself. And that act and that piece and
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of music where it's just, it sounds like, you know, the THX
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advert in the cinema. It's got that really football
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and it but it's the minor version of that.
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It's like the Joker's version of that, like Dark Knight.
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So I mean, the sound of the oil swooshing about, all the tools,
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the sounds of the accidents are so visceral, even though you
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don't really see anything. It's just so powerfully done
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through the sound design and it just keeps punching you in the
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face and punching you in the face.
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I mean, even when baby HW starts crying, it's in the score.
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Yeah, it's not actually the sound of a baby.
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It's just this really high pitched guitar thing.
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It's just wailing a little bit, just in the background again, a
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wonderful, wonderful piece of very, very confident
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storytelling from Paul Thomas Anderson.
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It's like, if you're going to do 15 minutes from the opening,
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seeing him sat next to the fire to when he's on the train with
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the baby is absolutely Immaculate.
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Film Megan. Yeah, it is a great opening
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sequence and first few seconds. I think you could stop the film
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after 10 seconds and ask me what genre I thought we were
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watching. I'd probably have said a horror
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because mainly of the music. We'll talk about the music from
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Johnny Greenwood a bit later, but the visuals are just
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stunning. Say, Born Tomahawk, isn't it?
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Take a horror. Yeah, exactly.
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Yeah, the opening shot of those huge, vast Texas mountains
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influenced by The Shining reminds me of it, anyway.
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Well, the end is we'll get to that.
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Yeah, well, yeah. And it is masterful visual
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storytelling with pretty much no dialogue.
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Anderson feeds us the start of the narrative.
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Daniel discovers silver, makes a lot of money takes on HW was
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adopted soon and we understand that Daniel's a driven
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sociopathic note case I mean. Monster.
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Yeah, I'll show you talk about there, Westie, when he breaks
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his leg and the camera pans up and we see he's got the crawl
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miles. I mean, most people are making
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that, but Daniel does. And keeps an eye on them as well
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when they're doing the stuff with the silver on the crush and
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he's still looking at them. Brilliant.
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Really. Just what is?
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What's happening? Brilliant.
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Brilliant signature as well. Fucking.
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Yeah, incredible cinematography already and just, I think, a
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brilliant way to open the film. Yeah.
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And Matt, the opening sequence for you.
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Yeah, it's spellbinding, isn't it?
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I mean, the way it opens for that screech and discord and
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music reminds me the opener 2001.
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You know it. Sources for that black?
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Yeah, that radium settling open. That's what rhymes me often, But
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what stands out to me is how different it is to all those
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other films. Because one point I'll come back
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to you a few times is how much this film signifies how he's
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changed as a director. Like you think of Boogie Nights,
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that ridiculous opening Steadicam shot into the club and
11:06
around the characters. Scorsese, isn't it?
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Yeah. Crazy.
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Very Scorsese or Magnolia opening with that huge montage
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sequences of all those little individual stories that all tie
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together. And then you've got this and
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it's so methodical, it's so slow, it's so steady, very
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patient Lords really like fascinating close-ups.
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The characters are all very still in the frame and the fact
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that there's no dialogue thing that just congresss to how
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verbose the open institute of the films are.
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And it just feels like he's he's like calmed down as a director.
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He doesn't need to show off in the same way that he used to in
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his other films right from the beginning.
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And at this point, to me, he doesn't even feel like APTA
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film. It feels like it's completely
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different director. But I think by the time you get
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to that scene of Daniel Hall on himself across that land with a
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broken leg, you think, yeah, there's just no way I'm turning
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this off. Like where's this going from
11:57
here? He's gone from like Scorsese to
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John Ford. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
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Yeah, totally. Yeah, the opening scene where we
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see Daniel mining for silver and gold was shot at a real mine.
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It's called the Presidio mine in the town called Shafter, Texas.
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And Shafter was booming mine in town in the early 1900s.
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But by the time they came to film, there was only 11 people
12:14
who had lived there. Wow.
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Because obviously you've got to just crawl out.
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Yeah. Wow, 11 people. 11 people, yeah.
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You would love that. Wesley wouldn't.
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You. I'd fucking love it.
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That's too many. Ten too many.
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So what's in it? Because we're taught by this
12:30
being like saw dialogue free. The first line in the film is
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Daniel say no, and then there she is.
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And that happens 4 minutes and 55 seconds into it.
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The next line of dialogue isn't for another 15 minutes.
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And there was this interview PTA did where he said, well I've
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also had the stream where I could make a movie that had no
12:45
dialogue in it, just music and pictures.
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And the closest I ever got was the beginning of There Will Be
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Blood. Right.
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Imagine that though. Go and see PTA's new film and
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nobody says a word for the whole thing for.
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The artist. We at the end.
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I'm surprised his first line wasn't.
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I'm an oil man. You see it often enough.
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I'm a silver man until I'm married.
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Arsenal interview with Daniel D Lewis where we said that the
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original script, the one that you signed up to do, had no
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dialogue for the 1st 30 minutes. Yeah, I can see that.
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I don't even think the film needs dialogue, to be honest.
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Yeah, so he doesn't have a lot to say in the opening.
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There Will Be Blood, Paul Thomas Anderson.
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But he has plenty to show us, doesn't he?
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Yeah, which gives him a lot to say.
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Yeah, having been introduced to Daniel and his adopted son HW,
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the story starts to move or be. It's still not exactly a
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breakneck pace, but having been visited by Paul Sunday informing
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of his family's oil rich farm in California, Daniel heads West
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with HW. There he visits the Sundays to
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negotiate a deal for the land. With family head Able and his
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other son Eli, Daniel tries to screw them right over.
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Oh. Absolutely, you quail prices.
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How's this scene, Matt? I love the intriguing nature of
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it, how it's set up, because it's Paul who is the first one
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who reports as Daniel and then disappears from the film.
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And it's like the opening, it's so carefully pierced.
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I love that push in. You get on Daniel's face as
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Paul's talking about the land, and Daniel slowly gets more and
14:21
more interested in what he's got to say.
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And it's really great visual storytelling because before
14:26
this, when Daniel's been negotiating with other
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townsfolk, you never see them. You only hear them.
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You only focus on Daniel. But here you get on Paul, equal
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focus, because this is different.
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It's not, you know, Daniel just pull them off on townsfolk and
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then walking away. But Paul is important, this
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discussion. And there's that nice little bit
14:43
of foreshadowing you get where that's that sort of Paul and he
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swimmed in between Daniel and HW because Eli Paul's double will
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obviously come between Daniel or try to nice Daniel and HW later.
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And really like I want to Paul's first questions that Daniel is,
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you know, what religion do you practice and he's almost stumped
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by that just. Like them all like.
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I enjoy all faiths. Like it's such a bullshit
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answer. Absolute bollocks as well.
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Bollocks, you just want to argue with it.
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No, you can't. But that's like religion is
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Daniel's one weakness in the film.
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It's the one thing he can't like buy offer he can't get a hold
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of, you know, he can't threaten it.
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He just can't comprehend it. He can't come and that religion
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is as important to money to some people because money is only
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thing important to him. So, you know, he just doesn't
15:26
get it. Not really.
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Just sets up nicely the conflict that's going to come with Eli
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once Eli arrives on the scene. Yeah, I think it's an excellent
15:33
scene. I think, like good film makers
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often do, PTA doesn't waste aligning a dialogue.
15:38
No, he's always pushing the narrative or revealing character
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or giving us exposition. And there's lots.
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Yeah, Daniel tells Abel he wants to buy the land to go quail
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hunting, so we know he's very comfortable lying out of his ass
15:49
to get what he wants. And there's a moment I like when
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Eli wants to pray. At the end of the scene.
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He takes Daniel's hand, and Daniel, like, wrenches it away,
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and he's furious. You can tell he's raging inside.
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Sets with the baptism scene later on, nicely.
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And this scene also sets up the scene between Eli and Abel later
16:06
on, when Eli's telling Abel he's a stupid man for letting Daniel
16:09
walk all over them. I've got to be fair.
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Eli doesn't do much better. And Wesley, how was this one for
16:17
you? Fantastic stuff.
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And when you see Eli for the first time bringing the wood
16:21
over and he drops it, he turns down and looks at him and he's
16:23
kind of like, are you the same fucking you taking the piss?
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Like who are you? And he never let's on.
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He never talks about Paul. I would be no, the first thing I
16:33
would say is like you look just like Paul and it would just be
16:36
like instinctual. That's why I'm not a bastard.
16:39
But I guess like and he knows that.
16:41
And when they find the oils great, he likes it on the stick
16:43
and he just he knows what the crack is, but it's just the way
16:45
that the shots hold in this sequence.
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It holds on that white shot framing everybody on the table
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and holds on that for ages. And again, it's the
16:53
foreshadowing because all HW does in the opening first act is
16:57
listens. He never speaks.
16:59
All he does is listen. And when that's taken away, his
17:01
power is taken away because he sits and just looks at every
17:03
situation and you see him framed in this and it doesn't push in
17:07
until the mention oil. And then it pushes into a mid
17:10
shot and it takes Abel straight out of there and there's just
17:13
the three of them talking. And then when he starts talking
17:15
about the church, it punches into a close up, over the
17:17
shoulder, back and forth, and it gets more intense.
17:19
It's just the way that's framed and how that's done.
17:22
And it's so subtle but so brilliantly, brilliantly pulled
17:25
off, I think, by everybody. It's a short choices here and
17:28
the dialogue and the performances that just really,
17:30
really make you sit down and go, right.
17:31
I'm in for this ride. Yeah.
17:33
Yeah, I love all those moments where Daniel sort of teaching HW
17:36
about searching for royal because he's sort of teaching us
17:39
at the same time and lets us know not just as Daniel know
17:41
what he's talking about, but so does Paul Thomas Anderson.
17:44
So I feel like we're in safe hand.
17:45
He studies research. Yeah, and he's a genuinely nice
17:47
person with HW he's stayed genuinely just wants him to be,
17:50
wants him to be his partner. He wants to succeed, but he
17:53
just, he funny spots a weakness he has to get.
17:55
It's the same. That's why he sees religion as a
17:57
weakness. You know that that's that's not
17:59
making you who you are. You're not thinking straight.
18:01
You just, you know, it's pie in the sky, your head somewhere
18:03
else. You believe in something that
18:04
doesn't exist. It's stupid to him.
18:06
So he needs that kind of grounding, and you really get it
18:09
from the character here. And that is the first act of
18:12
There will be blood, No blood yet.
18:14
Not yet. Or milkshake yet.
18:17
But we have met all of our main characters and engaging from the
18:20
off isn't. It absolutely the director.
18:30
There Will Be Blood was directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, not to
18:33
be confused with Paul WS Anderson.
18:36
Different styles. Yeah, it's a world of pain right
18:38
there. And they will be blood with
18:41
PTA's fifth film after Hard 8, Boogie Nights, Magnolia and
18:45
Punch Drunk Love. Yeah, there will be blood
18:48
though. Westy.
18:48
How's PTA's work here as director?
18:51
Very, very refined. He's working his way to this
18:54
point. And you can see he's almost.
18:57
Well, yeah, no pun intended. And he's really hit a peak here
19:02
and it's wonderful to see this kind of pace in a film that came
19:05
out in 2007. I think I've heard Tarantino
19:08
talking about this film and he's best mates with PTA and he's
19:11
turned and he was, he's jealous of this film.
19:12
I think nobody else was doing this, not to this standard.
19:15
It's really John Ford. It's really old school, but it's
19:18
really new. Putting D Lewis in there and
19:20
making them is is such a character actor really, really
19:24
gives the film some gravitas. And I think Paul Thomas Anderson
19:27
is really enjoying himself here. He's really having a good time
19:30
and he's really taking his time. And he doesn't care if you don't
19:33
follow it. He doesn't care if you don't
19:35
like it. I think this is just for his
19:36
film where he's went. I want to make a classic
19:38
Hollywood film on location, in the elements.
19:42
Any of this on a sound stage, it loses it completely.
19:44
Any of this with any CGI work, it loses it completely.
19:47
It's all practical, it's all classical.
19:50
It's all old lenses, old cameras.
19:52
It's really, really beautiful filmmaking to the biggest epic
19:55
scale that you can get. But at the same time, a very
19:57
simple and very boiled down story about what everybody
20:00
understands. And he nails it, absolutely
20:03
nails it. But while we were editing this,
20:06
Robert Altman died. So I mean, I know PTA was close
20:09
and that's why this is dedicated to where about.
20:11
Ogle. Oh yeah, yeah.
20:12
Right. Yeah, I think just watch Boogie
20:14
Nights on Magnolia. And I think Altman's influence
20:16
on Anderson's pretty obvious. Absolutely.
20:18
Newscast. Yeah.
20:20
I mean, he already made some really good films before this,
20:22
Paul Thomas Anderson. But I think his skillet, a
20:24
director, seems to jump quite a lot with There Will Be Blood.
20:27
Apparently, they'd often shoot scenes in different locations
20:30
and then decide which works best.
20:31
So there was a real fluidity to the process.
20:34
But one of my favorite scenes the PC is all over is where
20:37
Daniel literally rubs Eli's face in the mud.
20:39
Yeah, yeah. Which is hilarious.
20:42
There will be mud. It starts with that great shot
20:48
of Eli setting out to meet Daniel.
20:49
He walks past the huge oil basin like the filthy capitalism that
20:52
he hates so much. And then we get a point of view
20:54
from Eli as he walks towards Daniel.
20:56
The shots are all low angled, putting Daniel in control.
20:59
And then when Daniel shows Eli into the mud, it's shot from
21:01
ground level. So we're kind of down there with
21:03
Eli. It's all classic stuff, but it
21:05
works really well. And Daniel's saying I'm going to
21:08
bury you, Eli. Foreshadowing the end, I think
21:10
surely. Yeah.
21:12
Also it is really funny, like after this scene where we could
21:15
to the Sundays having dinner and Eli's sitting there caked in
21:18
mud. Really funny.
21:20
So he's been baptized in the oil?
21:22
Almost. Isn't it?
21:23
Like he's been rubbed in the capital?
21:25
Yeah. Where's your church now?
21:28
Yeah, Ruben Mudden is here. Slapping him about a little kid.
21:35
Well, yeah, I mean, great direction.
21:36
Paul Thomas Anderson's the best film for me, no question.
21:39
Yeah, same, same. And Matt Paul Thomas Anderson,
21:42
yeah, for you. Yeah, it's, it's amazing work
21:45
and it, it goes back to our set new opening, you know, that we
21:48
did Boogie Nights and I think me, Western, Luke all felt the
21:50
same. It was directed by somebody who
21:52
had so much confidence and so much talent.
21:54
But it was all very much I can do Scorsese, you know, I can do
21:57
Scorsese. There wasn't that much
21:58
individuality to it, yes. It's like he's grown up a bit
22:02
and he's realized that I need to develop my own voice and stop
22:05
borrowing other peoples to the extent that I did.
22:07
And there's still influences in there.
22:09
We've mentioned Sean Ford, I think Terrence Malik as well,
22:12
Sergio Leone as well. But for the first time, I just
22:15
think I'm really truly even his voice as a director.
22:19
It's just this fast visual canvas that he hasn't really
22:22
done before, but it's contrasted with the fact that he still made
22:26
a film which is this like really intimate character drama.
22:28
And that contrast is really striking.
22:30
It's still very much what all these films are about.
22:32
All these films are about messed up relationships between people
22:36
or families. There's a family element to
22:38
Boogie Nice. There's a family element to
22:39
Magnolia, and there is he as well.
22:41
Daniel and HW and Eli and his family saw.
22:44
He's making a film with themes and concepts that are very
22:46
familiar to him, but he's put them on screen in a way he's
22:49
never done before, a way he's much more mature to realize he
22:51
doesn't have to show off in the way that he used to.
22:54
And it's just brilliant to see that development.
22:57
And in all that, he got himself into a certain headspace for
22:59
this film during editing because he would take his editors out
23:02
for dinner, and they'd have one specific night where the only
23:05
thing they would have is steak and straight vodka.
23:08
And the idea was, well, that that would keep them in the
23:10
mentality of Daniel Plainview. Two steaks, whiskey, water for
23:14
him, that's a good. Thing, yeah, I mean, Daniel
23:18
Plainview is mentality one. They want to be in too much
23:21
absolute madman. Only eat steak in the whole
23:23
film. And since the film came out,
23:29
it's been reported a few times that PT watched a certain film
23:32
every night before filming. OK, you know what film that was?
23:35
No. Boogie Nights.
23:39
His own film, Yeah, it was The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
23:45
1948 western by John Houston. Anderson has since said that how
23:49
many times he watched, it's been massively exaggerated, but he
23:51
said that he was inspired by some of the visuals in the
23:53
storytelling. So I think there's your next
23:56
Sunday film day, Westie. Oh yeah.
23:58
Treasure of Sierra Madre steak and vodka, You said that?
24:01
Was last Sunday. Do we know already do?
24:06
We know already, I mean PTA want the film in California and the
24:10
area where the film set he and the locations go through drove
24:13
all over the state but couldn't find anywhere there that looked
24:16
like California in the early 1900s.
24:17
Has it changed so much so he ended up filming most of the
24:20
film in in Marfa, TX? Yeah, it was more than 11 people
24:23
lived there, though, probably. I think probably.
24:27
So before we sign off on Paul Thomas Anderson as director, we
24:30
have one final question. So a benefit of being in all the
24:34
right movies patrol is that we'll answer your questions on
24:36
the show. And we have one of those now
24:38
from Jacob Perry. Hello, Jacob.
24:40
Hello Jacob. With a name like that, he could
24:42
be in There will Be blood. Jacob Sunday.
24:44
Jacob Sunday Perry, Luke Perry's these Twin brother.
24:51
So Jacob has asked, it's implied at one point in the film that
24:54
please you pioneer the development of the first
24:56
American oil rig when he sketches out a mock draft.
24:59
What are the origin stories of significant inventions would you
25:01
like to say on the big screen? Interesting question there from
25:05
Jacob. For some context, the point
25:07
where we see Daniel do is sketch it in the largely word free
25:10
opening sequence we talked about.
25:11
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what do you think, Matt?
25:16
I mean, there's been a lot of films like this recently.
25:18
Haven't there's been the the air worn, not the footwear.
25:21
Oh yeah, was the one about Tetris a few a few weeks ago the
25:24
time. Yeah, with them, Eggerton, Yeah.
25:27
I mean pixels there with their sunlight.
25:31
That's a totally different word, not a totally different film.
25:34
Totally different. Concept.
25:35
Do you want to play a Tetris, John?
25:36
You mean pixels? And if Jacob wants to see his
25:41
answer, I think like the invention of radar and so on,
25:44
on, particularly during World War 2, how they had to really
25:46
accelerate the development of that because both sides were
25:49
trying to get the best kind of radar and so on.
25:51
The system that had to outdo the other side.
25:53
I think that could be interesting.
25:54
I think Kelly Lamar played a part in that as.
25:56
Well, Kelly Lamar, yeah, yeah, yeah.
25:58
She was like a pioneer in that field, which is really bizarre.
26:01
But if he wants like a slightly let's save his hands, an actual
26:03
invention that's changed my life, which we do nail Clippers.
26:06
Like I hate long nails. The look and feel horrible.
26:10
And you remember like if you tried to cook nails with
26:12
scissors with your other hand, it's this nightmare.
26:14
So you know, the invention, the nail Clipper, absolute godsend.
26:17
Who thought of that? Well then you could have
26:19
Plainview thing. I'm a nail man.
26:25
Yeah. I mean, if the filmmaking is on
26:26
a level like it is, yeah, any of the world changing inventions
26:29
would make a great movie, I think.
26:30
Yeah, printing press, the light bulb, the telephone, penicillin
26:33
would all be great. But I'd like to see a movie
26:36
about the guy who invents compost, because then we could
26:38
have done your Plainview walking around saying I'm a soil man
26:43
work. And then they will be Mudwesty.
26:45
Perfect title. Get this tanning in there, yeah.
26:50
Always. Every film has him in.
26:52
It's compost hits manure. Invented it.
26:56
So studios form an orderly Wow. Yeah, sounds like a pile of
27:00
shit. And Wesley, what invention will
27:04
you make a film out of? The Big Mac, the humble Big Mac.
27:09
It's why I watched the founder hoping I would get some insight.
27:11
Never, never works. It just was the cheeseburger.
27:14
And it's like, oh, Jesus Christ, that's not why I'm watching
27:16
this. Yeah.
27:17
The Big Mac or the Whopper. Both changed my life for the
27:19
better. What about a Big Kahuna burger?
27:22
Well, that's fictional, isn't it?
27:24
I'd like, you know what was in the Big Kahuna burger, but I
27:26
didn't think it's McDonald's. It's McDonald's Quarter Pounder.
27:28
Just call it Big Mac. Le Big Mac in France.
27:31
Le Big Mac. Yeah, in France.
27:34
So at the Oscars that year, They Will Be Blood was nominated for
27:37
several, including Best picture and best director for PTA.
27:40
Lost out the both. Or to the Corn Brothers for No
27:43
Country for Old Men. Yeah, the right choice, do you
27:45
think? That's a really tough one to say
27:49
to adore them both, but I do think this is a more
27:51
accomplished film to be honest. Yeah, I would agree.
27:54
No, currently is great, yeah, but I would go for this it.
27:57
Is fantastic. This is like a milestone I think
27:59
invisible while he's trying something different.
28:01
But despite missing out at the Oscars, they will be but has
28:03
gone down as one of the great films so far this century.
28:06
And for us, right up there among PT is best.
28:09
Yeah, for me, definitely the cast.
28:17
Paul Thomas Anderson's fingerprints are all over.
28:20
They will be blurred, of course, but the same can also be said of
28:22
the cast. There's a wider cast in the
28:25
film, but two main characters, and we're talking about them
28:27
both. That's Paul Dunnell as the
28:30
Sunday twins, Paul and Eli. And we're starting with the main
28:33
character, aren't we? Oh yeah.
28:36
So Daniel Dale Lewis is Daniel Caldee Caught Plainview, an oil
28:40
prospector from Fond du Lac, WI. We followed Daniel's journey
28:44
from the end of the 19th to early part of the 20th century,
28:47
finding oil, then a sown, growing a company, committing
28:50
murder and generally being a lunatic.
28:53
Yes. How was he?
28:55
And Daniel Daley was playing him Westie.
28:57
I mean, it's hard to express, isn't it?
29:00
He's just so dynamic and so engaging and so electric on the
29:04
screen. When he's not on the screen,
29:05
you're kind of just looking for where he is, where is he?
29:08
Get him back, get him back. Get me a full on close up and
29:11
give me lots of dialogue. It's just beautifully done.
29:15
I just love everything about the character and the way it's
29:17
portrayed. I think it's absolutely
29:19
fantastic. I love him in every film that
29:21
he's done. He has never, ever, ever turned
29:23
in a bad performance. I mean, Gangs of New York, I
29:25
love him, and he's very, very close to their smile.
29:28
But he's incredible in that. And like Last of Them, he's
29:31
incredible in that. Like, I'm not just saying he's
29:33
good. He's incredible in these roles.
29:36
And once he gets that idea of who Plainview is and he knows
29:40
that he can run with it, and he does run with it, and it's a
29:43
beautiful thing to say. What a bastard.
29:46
But I absolutely adore the fact that he's such a bastard.
29:50
It's so believable, the way he commands everyone around him,
29:55
the way he just instills fear. And it's just when he turns and
29:58
he gets married and puts around no more hitting, no more hitting
30:02
and he threatens to slit the guy's throat in the saloon.
30:04
I've told you what I'm going to do.
30:05
You believe him? I really wish this had been his
30:07
last rule. Somewhere to go, wouldn't it?
30:10
If Evan, my 6 year old, came up me and said dad, I want to be a
30:13
nightmare, I would put this on and say that's how good you've
30:15
got to be. Then you've got to do because
30:18
that's the best you can ever see.
30:21
It's just absolutely amazing. Pushy parent.
30:25
You know, give him the truth. He's got to know the truth.
30:29
Watch that, do that, and you will be.
30:31
It's just. Yeah, it's absolutely flawless.
30:33
It's brilliant, brilliant, brilliant stuff.
30:35
I mean, there were rumors that day Lewis went in a method for
30:37
the role that he constructed an oil Derrick in his home in
30:40
Ireland to get into character. Like, that's out.
30:43
I'm just going to build an oil Derrick here.
30:45
All right, fine. Yeah.
30:46
No problem. I mean, it's, it's just, yeah,
30:49
it's magnificent. Everything.
30:50
Even the way he smokes a cigarette.
30:52
I haven't seen that before. He just looks kind of like over
30:55
his hand at it in some parts. Beautiful performance.
30:58
Yeah, dealer was said that he didn't do that, but you wouldn't
31:00
be surprised, would you know? I wouldn't be surprised.
31:03
Probably stole some more baby. I bet he did.
31:07
I mean, as an acting performance, Daniel de Lewis has
31:09
received Lords of praise for this film, and rightly so.
31:11
Yeah. I think he's really well written
31:13
as a character too though. Yeah, yeah, Daniel is clearly a
31:16
high end narcissist and sociopath.
31:18
Life is about power, control, dominance over others.
31:22
But see, we were seen talking to Mary Sunday about her dad
31:25
beating her. And he's saying you look after
31:26
her. And then the camera pans and we
31:28
see Abel was sitting there the whole time.
31:30
Such a great moment because we think, oh, maybe he's all right,
31:32
actually, Daniel, and then we'll see.
31:34
No, he doesn't care about Mary. It was about dominating Abel.
31:37
It's there through the whole narrative.
31:39
The scene I mentioned before, when Daniel wrestles, he's out
31:41
to the ground. He does it because he, like,
31:42
demands his money. And it's exactly the same way he
31:45
tells tilified from Stan that oil he's going to cut his
31:47
throat. And, he thinks, tilified to the
31:48
talking about HW it's. Like.
31:51
How dare you tell me what to do. That's what it's all about.
31:54
We talked about Daniel's disdain for religion.
31:56
I mean being a non believer back then it was much more rare than
31:59
it is today. And again, I think it's because
32:01
he's such a high end narcissist that he can't accept anybody
32:04
having superiority over him, not even God.
32:06
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
32:08
And that's what it's all about. He goes after Royals so we can
32:10
get rich, so he has control. When he flies into a rage, it's
32:13
because somebody else tries to take control from him.
32:15
His narcissism drives almost every decision that he makes.
32:18
And it's such a great portrayal, I think of a narcissist, one of
32:21
the best in cinema. Outstanding.
32:23
Still from both dealers in the performance, but also Paul
32:26
Thomas Anderson in the writing for me, yeah.
32:28
Just to give them that space as well, yeah.
32:29
Yeah. You know what?
32:30
You can trust them, Yeah. Of course, 100%.
32:33
And Matt, the few Daniels for you.
32:36
Yeah, he's all right, isn't he? Not a bad few months work
32:42
turning in this performance, just just absolutely gigantic.
32:46
And he actually starts off quite grounded, but because they lose
32:49
so good, he knows when like, turn the valve off and when he
32:52
can just erupt. And he's quite sparing and when
32:55
he chooses to do that, which makes it all more effective.
32:58
And I think the most effective scenes are when you to see that
33:01
rage, like bubbling beneath the surface, like always glimpses of
33:04
it. Like he's mentioned when he
33:06
tells the ice is going to come in and slit his thought that's
33:09
just dropped in out of nowhere in that conversation like the
33:12
others. Like what?
33:14
But I love that scene where Eli walks into his office and thinks
33:17
he can boss Daniel around, tell them, oh, I'm going to bless the
33:20
Derek. So this is how we're going to do
33:21
it. And you can see the irritation
33:23
in Daniel's face, just like. Yeah.
33:26
Let's make it 4:00 then, yeah? And then just and then just
33:31
completely forgets about him when he gets the actual
33:33
ceremony. I don't think he forgets about
33:35
him, that's totally on purpose. Does not purpose stairs.
33:37
Brings Mary up instead. Yeah, yes, yeah, amazing.
33:40
And. He can be really funny when he
33:42
wants to, like when he sees the Standard Oil guys again and he
33:45
just goes. Up.
33:52
To one. That goes yeah, yeah, yeah.
33:55
Brilliant stuff. Yeah.
33:56
It's amazing performance. Well, I think it's probably hard
34:00
for us to imagine anybody else but DDL playing Daniel
34:03
Plainview. And it seems that was true for
34:05
Paul Thomas Anderson too, as he wrote the part specifically for
34:07
Daniel D Lewis. The producer, Joanne Seller,
34:10
said that if D Lewis had said no, the film might not have been
34:13
made. The Great.
34:14
Yeah. And Anderson was so keen to get
34:16
D Lewis that you sent in the script before was even finished.
34:19
Right. But they're desperate, maybe.
34:21
Not desperate, just ambitious. Yeah, there's a difference, a
34:26
fine line, but I mean, even the start of the film, it took me a
34:29
good maybe 3-4 watches before I realized, shit, that's Daniel
34:32
Day Lewis right at the start. Oh, really?
34:33
Yeah. I didn't recognize just that
34:35
massive beard and he's just underneath everything.
34:37
And I just thought, is that him? Is that not?
34:39
And I thought that Daniel Plainview was that was the
34:41
introduction of the character, was the signature, and he was
34:43
buying the silver off the guy. OK.
34:45
And that's what I thought was happening.
34:46
He. Looks great, oil all over his
34:47
face and stuff like that. Yeah, I mean, Dale Lewis was a
34:50
massive fan of Punch Drunk Love, which I don't think it's taught
34:53
about enough. I think that's Sandler's been.
34:55
It's an incredible film. It's absolutely fantastic.
34:57
He always wanted to work with him.
34:58
He read the script, he liked it. He said he was drawn to the film
35:01
because he thought he could explore the dark recesses of his
35:03
psyche with Daniel Plainview, and it was appealing to play a
35:06
character who was so unlike himself, which, again, if that's
35:11
I would imagine Daniel Day Lewis is an absolute sweetheart.
35:13
Yeah, it's so sweetheart, but what a bastard.
35:16
Yeah, that's. That's just how good it is,
35:18
really. Yeah, no one's going to admit
35:20
being like Daniel Plainview with all surely.
35:21
Imagine you said I took the role because Daniel Plainview was
35:24
exactly like me. Jesus.
35:27
Yeah, this is a no brainer. And do this.
35:31
Just turn the camera on. It's me Monday to Friday.
35:34
So he did love the writing, but Paul Thomas Hanson did give him
35:37
room to improvise as well. So that speech he gives to the
35:39
people a little. Boston we some about Building
35:41
Schools and bringing bed to the town.
35:43
That was all day, Lewis. That was his improv.
35:45
Yeah. Great improv that.
35:46
It's fantastic when he's talking about the bread and you know,
35:49
please don't get upset when I mention this.
35:51
But yeah, it's just the way the camera angles just higher up, as
35:54
if he's just a little bit more sullen and a little bit more on
35:56
their level. It's brilliant.
35:58
It's all doing one shot that as well, isn't it?
36:00
That room? It's incredible.
36:01
Yeah, I know they called Thomas Thomas and loved that improv.
36:04
When he said it was delicious, it was Plainview on a platter.
36:07
Yeah, lovely. It is.
36:09
It's it's so Moorish. I wish it was like 9 hours long.
36:15
And he's got a pretty distinctive voice as well,
36:17
Daniel, hasn't he? He likes.
36:18
Strong economy. Well, apparently.
36:21
What are you doing? Apparently, Dear Lewis worked on
36:25
the part for over a year and before the start filming, PTA
36:29
sent Dear Lewis some more documentaries about the period
36:31
to inspire him. And Daniel Daler was also read
36:34
some letters written by men who really worked in the oil fields
36:36
at that time, right? He said that the letters were
36:39
full of sentimentality, love and loss, right?
36:42
Heartbroken guys. You can't express that to a
36:45
fellow man working in the oil. He kind of feels back in the
36:49
day. Oh, guys, I feel a little bit
36:51
sensitive. Yeah, not going to go down.
36:54
Well, listen to the poem I've just wrote for our last.
36:56
Nah, just send it. Get up your fucking face,
36:59
dickhead. And another link to Treasure of
37:01
the Sierra Madre dealer was listening to recordings of its
37:04
director, John Houston, as well, and took some inspiration from
37:06
his voice. He just sounded a bit like him.
37:08
Yes, if you watch Trying to town, he does sound like him,
37:10
yes. Oh, yeah, definitely.
37:12
Yeah. Also, Daniel is based on a real
37:14
person. There was a well known oil
37:15
tycoon called Edward Heaney, and Daniel is based loosely on him.
37:19
So they were from the same place, Fond du Lac in Wisconsin.
37:22
Both worked for Geological Survey in Kansas and were miners
37:24
before going into oil. We'll see Daniel and his mansion
37:27
at the end of the film, which is the Overlook, let's be honest.
37:29
Yeah, those scenes were filmed in Greystone Mansion in Beverly
37:33
Hills, which doesn't seem like Beverly Hills at all.
37:36
That's incredible. That house was built by Tahini
37:38
for his son, Edward Tahini Junior.
37:40
And Daniel's famous milkshake speech at the end of the film is
37:43
loosely based on transcripts from hearing of the Teapot Dome
37:46
scandal, which involved Edward Tahini, which I don't really
37:49
know much about, but sounds really intriguing.
37:51
The Teapot Dome scandal. Yeah.
37:53
Yeah. That's the next film, the sequel
37:54
to this. There will be tea.
37:57
There will be tea, yeah. Yeah, knocking for a pint with
38:02
him. Definitely not that.
38:04
No chance. Yeah, Daniel's based on a real
38:07
person and also apparently a hugely iconic fictional person.
38:11
You know what I'm talking about. So it's been said that Anderson
38:15
based Daniel on Count Dracula in some ways sounds mad, but there
38:19
are some examples in the film. So the first time we see Daniel
38:23
in the mine shaft, he's bathed in darkness, protected from
38:25
sunlight. Daniel thirst for oil which is
38:28
the blood of the land. Daniel's nemesis is a preacher
38:31
like a man of God and by the end of the film he's living all
38:34
alone in a huge castle like mansion like in Transylvania.
38:38
I mean, that's pretty loose, carrying a cross on his back at
38:40
one point when he comes to the Sunday Ranch.
38:42
That means he's Jesus. I mean, I can see it.
38:45
I can see where you're coming from.
38:46
I mean, they dragged as the ultimate bastard, isn't he?
38:48
So like, it'd be good if you had to get invited into the Sunday
38:50
Ranch and like. Village of a Pitchforks, yeah,
38:55
sort of thing. And on There Will Be Blood, the
38:57
costume designs, this guy called Mark Bridges.
39:00
And he said working with De Lewis was a learning experience
39:02
because as you'd expect, De Lewis made the clothes really
39:05
important to the character, particularly the hats.
39:07
He loves the hats. De Lewis gangs, New York,
39:10
Lincoln, this Mason hat. Yeah.
39:13
So Bridges short daily was three hats and said just pick the one
39:16
you like the best. So he took them home for three
39:19
days or choose the one you wanted.
39:21
And Bridge said you would know when de Lewis was in character
39:23
because he'd have the hat on just three days to choose a hat.
39:27
What had the day? 24 hours per hat?
39:30
Yeah, let's give this one a bash where we're going.
39:33
To seem like his wife must be going to spell like Daniel man,
39:35
you don't need like spend all day with three different hats if
39:38
he's. Wearing the hat.
39:39
Stay away from him, yeah. Absolutely, yeah.
39:41
Don't go bowling with him. Definitely not, no.
39:44
I'd love to have that power though.
39:45
If someone's pissing you off and you're just bored or put your
39:47
hat on and they're like, oh Jesus, here he goes.
39:52
And after the finished filming, when Paul Dano was asked what it
39:54
was like to work with Dear Lewis, he said, I read the
39:56
script. But hearing it come out of him
39:58
as another level, I was just going, holy shit, he's so
40:01
powerful. But you can see that in like
40:03
Eli's performance and Paul's as well.
40:05
He's just kind of almost taken aback by how good it is.
40:08
Yeah, he's massive deal, Lewis, isn't he up?
40:11
Too big. Too big for everyone in the
40:12
film. Too big for a massive oil fire.
40:14
Like he's bigger than that. You put it out by himself what
40:18
he wants to. It's just massive.
40:19
And to finish on the 2 Daniels, we have another Patreon
40:22
question, this time from James Aussie Pew.
40:25
Hello, James. Hello, James.
40:27
So James has asked how do you guys read DDLS performance here
40:30
compared to other great performances over the years?
40:33
Specifically James says his two all time favorite performances
40:36
which are Jack Nicholson in One flew over the Cookie was Nest
40:39
and Gene Hackman in the French Connection.
40:41
OK. A couple of massive ones there.
40:43
Yeah. What do you think W team?
40:44
How does DDL here compared to those?
40:46
All very memorable characters, all very character defined and
40:50
performances and all almost kind of career highs for all three.
40:56
I mean, I love Nicholson in The Shining, but he's saw saw
40:59
brilliant Cuckoo's Nest. He just brings.
41:01
It's just another level, just under the level of energy.
41:04
And I think Hackman does the same thing.
41:06
Obviously when you've all got a cop drama all of a sudden where
41:08
the cops aren't just wearing suits and ties and the bumbling
41:11
around like fucking idiots, you know, he kind of owns that
41:13
character. Pork pie hat, another hat.
41:15
Always great. You know, Nicholson's got a hat
41:18
and Cuckoo's Nest and we've got a hat, and that's good.
41:21
So I think we're on the hat level, yeah.
41:23
Hat level performance. Yeah, performance.
41:26
Yeah, the greatest performance if you wear a hat, Indiana
41:29
Jones, What else? But yeah, I think for me,
41:33
they're all very, very different films.
41:35
And what they do is they bring the A game to each film.
41:39
That The Ring. So I think Dealer, which is
41:41
absolutely perfect for this, but you couldn't put them in Cook's
41:43
Nest. You couldn't put Nicholson in
41:44
this, you couldn't put Hackman in this, you couldn't put
41:46
Hackman in Cook's Nest. So I think they all just sat.
41:48
And for a fan of cinema and a fan of cinema history, and a fan
41:51
of watching films over and over and over again, I'm so pleased
41:54
that those 3 performances do exist because they make the
41:57
films what they are, which are classics.
42:00
Lovely and Matt D Lewis versus Nicholson versus Hackman for
42:04
you. Yeah, very much in agreement.
42:06
I think it is, you know, I mean, this performance, I'll put it up
42:08
against any performance you wanted.
42:10
Empty Bones is one of the greatest.
42:11
But it's like what he says. We're all just so different,
42:14
which is why we're all great. You know, Hackman's, it's all
42:16
about the realism, fitting in with realism of the film.
42:19
It's not really a movie star performance.
42:21
Nicholson, that is a proper movie star performance, bringing
42:24
all that energy and flamboyance and Chris Medal he has into that
42:27
counter to give the real tragic output.
42:29
Dillos is different, this one in in that, you know, maybe part in
42:33
the 1st 20 minutes. It's not really about the
42:34
realism and he doesn't really care about giving Plainview any
42:37
kind of Arc or sympathy. It's performance I felt really
42:41
instantly iconic. And so yeah, if someone was to
42:43
say their favorite 3 performances were Hackman,
42:46
Nicholson and Dillos and this, I'd like.
42:47
Yeah, fair one. Absolutely fine, you got 20
42:51
showing martini. For his work on There Will Be
42:56
Blurred, Daniel Daily was won, his second Oscar much deserved,
43:00
and now I think we might call it one of the great lead
43:02
performances this century. That was shadow of the doubling.
43:06
Yeah, the second cast member we're going to talk about is
43:10
Paul Dano playing dual roles in the film.
43:13
We see him first as Paul Sunday, but it's as Pauls evil twin Eli
43:17
where we see Dano most involved in the negotiation for the sale
43:21
of the Sunday farm. Eli's a preacher who was always
43:23
looking to get a bit extra for his church.
43:25
We'll see him fight with Daniel, then baptize Daniel before being
43:28
murdered by Daniel in the brutal final scene.
43:32
He's a false prophet must apparently.
43:34
God is a superstition. What do we think of Eli slash
43:39
Paul Sunday and Paul Dano OH? He's so good and it just must be
43:43
the most difficult thing in the world if you are an actor to be
43:45
told you're playing a really weak character.
43:48
But don't give a weak performance because you can't
43:49
tour the tour with Daniel Day Lewis in the majority.
43:53
Of the screen, yeah. Exactly.
43:55
And that must be so tough because Eli is a character, is
43:58
obviously no match for Daniel, but you've still got to be
44:01
interested in him and you've got to believe that he is somehow an
44:04
irritant to Daniel along the way.
44:06
And what this sponge reminds me of, reminds me of like, John
44:09
Ghazale in the Godfather trilogy because in that he was up
44:12
against, you know, alpha male James Khan, the amaze knocked
44:16
out Pacino had to play with, and he was sniveling weak Cradle,
44:20
who accomplishes nothing in his two films.
44:22
But that performance is incredible.
44:24
It's every bit as good as everyone else's.
44:26
And that's the same for Daniel. Dog day afternoon as well.
44:29
Yeah exactly. It's a similar vibe I got from
44:31
Daniel in this because Eli is pretty much the Charlotte and
44:34
himself anyway. But he has his real odd quality
44:37
to him that makes some intrigueness, whether he's going
44:39
to be the good guy or the bad guy, you know, when it gets to
44:42
the end and like, they lose surprisingly funny at times.
44:45
We mentioned him getting smacked around in the mud, but the way
44:47
he's shrieking when that's happened to him, that's really
44:50
funny. But then, and we've said, you
44:53
know, it's it's funny when it cuts to the scene at the dinner
44:56
table. He said they kicked him out.
44:57
But then eruption of rage. He has it able and he launches
45:01
himself over the table at him, pins him to the ground.
45:03
Completely believable. It's like, yeah, don't
45:06
underestimate Eli. There is still something to this
45:08
character and I think Dan or East is brilliant of putting all
45:11
those complexities on screen. I agree.
45:14
I think he's excellent. I think the best comment I can
45:16
give him is solve what you said, Mark, that he's playing opposite
45:18
one of the great actors here in D Lewis, giving arguably his
45:21
best performance and Daniel somehow holds his own against
45:24
them. And Eli loves humming it up in
45:27
church. He loves you in the exorcism
45:31
scene. I think he does with his voice.
45:34
Out of here, Ghost. Donald Duck.
45:43
Some great subtle character moments too.
45:45
I like it when Daniel opens the weather in front of the town
45:47
folk. Eli's asked Daniel if he can
45:49
bless the weather. Daniel says yes but then does it
45:51
himself. Eli can't complain as the
45:53
world's been blessed, but you can tell he's raging that he
45:56
hasn't got his moments. That walk away because that
45:58
white, he's just stumbling out. Brilliant.
46:01
I mean, like Daniel, he's all about himself.
46:03
And I think that's a big reason, the reason why Daniel dislikes
46:05
them so much. They're both very selfish.
46:07
But Eli and Daniel's eyes, I think, is very dishonest about
46:10
yourself sent in this. Yeah.
46:11
Daniel says it all when he sees the exorcism and says it was a
46:14
good show. Yeah.
46:14
Yeah. Great line.
46:15
Yeah. I mean, Daniel was only 23 as
46:18
well, and he did this. I know does amazingly well.
46:20
He says hell of a show as well, doesn't he?
46:22
So he kind of puts them down. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
46:23
Which is brilliant. And Westie, how was Paul Dano
46:26
for you? I think Paul Dano was fantastic
46:28
in this film. I think he's really, really
46:29
brilliant. And like you guys have said, he
46:30
does hold his own. And we got a little bit of
46:32
criticism from certain people on the when the reviews came out
46:35
saying that he obviously hasn't got the gravitas that D Lewis
46:39
has. But who has, you know, and he's
46:40
really got to got to pull this off.
46:42
And what he really does for me is pulls it off as that dual
46:44
performance, because I feel the character of Paul does have the
46:48
better of Daniel. He does because he can stand his
46:51
ground and he wants his money and he knows where the shit is
46:53
and he's not getting involved. And he's very strong character.
46:55
And then, you know, at the end, he's got his three wells and
46:57
five grand a week. I think that performance is
46:59
incredible as you go from Paul, who looks pretty much the same,
47:03
you go to Eli and he's a completely stripped back version
47:06
of that. Yeah, it's a really brilliant
47:08
way to do it because it's not, it's not really highlighted,
47:12
it's not really made a big thing of.
47:14
It's just you don't know if it's Paula, Eli, all kind of all the
47:16
way through the film, Whether that's the same person or
47:18
whether it isn't or whether the twins, it's never really
47:20
explained. First time I saw it I thought
47:23
there might be a switcheroo coming where the same person
47:25
because you don't see Paul again.
47:26
Yeah, that's kind of what I got from it.
47:28
And then the way that he brings that real fragile nature, but
47:32
that determination that makes him a powerful person.
47:36
Yeah. I think his performance in this
47:37
is just absolutely brilliant. The.
47:38
Thing is though, about him playing the twins, he was only
47:41
originally cast as Paul Sunday and there was another actor
47:44
called Kell O'Neill who had been cast as Eli.
47:46
But they've got a few weeks in the shooting and Pedia decided
47:49
it just wasn't working with O'Neill so he got the boot.
47:52
He then went to Dino and said, well if I rewrite this with Paul
47:55
and Eli are twins, can you do it?
47:58
Which is show us how much faith he must have had in Dano to go.
48:00
Actually, he can do both in the Where room is only left because
48:03
he was too intimidated by Daniel Day Lewis, but apparently that
48:07
isn't true. Yeah, Kell O'Neill said.
48:09
Just wasn't clicking between him and Paul Thomas Anderson.
48:11
And he's given it back and completely now, retired from it.
48:14
Does he? So Dale Lewis ruined his life.
48:18
Left off in the mud scene. But also that means whereas Dale
48:21
was took over a year to prepare for the part of Daniel, Daniel
48:24
had like four days to prepare for real life.
48:26
Yeah, his best performance, do you think, Paul Donald?
48:30
Yeah, I think he was brilliant as the red light.
48:32
He's just getting better. Yeah, I think he's just getting
48:34
better. It's really hard to say someone
48:36
is 23 year old, that's his best performance.
48:38
I don't think we've seen his best performance yet.
48:40
I think it's a fucking incredible performance, but I
48:42
don't know if it's his best because I think he's got a lot
48:44
more in the water. Very good in prisoners as well,
48:46
isn't he? Yeah, he's great in prisoners,
48:48
Yeah. They Will Be Blood catapulted
48:50
Paul Dano's career. He was nominated for a BAFTA and
48:52
has since starred in film big and successful films.
48:55
Lupa, 12 Years a Slave, Prisoners, The Fablemans And
48:59
like Rusty says, he played the Riddler did.
49:01
Yep. Very.
49:02
Good. What Jim Carrey, though, was he?
49:03
Who is watching Jim Carrey against Daniel Lewis?
49:11
Cross around? Get out of here, it goes well.
49:15
All righty then. There is a wider supporting cast
49:22
and there will be blood. Kevin G O'connors Henry and
49:24
Kieran Heinz Fletcher Hamilton are both good and we'll talk a
49:27
bit more about Daniel's son HW later, but our main two there,
49:30
Daniel Dale Lewis and Paul Dunnell. 2 greatest bleed
49:33
performances. Unbelievable.
49:34
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50:57
The middle. Into the second act of There
51:01
Will Be Blood, we're well into the narrative and a couple of
51:04
big sequences. Yeah, Eli's baptism of Daniel,
51:08
well, it's crazy. And coming up, first of all,
51:11
we've got a highly explosive woman to talk about, don't we?
51:14
Really explosive? Oh yeah.
51:16
So with the drilling around the Sunday's land well underway,
51:19
things take a turn for the worst for Daniel.
51:21
After a gas pocket of the Derek blows, the drilling
51:24
infrastructure is destroyed and HW left permanently deaf.
51:28
The big set piece of the film. How is this sequence Matt?
51:31
It's incredible. There's been some really nice
51:34
foreshadowing to it with a lie not being allowed to bless it,
51:37
which he then, you know, throws back at Daniel.
51:39
You know what happened to HW wouldn't happen if you had let
51:42
me bless it. The worker dies in it, so it all
51:44
adds the sense that this world is going to be bad news.
51:46
But when it does blow, it becomes the sequence which is so
51:49
visually striking. It's it's almost like PDA doing
51:52
an action set piece for the first time ever.
51:54
You know, I love all the handheld camera movements.
51:56
And when that music kicks in, you think this could just be a
51:59
silent film again, You don't need the dialogue.
52:01
It's just really vivid filmmaking.
52:03
And that image of it burning way into the night sky.
52:07
And that camera just pushes in on Daniel's face when he's
52:09
covered in oil. Just immediately thought, well,
52:11
you know that that's an image for the ages, that one.
52:14
It's pitch black as well, isn't it?
52:15
Pitch black, Yeah, looks amazing.
52:17
But it just ties all together thematically so well, also
52:21
because when we first meet Daniel, he's blown up the land.
52:24
He's hacking into the rock. He's always battling against the
52:26
elements. He's in this constant fight with
52:28
nature. And this is just, you know, the
52:29
natural consequence of that. You know, it's one thing to dig
52:32
your way into the ground, but now the elements are fighting
52:35
back and now he's got fire to deal with.
52:37
But you know, The thing is about him as a counter, he's up for
52:40
that fight. He isn't daunted at all.
52:42
You know, when he looks at Kevin Hines, he goes, what are you
52:44
looking so miserable about? It's like, you know, he's not
52:47
faced by. This boil under our feet.
52:49
Yeah, exactly. He's the only one who can tame
52:50
this fight, the only one who can get it.
52:52
It's all about him against the Earth and what the earth can
52:55
thwart him and how he'll defeat whatever does thwart him.
52:57
So yeah, this is just the next stage of it.
52:59
And it's it's a brilliant sequence.
53:01
It is, yeah. Explosions and fireballs left
53:04
and right in this one like Die Hard.
53:08
Is it? I know the inspiration for the
53:12
oil Derek explosion. It wasn't diehard, it came from
53:15
giant. You mentioned at Westies the
53:16
1956 films James Dean and Liz Taylor.
53:19
That's one of PT his favorite films.
53:21
Apparently there's an oil geezer blows in that.
53:23
We see another example of Daniel's narcissism here that I
53:26
was talking about. After HW has been rescued and
53:29
taken away to safety, Fletcher asked Daniel if HW was OK.
53:32
Daniel says no he's not and just carries on staring at the fire.
53:36
And it's Fletcher who has to go on check on HW.
53:39
Awful, that. It's.
53:41
Father of the Year, I believe you.
53:42
Fletcher does everything. Yeah.
53:44
But I mean, it's a huge sequence.
53:45
It is, for someone who's not an action director, really well
53:48
executed as a set piece. Yeah, and Westy, how do you find
53:53
it? I.
53:53
Find it incredible. I think it's just a beautiful
53:55
visual representation of Daniel's ambition and how out of
53:58
control it is. When it does take hold and it
54:01
does catch, he just has to watch it.
54:03
He's in awe of it. He's in awe of himself.
54:06
This sequence is why Elswick won Best Cinematography in the
54:10
Oscars. It's this sequence and it's
54:13
incredible. Just the way the times of day
54:15
are changing. And he knows it's going to look
54:17
beautiful if you do it at dusk. He knows it's going to look even
54:20
better if you do it in the middle of the night.
54:22
He knows how to get the silhouettes when they're
54:24
celebrating, when that tower falls and you see Daniel elated
54:27
and he's just, yes, and that's just shot in silhouette.
54:31
It's perfectly covered in that oil.
54:32
And he's just completely taken by the whole thing, and he knows
54:35
he's won at that point. But I think the score from start
54:38
to finish, I mean, sounds like Reckoner from In Rainbows.
54:40
I know Johnny Greenwood did this, but it's just that
54:41
percussion. Like, yeah, that's why this is
54:45
the reason I haven't bought the soundtrack.
54:46
So if I listen to this independently, I'll have a panic
54:48
attack. If I get this on vinyl and I'm
54:50
just like making the dinner or something and this becomes on
54:53
Sick to Dead for I can't handle this.
54:56
It's impossible to listen to. Running around with a big
54:58
mallet. Just to put the fires out left,
55:00
right and center, smashing me house down.
55:03
Yeah, it's got that real vibe. But I do think the score here
55:07
really, really resonates and really works and adds that extra
55:09
level of drama. And they're just running around
55:11
and smashing bits out of the ground and just trying to get
55:13
this thing knocked down. And then there's that silence
55:15
after the explosion and put the dynamite in there.
55:17
Just that's it, right? We're in.
55:20
We're not. We're doing what a set piece.
55:22
Absolutely incredible. I mean, there was this interview
55:26
Wales, which said this sequence was a nightmare because the news
55:28
going to be tough. So it was the only scene the
55:31
fully storyboarded because it was going to be that difficult.
55:33
And the original plan was they were going to shoot it off over
55:36
two nights. But the first night they found
55:38
that couldn't put the fire out because of the wood was too dry.
55:40
So Steve Cremin, who was like the supervisor of special
55:44
effects, he said, look, it's going to collapse before it
55:46
burns out. So you need to get everything
55:47
you need right now. So there's this huge rush to get
55:50
all the shots that wanted before it collapsed.
55:51
And the only one that didn't get, and this sounds like it
55:54
would have been amazing, was a shot looking down from the top
55:56
of the Derek at Daniel 200 feet below.
55:59
That's the only one that. Couldn't get that does sound
56:02
like a great shot. And Steve Cramer, the effect
56:05
supervisor you mentioned there, he was also the effect
56:07
supervisor on jaw head, so handled the giant flaming wells.
56:11
Yeah, yeah, yeah. In that scene on Jaw Head they
56:13
mentioned Jimmy Dean from Giant as well.
56:15
Yeah, they do. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
56:17
And then Dickens lost out to the Oscar at the Ellsberg from Jaw
56:20
Head, and he did it again in Skyfall.
56:23
Yeah. I mean, the film was mostly shot
56:26
in Marfa, TX, like we've said, and no Control men were talking
56:30
about Dickens was shooting there at the same time.
56:32
And there was one day when There Will be Blood crew were testing
56:35
the pyrotechnic effects that used during the old direct
56:37
explosion scene that we've been discussing.
56:40
It caused a huge billing and small cloud.
56:42
I mean, you can see it in the film even if they just tested
56:44
it, but that is ridiculous. Yeah, so you could see it for
56:47
miles around and it meant the coins had shut down production
56:49
for a full day. Or No Country for Old Men 'cause
56:51
that's all that could say in the background about beacons was
56:53
fucking Fury is what you doing there?
56:56
Giant piece of shit else with and then lost.
57:02
Yeah, apparently when they found out both films were shooting in
57:05
Marfa, the coins booked up all the rooms in the biggest motel
57:08
in town. Bastards.
57:09
And PTA called them sneaky bastards.
57:13
Really Plainview? Big moment in the film there,
57:18
then devastating consequences for HW Daniel, though not a care
57:23
in the world. Don't know what a?
57:25
Sequence. Moving on a few weeks and by
57:30
this time in the film, things have changed a lot for Daniel.
57:33
HW was being sent to a school for the deaf, Henry Plainview
57:36
was turned up claiming to be Danny Boy's long lost brother,
57:39
and after it turns out he's not, Daniel murders him as you do.
57:44
As a result, Daniel must repent for his sins, and there's only
57:47
one man can help. Help.
57:52
Eli baptizes Daniel, slaps him round a bit and humiliates him
57:55
in front of his congregation. Eli's favorite scene?
57:58
This one. Yeah.
58:00
How was it for your Westie? It's incredible baptism, you
58:03
boys, dumb in the bag of ham. It's it's a fantastic piece of
58:09
work because you can see Donald just going right.
58:11
I've really got to bring it here because I've got a slap.
58:13
Dundal dealer was around a bit and he does and I think it
58:16
really holds up and it's just some incredible dialogue.
58:20
Just give me the Blood Lord and then get out of here.
58:22
You know, he's just just doing it because he's abandoning
58:26
everything that he knows through sheer greed that he wants to
58:30
succeed. And this is how far he's willing
58:32
to go down. And you know that he broke his
58:34
leg in the opening scene, but when he goes on to his knees and
58:36
he goes on to that leg and you see that wincer pain as if he's
58:39
never done that before, it's like, oh, this is so right.
58:43
I'm going to swallow it down. This could be blood Lord.
58:45
I've abandoned my boy. How I feel every time I drop the
58:48
kids off at school. I've abandoned.
58:53
My boy. It's incredible, incredible work
58:57
that he realizes that as well and that he gets to pull that
59:00
out of him. But I think it's just the real
59:03
testament to the character and the performance that you just
59:05
go, oh, it doesn't mean any of this.
59:08
And then when he's actually baptized and he does that whole
59:11
shakes off, it's like, yes. And all he says, I've got a
59:14
pipeline. And he knows he has.
59:16
It's just a brilliant piece of work.
59:18
He allows himself to get smacked all over.
59:20
But it's great foreshadowing for, you know, for what we've
59:23
seen already when he baptized Eli in the in the oil and
59:25
slapped him around. Now he's being baptized and then
59:28
it comes to the end and where it goes and it happens again.
59:30
So there's three great moments and all of them are incredibly
59:33
powerful. I mean, any film with just one
59:35
of these in them would just be like, wow, that's an incredible
59:38
piece of work. 3 And he's not even trying.
59:41
He just put three in there. Just an incredible, incredible
59:44
set piece. I just, I love it.
59:45
I love the way Eli is in this. But yeah, it's deal.
59:48
It was for me all the way. Just he's just that scream and
59:51
that close up perfection for me. Yeah, massive, isn't it?
59:56
Yeah, a couple of top actors on top of the game and it is some
59:59
site dealer with delivery where he's going.
1:00:01
I've abandoned my child is incredible.
1:00:04
Love to have been just in the congregation, just sat in the
1:00:07
church as an extra. Just one.
1:00:08
Yeah, fucking hell. I'm never going to be a good
1:00:11
actor. I'm going to give up now.
1:00:14
It would be like watching that on stage, but like, there's
1:00:16
about 20 people. It would have been incredible.
1:00:19
It's fantastic. Looks like it's face is going to
1:00:20
burst. Yeah point.
1:00:21
It's crazy so. Good.
1:00:23
And I think this is one of the two times in the film where we
1:00:25
see what Daniel, deep down, really wants, and that's
1:00:28
companionship or family. We'll see it here when he talks
1:00:31
about abandoning HW and his face explodes.
1:00:33
Yeah. And the other time we see is
1:00:34
when he finds out his brother Henry is an impostor.
1:00:37
Yeah. And Daniel kills him and then
1:00:38
cries. Yeah.
1:00:39
Cries for what he's lost I'd rather never had in the 1st
1:00:42
place I think. He cries because he's reading
1:00:43
the diary of his real brother. I think that's when it hits
1:00:45
home. And he that's what he wants.
1:00:46
Is that realism? Yeah.
1:00:48
He wants just absolute, like, trust with somebody.
1:00:51
And he can't trust anybody. Cry for what he's never had?
1:00:55
Also a while like I've abandoned my child.
1:00:57
Does it remind anybody else of Billy Zane shouting I have a
1:01:00
child in Titanic every time. I won't abandoned my child.
1:01:08
Only time those two actors have ever been compared.
1:01:11
Imagine Daniel Plainview on the Titanic in his own lifeboat
1:01:15
Ronan. Fuck you.
1:01:17
The Titanic on fire. He was smoking.
1:01:22
You're not going back for anyone.
1:01:24
And Matt, how was your sequence for you?
1:01:25
Yeah absolutely love it love how would say lies 1 moment of
1:01:28
triumph in the film and he milks it for all it's worth and you
1:01:32
can't like we've established religionist Daniel's weak point
1:01:36
he can't argue against it He he hasn't been able to buy his way
1:01:39
out with bandy bandy makes him do this and he wants to buy
1:01:42
these land that's. Important, yeah.
1:01:43
Which is really important plot point and you can see how
1:01:46
uncomfortable he is to sat there like when Eli's first asking if
1:01:49
there's any new members there and Daniel's just like the sulky
1:01:52
kid like now. Not not I wouldn't do it.
1:01:54
And. Then he has to and Eli knows
1:01:58
Daniel Khan do Anthony. He has to go along with
1:02:01
everything that Eli tells him to and he has the time of his life
1:02:04
here. You know, tell him he's not
1:02:06
speaking loud enough for the Lord louder.
1:02:08
Daniel really funny really rubbing it in about HW because
1:02:12
he mentions him at first and then he kind of runs about
1:02:15
something else, but then he'll keep dropping it back in like
1:02:17
you abandoned your son. Like every time like Daniel
1:02:20
thinks he's over, he keeps dropping it back in.
1:02:22
It does make does Daniel look weak And there's there's always
1:02:24
in the film this ambiguity. How much does he love HW?
1:02:27
And I think this really brings home he probably does.
1:02:29
Deep down. We've been doesn't know how to
1:02:31
express it. Yeah.
1:02:33
What is funny, though, is how bad Eli slaps look.
1:02:35
They look really. Bad those slaps across.
1:02:38
The drops, but Daniel still has to sit there and take them.
1:02:42
And what really frustrates me right at the end, you see,
1:02:45
Daniel says something, Eli once he's been baptized and just
1:02:48
probably shakes his hand. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:02:50
And you can't hear it. I'd love to know what that was
1:02:52
because I wonder if that was an out of character moment.
1:02:54
Because Eli is completely reserved from that point.
1:02:57
He just kind of looks to the ground and he's like, oh for
1:02:59
fuck sake. I would imagine it's sort about
1:03:01
the pipeline. You reckon?
1:03:03
Yeah. I wonder if I was sympathized by
1:03:04
dealers because Dana looks really shocked.
1:03:06
It really shocked, like he's flawed for the rest of the
1:03:09
scene, to be honest. But I mean, if them slaps had
1:03:11
landed, he couldn't have done it with any kind of power because
1:03:13
Eli hasn't got that kind of power.
1:03:15
It has to be like that. Yeah.
1:03:17
It has to be like a wet flannel almost.
1:03:19
It Is this all you've got? Is this all you've got?
1:03:22
Come on, then. And he's just.
1:03:23
He's given it everything, and it's still not enough.
1:03:25
I think it's fantastic. Something else like about this
1:03:28
scene is how PTA shot it, or rather when he shot it.
1:03:30
When he was putting together the shooting schedule with Joanne
1:03:33
Seller. Anderson made sure to shoot this
1:03:35
scene the day after the film. The one where Daniel wrestles.
1:03:37
He's out in the ground so getting roughed up was fresh in
1:03:40
Paul Daniels memory, modern his hair and mouth.
1:03:46
You are a weak man. And I know there's this really
1:03:52
interesting the leader team in the screenplay which which never
1:03:55
made a screen at all that didn't even shoot it, but it still gets
1:03:58
referenced later on. And it's Daniel tells Henry the
1:04:01
guy who turns up and says he's brother.
1:04:03
He says to Henry, my cock doesn't work.
1:04:05
And then we'd see them both later with prostitutes, which is
1:04:08
why Eli says in this scene, Daniel has been lost enough to
1:04:11
women. Right.
1:04:14
Yeah, I'm glad that team was deleted.
1:04:15
Far too much information I. Mean that dialogue doesn't
1:04:18
really sit anywhere else in the film, does it?
1:04:20
Doesn't really really thought through, really educated, really
1:04:23
intelligent me. Cook doesn't work.
1:04:28
Don't into Brian Glover. Yeah, go to.
1:04:32
Wherever Channel and Glover deal Lewis.
1:04:37
That's the only way to deliver that line, surely?
1:04:39
The middle of there will be blurred.
1:04:40
The big scenes start to come thick and fast, and in those
1:04:43
couple we just discussed, two were the biggest.
1:04:45
Oh amazing. Fantastic, the.
1:04:51
Crew. Paul Thomas Anderson is a
1:04:55
director who likes to work collaboratively, so his key crew
1:04:58
members are always worth talking about.
1:05:00
Yeah, and that's what we're going to do now.
1:05:02
Johnny Greenwood is the composer and Robert Elswood as director
1:05:05
of photography are coming home, but we're going to start off
1:05:08
with the writing. So They Will Be Blood wasn't
1:05:12
just directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, it was written by him,
1:05:15
too. Yeah, collaborating with
1:05:16
himself. He did.
1:05:18
This was his fifth credit, the screenwriter after Hard 8,
1:05:21
Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch Drunk Love.
1:05:24
How's the writing here though? Westy and There will be Blood.
1:05:26
I mean, he really knows what he's doing at this point.
1:05:29
Yeah, it's very, it's much like the direction.
1:05:30
It's very refined. There's not a bit of dialogue
1:05:33
that's unnecessary. There's ad Lib where it needs to
1:05:36
be. I think the visuals would have
1:05:38
been in the screenplay. I think if you'd read this, even
1:05:40
like D Lewis read the first draft wasn't even finished and
1:05:43
he wanted to do it, which I think, you know, holds a lot to
1:05:47
the way that the narrative floor and the way that it just built.
1:05:50
You cannot have one scene without another.
1:05:52
None of this can be cut, and I think that's on the page.
1:05:56
You can always, it is like a novel almost.
1:05:58
It's like watching a novel, one of them very, very rare films
1:06:01
where you just kind of all the way through.
1:06:02
I think The Green Miles the same and that kind of adaptation.
1:06:05
I think Shutter Island's the same and that kind of
1:06:08
adaptation. I think this is the same.
1:06:10
Not that I've read the book, but I just feel like it is a
1:06:13
novelization and you've just got chapters, not scenes, not acts.
1:06:17
I think you've just got chapters.
1:06:18
I find it hard to know where Act One stops and Act 2 starts and
1:06:20
where's Act 3. I think it's all very much in
1:06:23
this building blocks of the chapters and and how he does it.
1:06:26
It's got a real pay attention vibe to it.
1:06:28
Like if you miss any of this, you don't form.
1:06:30
Like I said at the top. You can just see that he's just
1:06:33
very, very into this and very, very much from the start and
1:06:37
knows exactly how big it's going to be and how good it's going to
1:06:40
be. This is PT arriving fully formed
1:06:42
and going. This is what I'm doing.
1:06:43
This is how it sounds, this is how it looks.
1:06:45
Get it done. Yeah.
1:06:48
Yeah, I think the right ones, top notch, really strong
1:06:50
narrative and that's a lot of themes.
1:06:52
I think the strongest ones are probably Greed and Control.
1:06:55
They're both personified by Daniel, which I talked about
1:06:57
before, but I see some other themes too.
1:07:00
There's a recurring theme of family.
1:07:02
Rather the lack of 1. The point that Daniels how he is
1:07:04
partly because of a lack of family or friends is obvious and
1:07:07
Ham at home by the fact that both of his family connections
1:07:09
in the film, HW and Henry, are based on lies.
1:07:13
Yeah, yeah, capitalism V religion.
1:07:15
There's a pretty strong theme shown in the struggles between
1:07:17
the self-made millionaire and Daniel and the man of faith in
1:07:20
Eli. Capitalism wins out in the film,
1:07:22
as I think it did around this time in America in real life.
1:07:25
I think my favorite, though, is the critique of the American
1:07:28
Dream. Daniel basically is the American
1:07:31
Dream. He drags himself up from nothing
1:07:32
by his bootstraps with his own blood, sweat and tears, and he
1:07:35
ends up a rich man, but he achieves all that at the expense
1:07:38
of others. He steals, he hurts and loses
1:07:41
his son. He's a murderer, and he ends up
1:07:43
a hateful, lonely man. And so, I mean, how good is the
1:07:46
American Dream really? Not very, according to this.
1:07:50
You can talk about Lords in the writing, narrative, character,
1:07:52
dialogue. It's all, they're all strong and
1:07:54
really strong themes in the subtext, too.
1:07:56
Yeah, I think. Definitely.
1:07:57
Yeah, love it. Big fan.
1:07:59
What I particularly love though is how many times you think it's
1:08:01
setting something up to go one particular way, but then it
1:08:04
swerves and it just has some really unusual plot developments
1:08:07
like Daniel. I mean, I say adopting the HW
1:08:10
basically takes some reason is on, but you think, OK, this is
1:08:13
going to how it's going to develop Daniel as a man.
1:08:16
He's so intend making money, put this off and it's the one thing
1:08:18
in the side that's going to change his heart or they'll
1:08:21
drift apart and it'll feel like this big tragic thing.
1:08:23
But it's not like that. Like HW just become his own man
1:08:27
and they do have this huge falling out, but Daniel doesn't
1:08:29
care. There's no character development
1:08:31
for Daniel there. He just keeps falling further
1:08:34
and further into this like moral abyss and HW represents what he
1:08:37
could have had. And then secondly, we've
1:08:39
mentioned already the whole thing about Eli and Paul being
1:08:41
twins. And obviously part of that is
1:08:43
due to the custom fire and that we talked about.
1:08:47
But again, it does fail. And you mentioned it feels like
1:08:49
it's set up to have some plot switch, some significance later
1:08:52
on. Like what was Eli trying to con
1:08:55
Daniel all along? That's how we could have gone.
1:08:57
But it doesn't go that way. It's just you never say Paul
1:08:59
again. He just not on the run.
1:09:01
She's as often as I think, really unusual.
1:09:03
It's just real life, isn't it boring?
1:09:05
Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. And it's the last 1 is when
1:09:09
Henry turns up Daniels brother from another mother.
1:09:11
Again you think Archer he's going to be the new right hand
1:09:14
man or he's going to bring Daniel down somehow or teaming
1:09:17
with Eli and they'll bring down the oil empire blah blah blah.
1:09:20
But again, no, doesn't go there. He gets murdered, which has
1:09:23
absolutely no comeback whatsoever for Daniel.
1:09:26
He just gets aware of it. Just another really striking
1:09:28
plot development which just tells you how like unusual this
1:09:31
film is at a right level. So sets us up for numerous ways
1:09:34
we could go in terms of narrative, but it never actually
1:09:37
goes anything. That's really impressive to be
1:09:38
able to pull that off and for they still feel satisfying.
1:09:42
I think the payoff of that murder is that it's band he's
1:09:43
tracked and he knows that he's done it and he has to repent.
1:09:46
So if he hadn't done that, he wouldn't have to go to the
1:09:48
church. And like I said, it's all these
1:09:49
building blocks where it just works and you don't go, oh,
1:09:52
well, that's a bit obvious. It just it sounds like real
1:09:54
life. The plotting is excellent.
1:09:56
Yeah, really excellent. So in about 2004, PTA was
1:10:00
working on a new screenplay. It was a drama about two warring
1:10:04
families, but he was struggling with it.
1:10:06
Then he came across a book that he loved, and it became the
1:10:08
basis of There Will Be Blood, right?
1:10:10
Yeah. Do you know the book and the
1:10:11
author? It's called oil, isn't it?
1:10:14
It's called oil. Yeah, I.
1:10:15
Don't know who wrote it though. Yeah, it was called Oil and
1:10:17
written by Upton Sinclair, which was published in 1926.
1:10:20
So surprised I haven't read it yet.
1:10:24
PDA said that he felt it was collaborating with Sinclair
1:10:26
rather than adapting him because he only used the 1st 150 pages
1:10:30
of the novel, which is outrageous.
1:10:32
So there's a lot of lot of differences between the book and
1:10:34
the film. The character names are
1:10:36
different. In the book, the main character
1:10:37
is called J Arnold Ross that became Daniel Plainview.
1:10:41
Yeah, in the book, his son's called J Arnold Ross Junior,
1:10:44
right? So he named him after himself,
1:10:46
which I think might have been a good character detail as
1:10:48
Daniel's such a narcissist. Obviously, he went a different
1:10:50
way. Yeah, yeah.
1:10:52
I mean, the time period changes to Sinclair's novel was set in
1:10:54
the 1920s, but PTA moved it about 20-30 years earlier, which
1:10:58
I really think works. Yeah, definitely.
1:11:00
That was the beginning of the oil boom, Yeah, in the US, which
1:11:02
I think that's a great change. Yeah, I mean, that's just so
1:11:05
ballsy, taking somebody's novel about oil and going.
1:11:08
That's good. 150 pages. I'll have them and then I'll
1:11:11
just change the fucking timeline.
1:11:13
What? On Earth, it's.
1:11:16
A good job he was dead open the sink there by this point.
1:11:18
Furious. See the film that we've done
1:11:21
from your book now Like it Who's claimed you?
1:11:28
So we've already mentioned Edward Rohini, who was the
1:11:30
inspiration for Paying for You, but other characters in the film
1:11:33
are also based on real people. So, for example, Daniel's
1:11:36
business party was HB Ailman, played by Barry Dell Sherman,
1:11:39
and there was an actual oil man called HB Ailman.
1:11:43
Yeah. HB Ailman worked with Edward
1:11:45
Doheny too in real life. So right, full circle, OK.
1:11:49
Cool life's a circle of life. And then the two Standard Oil
1:11:53
guys who see, you know, a fair few times in the film, one of
1:11:56
them is HM Tilford. He's played by David Washofsky.
1:11:59
And then JJ Carter, played by Tom Doyle.
1:12:02
And they were real Standard Oil perspectives, those names.
1:12:06
Yeah, those scenes with Tilfad. Daniel threatens to cut his
1:12:08
throat, which is outrageous. That drinks his whiskey.
1:12:12
I told you what I would do Fucking terrifying.
1:12:19
Yeah, for writing There Will Be Blood, Paul Thomas Anderson was
1:12:22
again nominated for an Oscar, but he again lost out again to
1:12:25
the corns for No Country for Old Men.
1:12:28
Sneaky bastards, Yeah. Bastards.
1:12:30
Still, though, some great writing.
1:12:31
Yeah, Peter, Yeah. Ridiculous.
1:12:33
Yeah, If you'd had a hotel room, you probably could have done 200
1:12:35
pages. Moving on from the writing to
1:12:42
the music and the composer on There Will Be Blood was Johnny
1:12:45
Greenwood Westies boy in it. That's my boy, Yeah.
1:12:50
No one, mainly at this point, as the league guitarist in the
1:12:52
miserable British Radiohead. My favorite band of all time.
1:12:59
Johnny Green would be his debut in feature films with There Will
1:13:02
Be Blood. Yeah, Wesley, you love
1:13:04
Radiohead. I do.
1:13:05
If I'm guessing like the music. Yeah, I love the music here.
1:13:07
It's it's so brilliantly done and really it's quite
1:13:12
forgettable because if you haven't got the visuals to go
1:13:15
with it, you can't go. What was the theme from There
1:13:17
Will Be Blood? You just, you know, about the
1:13:19
strings swell of that one at the start and this kind of like
1:13:23
that, that pastel dance at the end with the violins, it's very
1:13:27
Barry Lyndon and it's very Kubrick.
1:13:29
And it's got that kind of upbeat nature.
1:13:30
But there's some bits in here. I mean, again, it's just like
1:13:33
the visuals. It's kind of blinking.
1:13:35
You'll miss it. There's some really, really
1:13:36
beautiful moments in it. But I think for Johnny Greenwood
1:13:38
to get a hold of this and just score, yeah, I'm just doing
1:13:41
this. There isn't a melody.
1:13:44
There isn't the theme. He's not trying to beat John
1:13:45
Williams. He's just trying to create
1:13:47
texture and I think that's the best description of this
1:13:49
soundtrack. It's just got a texture to it
1:13:51
and it doesn't overtake what you're looking at.
1:13:54
It just really reinforces the visuals.
1:13:56
And for I know he's made lots of records of Radiohead and The
1:13:59
Smile and he's done lots of things since this, but I think
1:14:02
for his debut, for a soundtrack, it's very, very self assured.
1:14:05
It's very, very brave. It's very, very good.
1:14:08
But I could not listen to it without context of the film
1:14:12
because I think it would just drive as fucking insane.
1:14:15
Yeah, the music is superb. I think Tony Greenwood's kind of
1:14:18
the unsung hero of the film. Yeah, I mean, not so much.
1:14:21
Yeah, with Wesley singing his praises, obviously.
1:14:24
I think the word I would used to describe the score is
1:14:26
unsettling. Yeah, at times it's very string
1:14:29
heavy and beautiful at times. Like during the oil Derrick step
1:14:31
piece he talked about, it's percussion driven and then
1:14:33
chaotic. I think some of the standout
1:14:35
pieces for me are a track called Future Markets, which plays when
1:14:38
Daniel buys Abel's land. Sounds very Bernard Permanesque
1:14:46
and a piece called Daniel Plainview.
1:14:48
That music is terrifying. It totally sounds like a horror
1:14:51
movie soundtrack. Remember some of the things we
1:14:53
talked about? Greed, death, the dark side of
1:14:55
religion. I mean, like you say, obviously
1:15:03
it's not John Williams or Jerry Goldsmith.
1:15:06
It's not catchy hooks or anything like that.
1:15:07
But I think it's stunning music, Fantastic.
1:15:10
Yeah, complete agreement. It's what you said there.
1:15:12
The film does feel like a horror movie in a lot of ways.
1:15:15
And thinking music is so much a massive part of that.
1:15:17
And the part that sticks out to me, it's when Daniel and Henry
1:15:21
are likes taking off the land and on horses and they've come
1:15:23
to the brow of a hill and it reveals this massive short of
1:15:26
the beautiful ocean. And you're just saying, you know
1:15:28
what? If that was scored by John
1:15:30
Williams or Howard Shaw Goldsmith, any of those guys you
1:15:33
mentioned, you'd have this like big swelling, sweeping
1:15:36
orchestral piece or Blimpton. But Greenwood, it's just like
1:15:39
really weird percussion and strings makes it completely
1:15:42
unsettling. Instead it's it's brilliant
1:15:44
where green is. Greenwood's music was performed
1:15:46
largely by the BBC Concert Orchestra, and he said the
1:15:48
creative process was that he wrote hours and hours of music,
1:15:51
which I can totally, totally believe.
1:15:54
But he and Anderson stripped it back to 33 minutes together.
1:15:57
And Greenwood said I tried to write to the scenery and the
1:16:00
story rather than creating specific theme tunes for
1:16:02
characters. It's not the kind of narrative
1:16:05
that would suit that. And he's absolutely correct.
1:16:07
That's exactly what he's done. I'm making a Danielle Plainview
1:16:10
theme. What would that be?
1:16:14
Just razor blades on strings I think the thing.
1:16:18
As well as Johnny Greenwood's music, there's some traditional
1:16:21
music in there too, to Christian hymns I heard sung by Eli's
1:16:24
congregation. One's call there is power in the
1:16:27
blood, which I think seems a link back to the title, and also
1:16:30
one call to what a friend we have in Jesus.
1:16:33
One of my favourites. She had the congregation singing
1:16:37
Paranoid Android. I mean, even though Johnny
1:16:43
Greenwood's score was very well received, it wasn't eligible for
1:16:46
Best Original Score. The Oscars.
1:16:48
That was because he was part of some music from you he'd written
1:16:50
previously for a documentary called Body Skunk.
1:16:53
That's a shame. That's a real shame.
1:16:54
It wouldn't best score the Westies that year, though.
1:16:57
Right, it did. On to how the film looks and
1:17:02
we're talking the cinematography on There will be blood the DP on
1:17:05
the film was Robert Elswit in a movie career going back to the
1:17:08
early 1980s, he had an eclectic filmography, she.
1:17:12
Was here. Yeah, yeah.
1:17:13
The Sure Thing, The Hand That Rocks, The Cradle, The River
1:17:16
Wild and Return of the Living Dead, Part 2, some of the
1:17:19
biggest. Then Paul Thomas Anderson came
1:17:21
along and he and else would work together on Hardy, Boogie
1:17:24
Nights, Magnolia Punched, Drunk Love, And Then There Will Be
1:17:27
Blood. What a transformation.
1:17:30
Yeah. So how's Elizabeth's work here,
1:17:32
Matt? He's like everyone else, he's
1:17:34
just bringing the absolute best he can possibly do to serve the
1:17:37
story. And what strikes me about what
1:17:40
he does is this film still has Cle visual references or John
1:17:43
Ford, John Houston mentioned Leone, Terrence Malick.
1:17:46
But it still feels very individual, nothing else but
1:17:49
deserves a lot of praise for that because it looks really
1:17:52
classically Hollywood. But it is also, on the other
1:17:55
hand, still very much APDA film and by now they're working
1:17:58
together so harmoniously, they can do that.
1:18:01
So it's this lovely combination of huge epic shots combined with
1:18:04
really claustrophobic and TV. So the whole film has this
1:18:08
really unique feeling and I think Else would deserve so much
1:18:10
of the credit for that. 100% I love the cinematography, I love
1:18:15
the colour palette, lots of earthy tone that come from the
1:18:17
landscapes, production design and the lighting to give it a
1:18:20
very realistic period feel. That kind of past concerns give
1:18:23
films too much of A muted look I think, but not here.
1:18:26
It's all still very striking and how it looks.
1:18:29
I think a bit of APTA trademark is that a shot length is way
1:18:32
above average and this film kind of exemplifies that.
1:18:35
There's a great shot when we first get Little Boston, when we
1:18:37
start on the train tracks and then punt to the right and
1:18:40
follow Daniel's car as it comes into town.
1:18:42
It's super. Past the station as well, and
1:18:44
then just catches up with it. Yeah, it's great.
1:18:46
Brilliant. I know that Robert Ellsworth
1:18:48
insisted on a shooting on film, not digital, because he thinks
1:18:50
digital offers none of the text, your grain that he wanted here
1:18:52
and which is surely for the best.
1:18:54
And I think there's a Kubrick influence here, too.
1:18:57
There's a moment after the oil Derek explosion where the
1:18:59
cameras behind Daniel and we watched him sitting, observing
1:19:01
the fire for quite a while. That always reminds me of
1:19:04
Kubrick. Yeah.
1:19:04
It's just stunning work, I think start to finish.
1:19:06
Looks incredible. Yeah, exactly the same.
1:19:09
Just incredible work. Great symmetry, like you said.
1:19:12
Great Kubrick references without it being obvious.
1:19:14
Great John Ford references without being obvious.
1:19:15
Great John Houston references without being it's obvious.
1:19:18
It just feels like a new version of all the films that I watch as
1:19:22
a kid. It's like a new version of the
1:19:23
searches. It's like a new version and it
1:19:26
with the soundtrack as well. I think the camera work is just
1:19:29
as as punk. It's just as punk rock, you know
1:19:31
what I mean? It's just like this modern
1:19:33
version of an old classic. And I think it all works hand in
1:19:37
hand with the writing, with the perform.
1:19:38
The performances are old school Hollywood and the very bombastic
1:19:41
and beautiful, but it's the it's the way it's staged.
1:19:44
The way it's shot is very modern.
1:19:46
Eli walking over to Daniel and have him reflected in the oil
1:19:49
puddle as it just goes past us like a track and shot elsewhere.
1:19:53
To me, he feels like one of them cinematographers that does have
1:19:55
a voice, that does have a style, but he wants to make it Paul
1:20:00
Thomas Anderson style. Every film that he's worked on
1:20:02
look different. Every film that he's worked on,
1:20:04
It's what Paul Thomas Anderson wants to see on the screen.
1:20:07
That's how I see the cinematography.
1:20:09
And they will be, they'd say Thomas Anderson drawn that
1:20:11
sketch. You know, like Plainview does of
1:20:14
like this is how we're going to mine it.
1:20:15
And he goes, right, I'll build it for you then.
1:20:17
Yeah, that's how I feel about it.
1:20:19
It's it's, it's fantastic work and thoroughly deserved for the
1:20:22
Oscar, I think. Absolutely.
1:20:24
One little dealer that I'll have thought is that PT used a very
1:20:27
specific camera for the film to tie in with the setting and it
1:20:30
was a vintage 1910 path here camera that he happened and he
1:20:35
didn't use it fall for his only certain scenes, but he did take
1:20:37
the lens for shots on the train where we see Daniel sleeping of
1:20:41
the infant. HW starts with 1910 lens.
1:20:44
Ridiculous. Wow.
1:20:45
You can tell as well. It looks fucking great.
1:20:48
It does. Yeah, I think the resolution is
1:20:50
slightly lower. Course, it should've done the
1:20:51
whole film on that one lens. And they removed some color from
1:20:55
the corner of the frame as well. Give you that old world.
1:20:57
Imagine that on the explosion sequence, that would have just
1:21:00
been ridiculous. You wouldn't wouldn't be able to
1:21:01
see anything. The lens like I can't handle
1:21:03
this. Yeah.
1:21:05
Yeah, Elswick played a part in some of the colors used as well.
1:21:08
We'll see a bowling alley and Daniel's house at the end of the
1:21:10
film, which is very Kubrick to me.
1:21:12
So PTA's original plan was for the ball.
1:21:14
Now you'd be painted entirely white to make it striking, which
1:21:17
I think would have been fucking great, actually.
1:21:19
But Elswood said that you would limit what you could do with the
1:21:21
light and it would bounce everywhere and it would just
1:21:23
look too clean. I think.
1:21:25
Yeah. And convinced him to change his
1:21:26
mind so they could make it look more medicine and more dramatic.
1:21:29
And I think that's why you bring in them earthy tones and them
1:21:32
Reds. And I think, you know, that the
1:21:33
fact that the even the ball and pins aren't pure white.
1:21:36
There is wood again. It's just really like on, on
1:21:39
finished and medicine and black baller balls.
1:21:42
Just. Yeah.
1:21:43
Yeah, that shot of the alley, it's like a Kubik style one
1:21:46
point perspective shot. Yeah, yeah.
1:21:47
Fantastic. Brilliant for his work on There
1:21:50
Will Be Blood. Robert Ellsmith won the Oscar
1:21:53
for best cinematography. They finally beat the coins
1:21:56
deservedly I think. Oh, it's Deakins, not the coins.
1:21:59
The one. I mean, I feel I would rather
1:22:01
have got like maybe best director for this and then
1:22:03
Deakins getting best cinematographer.
1:22:05
But I mean, it's fucking so close to call.
1:22:07
It's so close to call. It's ridiculous.
1:22:09
I love, I love both films equally, but I think this just
1:22:13
pips it slightly. Yeah.
1:22:16
And that's the crew section. PTA and DDL get most of the
1:22:19
plaudits on There Will Be Blood, perhaps rightly, but clearly
1:22:22
those names we just talked about, Johnny Greenwood and
1:22:24
Robert Elswit, played huge parts too.
1:22:26
Absolutely fantastic. Yeah, the end.
1:22:34
The final act of There will be blood and we're transported
1:22:37
forward in time. It's 1927 and they are two huge
1:22:41
character scenes that wrap things up.
1:22:43
Obviously, we're talking about the climactic showdown between
1:22:45
Daniel and Eli, but before that comes the final confrontation
1:22:49
between Daniel and HW. Yeah.
1:22:52
So years have passed and Daniel's now an alcoholic, alone
1:22:54
in this huge mansion. Alone except for his Butler,
1:22:57
that is. Yeah, HW is now married to Mary
1:23:01
Sunday and visits Daniel and tell him he's moving to Mexico
1:23:03
to start his own oil business and Daniel takes it terribly.
1:23:08
He's his own. HW tells him he's not his real
1:23:09
son and calls him a bastard in a basket.
1:23:12
He. Does.
1:23:13
He's nice fella. Daniel is me.
1:23:15
Sweetheart, what? Do you think of this scene,
1:23:18
Wesley? I think it's incredible.
1:23:20
I think I've got a few theories of.
1:23:22
Course you have. Right.
1:23:23
I think that he's a monster. He reveals that he's a monster,
1:23:26
but we've always known that. But think he's an alcoholic.
1:23:28
But he's always been an alcoholic.
1:23:30
He's always drunk through the whole film.
1:23:31
He's always got the hip flask. It always kind of helps him
1:23:33
through things. But we're still on his side.
1:23:36
We're still with him and I think when HW comes back, he does
1:23:39
nothing but berate the fact that he's not good enough as a human
1:23:43
being, which he totally is. He can talk, you can run his own
1:23:46
business, he can, you know, there's a disability, but he
1:23:49
sees that as a complete flaw, which I don't think that is.
1:23:52
I think that's something that you can build upon and be a
1:23:54
stronger person for. And I think he doesn't realize
1:23:56
that at all and wants competition and wants somebody
1:23:59
to hit and want somebody to put down and belittle.
1:24:03
And I'm not sure he's got a Butler.
1:24:05
I'll go into it a little bit more in the next sequence, but I
1:24:07
think this is all start of Daniel's mind unraveling into
1:24:12
madness. Right.
1:24:13
Lovely. Yeah.
1:24:15
I mean, all that great character work, that excellent writing
1:24:18
we've had up to this point, now starts to pay off.
1:24:19
Yeah, in the fine lags because the character moments are just
1:24:22
massive. Yeah.
1:24:23
Daniel's behavior is just off the charts.
1:24:26
Yeah. Because we've seen his journey.
1:24:28
We've seen his descent. We have for it.
1:24:29
And we buy it. Yeah, there's two moments here
1:24:32
that always strike me. First is that by this point in
1:24:34
the film, HW, Daniel's only son has been deaf for what, 15
1:24:38
years? 16 years, yeah. 16 years and
1:24:41
Daniel still hasn't bothered to learn sign language.
1:24:43
You know, that's just vile. Yeah.
1:24:45
And really lazy. Yeah as well.
1:24:47
Yeah. Why should he though?
1:24:48
That's his point, isn't it? Not even his son.
1:24:50
Why should he? But then when HW says he wanted
1:24:52
to speak to Daniel and Daniel says you can't speak, so just
1:24:55
flop your hands about, Yeah, that is unbelievable.
1:24:58
Get your dog out. Yeah, yeah.
1:25:02
The cruelty is almost cartoonish, but like I say,
1:25:04
we've seen the fall, so it all works.
1:25:06
Yeah, but tell you what it is as well.
1:25:08
HW is a good man. Daniel by Hook Up by Crook
1:25:12
raised a good man. Yeah.
1:25:14
Does that flashback sequence as well.
1:25:16
This is heartbreaking. Is, yeah.
1:25:18
A beautiful score in there as well.
1:25:20
When it's just him and Mary and they're just playing around,
1:25:21
it's so powerful. Then you just see that that's
1:25:24
what he sees, and you know that he's really, really suffering.
1:25:27
Yeah, but he's trouble. He was the best thing Daniel's
1:25:29
ever done, the best thing he's ever created.
1:25:31
And what he wants is right there in front of him, but he just
1:25:34
can't see it. Daniel thinks he's strong, but
1:25:36
he's not. No, he's one of those guys you
1:25:38
see on Twitter who call themselves an alpha male, but
1:25:40
most people just do the pathetic.
1:25:41
Yeah, absolutely. But it is a brilliant scene.
1:25:45
For me, this is the best scene in the film.
1:25:47
It's outstanding. Yeah, I think it's just
1:25:49
incredible. So we've already talked like
1:25:51
it's got the film in general has all these horror movie overtones
1:25:55
and it continuously. I mean, you mentioned Dracula
1:25:57
earlier, John. This is very much Dracula.
1:25:59
You know what, in that rumbling house all by himself with maybe,
1:26:03
maybe not a servant. He's like Renfield.
1:26:05
You know, this is nothing human in this house anymore.
1:26:08
You know, the whole film has been about Daniel being eaten up
1:26:11
and consumed by greed and by hade ridden here.
1:26:14
He does look like he's literally decaying before your eyes.
1:26:17
He looks like he's just crumbling.
1:26:19
So that reveal of him in his chair, just cloaked in shadows,
1:26:22
The room was really dingly lit. But it's but, but it looks
1:26:26
amazing at the same time that that horror imagery is
1:26:29
incredible. And I think that informs what
1:26:31
happens now, which as you say, it's just that appalling
1:26:33
treatment of HW. He was still after evidence
1:26:35
still says he loves Daniel, but Daniel's so far gone any, any
1:26:39
little bit of soul he had has now just been eaten away.
1:26:42
And when HW says he's going to set up his own business instead
1:26:46
of being proud, Daniel says so you're my competitor.
1:26:49
That's all he can fume has and he.
1:26:51
Does that point and he. Does that, Yeah.
1:26:54
It's brilliant stuff. But then to choose this moment,
1:26:58
after sitting on the truth for so long, to finally tell him
1:27:01
he's not a son, It's just despicable.
1:27:03
It's shattering. Isn't it?
1:27:04
It is. It's.
1:27:05
What it is, it's shattering. It's one more shattering things,
1:27:07
something I've ever seen. So yeah, lots of horror imagery
1:27:10
in there. And it is.
1:27:11
It's set up like the going into the vampires layer, the Gordon
1:27:14
Slayer, the monster that Daniel has become.
1:27:18
Speaking of HW, we never actually find out what his real
1:27:21
name is or what HW stands for, do we?
1:27:23
Human worker. He could be Harvey Weinstein.
1:27:29
That's why they don't tell us the.
1:27:30
Origin story. He's a.
1:27:31
Good guy. But Russell Harvard Daxo plays
1:27:34
all the HW in this scene. He's deaf in real life.
1:27:37
That's one of the reasons it all feels really authentic, right?
1:27:40
I could tell. You I think the way the age each
1:27:42
character is fantastic. Yeah, it's brilliant.
1:27:45
He's on. They are.
1:27:45
He looks like him as a baby. He does.
1:27:47
And it's same with Mary as well when she grows up.
1:27:49
It's fun. Really, really brilliant and
1:27:51
that taps it to me. Theory, but we're going to that.
1:27:54
Lovely and young HW that was played by an actor called Dylan
1:27:58
Frazier. And what happened?
1:28:00
The casting director lady called Cassandra Kulkundas should go
1:28:03
around schools in Marfa, TX to find potential child actors.
1:28:06
And someone had pointed out Frazier to her, and she was
1:28:09
really impressed because apparently he did some brilliant
1:28:11
improvisation with her. So she recommended him to PTA,
1:28:14
which is how he got the part. But bizarrely enough, on the
1:28:16
night she went to meet him, she got pulled off for speeding.
1:28:19
And the state trooper said, oh, where you going?
1:28:21
And Kalakunda said, oh, I'm going to this address over here.
1:28:25
And the state trooper went, that's my place.
1:28:27
You going to my house? The state trooper was Fraser's
1:28:30
mother. Well.
1:28:32
Coincidence. And she LED Kalkuna's off with a
1:28:34
warning. I know that he was only 11.
1:28:36
Dylan Fraser. So when they were trying to
1:28:39
convince Dylan's mother to let him be in the movie, his mother
1:28:41
wanted to figure out who Daniel Day Lewis was.
1:28:43
So she rented a copy of Gangs of New York.
1:28:48
Obviously, she was terrified by the thought of her child
1:28:51
knocking about with Bill the Butcher.
1:28:52
Yeah, so Cassandra Kulakunda has quickly had a copy of Age of
1:28:55
Innocence sent over for more of a gentleman.
1:28:59
Yeah, in the name of the father. Get that in there.
1:29:01
Yeah, good job. Wasn't my left foot.
1:29:03
She'd be like what the fuck? The butcher gutting a pig?
1:29:09
Yeah. Amsterdam.
1:29:11
I'm New York. And then we also see Daniel's
1:29:15
Butler in this scene. His currently doesn't have a
1:29:17
name, but he's either played by Phil Shelley or Vince Froyo,
1:29:20
both credited on IMDb. So during film and a
1:29:22
photographer sneaked on and took a picture of whichever actor
1:29:25
plays the Butler and then ran an article saying how Daniel Day
1:29:28
Lewis had completely transformed himself for this new role
1:29:30
alongside a picture of the Butler.
1:29:33
Again, really weird. This really weird played by two
1:29:37
people. Yeah, that would be some serious
1:29:39
method acting that one. 2 methods.
1:29:41
Like face off. Changing his whole identity.
1:29:46
Skin grafts. So a big scene there, then some
1:29:51
huge character drama the last time we see HW in the film.
1:29:55
And Daniel, what a bastard. Yeah, but the HW takes away his
1:29:58
pride, which is incredible. I'm glad none of me is part of
1:30:00
you. I'm glad none of you is part of
1:30:02
me, which is great. Moving into the final scene of
1:30:07
the film, and it's probably the most famous scene in the film,
1:30:10
isn't it? So still alone in this huge
1:30:13
mansion, still with the Butler though.
1:30:16
Daniel is then visited by a second blast from the past.
1:30:19
It's only Eli Sunday wanting more money.
1:30:22
The two talk and argue. One thing leads to another and
1:30:26
Daniel bludgeons Eli to death with a bowling pin.
1:30:29
As you do, He's finished. It's Daniel.
1:30:33
How was this as a way to wrap it all up, Matt?
1:30:35
It's brilliant, it's insane, it's crazy, and it's really,
1:30:39
really, really funny at the same time.
1:30:43
Like once you get over the shock of the first few and this is
1:30:47
pure black comedy like. There will be comedy.
1:30:50
I don't understand why Eli rocks up after all this time and
1:30:53
thinks he can have a normal conversation with Daniel catch
1:30:55
up ready after all these times. And as much as Daniel is
1:30:58
completely despicable by this point, I can't help enjoy and
1:31:01
how much he tortures Eli here, like telling him he's got to
1:31:05
confess he's a false prophet. And he says, see it like, you
1:31:07
mean, it's like that's what you say to one of your kids when
1:31:10
you've caught them, like beating up the sibling and you make them
1:31:12
apologize. It's when he doesn't finish
1:31:14
either. He goes and you have a full
1:31:16
congregation. So he doesn't.
1:31:19
Tell him any more than that just so.
1:31:20
It's brilliant. And after Eli goes through all
1:31:23
that, Daniel does say it's really casually.
1:31:25
Those areas have been drilled brilliant brutal just completely
1:31:29
cuts them down and one bit I'd overlooked for so long and it
1:31:32
only really made me laugh like last week and watch it when Eli
1:31:35
is crying about how he's in trouble.
1:31:37
The Lord hasn't helped him the devils in the feed he goes he's
1:31:39
completely failed to learn me to the recent panic in our economy.
1:31:42
Like yeah, don't think that's how God works.
1:31:44
I don't think God tells you that kind of stuff, like tips on
1:31:47
really specific, really specific, really odd thing to
1:31:50
complain about. But that that final eruption you
1:31:53
get from dear Lews, which he's been building up to, it's so
1:31:57
funny. I mean, just yelling drainage,
1:31:58
It's such a funny word. Yell at someone brilliant.
1:32:01
I love the way he just waddles over to Eli when he's mimicking
1:32:04
drink in the milkshake. That's really funny.
1:32:06
Yeah, that's when he does that little skip as well, when he
1:32:09
like just gets a, I got us a drink and he's just skipping on
1:32:11
the floor. He's like I need, I need a.
1:32:14
Drink. It's brilliant.
1:32:15
And then just the way it just we had to sense the Eli running
1:32:19
around the room, yelping like a little girl, dodging the ball
1:32:21
and pins being thrown at him. The ball and ball.
1:32:25
Daniel, I told you I would eat you up.
1:32:27
Like it shouldn't work. It shouldn't work, but it does.
1:32:31
And like, say it's hilarious at the same time.
1:32:33
What an amazing end. Yeah, drainage boy.
1:32:42
Yeah. I mean, just when I thought
1:32:43
there wasn't going to be any blood boom, Anderson delivers.
1:32:46
I mean, whenever I hear somebody use the phrase like powerhouse
1:32:49
acting performance, I always think of Daniel D Lewis.
1:32:52
Specifically in this film and even more specifically in this
1:32:55
scene. He's huge, but Daniel manages to
1:32:58
not be swallowed alive isn't achievement in itself, but what
1:33:01
a fatally I mean by this point in his life, Daniel is barely
1:33:05
human anymore. He's just a big ball of greed
1:33:07
and hate. It's not enough that Eli's here
1:33:09
to begging for money. He wants to hear him renounce
1:33:11
his faith. And after he does, Daniel does
1:33:14
just say those areas have been drilled, then brings up Paul and
1:33:18
how much how he's the better brother.
1:33:19
Eli is totally destroyed, and it's still not enough for
1:33:23
Daniel. He then beats him to death with
1:33:25
a bowling pin, which isn't the most dignified death I've ever
1:33:28
seen, to be honest. And Daniel's final line, the
1:33:31
final line of the film is I'm finished.
1:33:33
Yeah, that's a great line. He is finished.
1:33:36
But The thing is, Daniel's achieved everything he tried to
1:33:38
achieve. He's found oil, built a
1:33:40
business, became rich, defeated in his way.
1:33:42
Eli, he's achieved everything that he tried to achieve, but
1:33:45
nothing that he wanted to achieve.
1:33:47
He's still where he didn't want to be, alone, except for the
1:33:49
Butler. Only now he's got a big house.
1:33:53
And also, we'll first get to the scene and Daniel's asleep with
1:33:56
his head on the bowling lane. Yeah, that cannot be
1:33:58
comfortable. Surely.
1:34:00
It looks so uncomfortable, that sleeping position.
1:34:03
Yeah, I mean, everything you guys have said taps into my
1:34:07
final theory on the end of There Will Be Blood, which is that I
1:34:11
don't believe that this sequence is actually reality at all.
1:34:16
I think it's Daniel playing it out after the pain of losing HW
1:34:20
and walking out. So he's lying on the on the
1:34:23
alley like you've just said, John, really uncomfortable
1:34:25
position. The Butler comes and wakes him
1:34:26
up, cannot wake him up. You've got a visitor doesn't
1:34:29
respond, not at all. And it's already until he's
1:34:31
there with Eli and the Butler's we're in the background almost
1:34:35
watching them dream it. And then he says it's Eli.
1:34:38
Then he wakes up and goes, yes, it is.
1:34:40
And then everything he says is just perfect for what that
1:34:43
character wants to say to that person.
1:34:45
Eli has not aged and it's 16 years.
1:34:48
Yeah, everyone else HW has, even Daniel has.
1:34:51
Everyone is just. And he's been so anal about
1:34:54
getting everybody look the same. Mary has everyone looks the same
1:34:57
as when we're kids to the next, to the next.
1:35:00
And for Thomas Anderson to overlook that, I think there
1:35:02
might be something deeper in there.
1:35:04
And he went, Eli shows up, he's exactly as he looked when he got
1:35:07
on the train to leave, when he got his money to elope, to go
1:35:09
and do the mission. And he basically gets his own
1:35:12
back on him. And he gets him to say that he's
1:35:14
a false prophet. He gets him to say that God is a
1:35:16
superstition. And he gets to hammer his
1:35:18
fucking head into the ground. He can't escape.
1:35:21
Eli's just walk in through that, through that entrance.
1:35:24
And he tries the doors and he can't get out the doors.
1:35:25
And then when he beats him to death, the Butler comes back in
1:35:29
and doesn't react to anything. He just says Mr. Daniel.
1:35:32
He doesn't even call him his real name.
1:35:33
He doesn't say Mr. Plainview. He's not really a character
1:35:36
where where you feel he's grounded and he sat up.
1:35:39
If you watch when the Butler goes to wake him up before Eli
1:35:41
can comes in and where he ends up, it's basically him just
1:35:45
getting up out of a dream and sitting up and then just going
1:35:48
I'm finished. And doesn't you would react If
1:35:50
you smash someone's fucking head in.
1:35:52
It's not just going to go Mr. Daniels, everything all right?
1:35:56
He's just going to go, what the fucks going on here and what
1:35:59
kind of buttload let him set up a firing range in his house?
1:36:01
Like I bring his son back in and just start screaming down the
1:36:04
corridor and he's just eating steak again and it's cold and
1:36:07
it's being on the floor and he's just drinking whatever he can.
1:36:10
To me, it's a cathartic exercise to say that Daniel Plainview is
1:36:14
never, ever, ever, ever going to get redemption.
1:36:17
He's never, ever going to find what he wants to.
1:36:18
He's never going to get closure. So he has to do it himself, in
1:36:21
his own mind, and he's been driven to martinus looking for
1:36:24
it. That's what I get from the end
1:36:25
of the film. I think it's all in Daniel's
1:36:28
head. I think the whole final sequence
1:36:29
is, I think the whole bowl and alley.
1:36:31
It doesn't happen. It's just him trying to get it
1:36:33
right in his head. And then he says I'm finished
1:36:35
because I'm not thinking about this shit anymore.
1:36:37
It's all about winning for Daniel, isn't it?
1:36:39
Exactly, even if it's just in his own mind.
1:36:41
Well, see what you think about this and US Wesley theory.
1:36:44
Brilliant. See.
1:36:45
The only side change they made to the end door because it was
1:36:48
always going to end with Daniel killer Neilite, but originally
1:36:51
Daniel used a silver Tumblr to kill him and said the ball and
1:36:53
pin but PTA changed because he thought it'd be less graphic
1:36:56
with the ball and pin. I mean, it's still pretty
1:36:59
graphic. Yeah, it's.
1:36:59
Good to say. Again, I mean killing him with
1:37:03
what he originally found to start his empire.
1:37:05
If he killed him with silver, that would have just been even
1:37:06
better. Yeah, yeah.
1:37:09
And that original ending? Apparently after we killed Eli,
1:37:11
Daniel then threw his body through the bowling pins so it
1:37:15
ended with a strike. Strike an oil.
1:37:19
Yeah, exactly. All ties in.
1:37:20
Full circle. There's too many things to put
1:37:22
in here, there's too many ideas. Were mentioned how the mansion
1:37:25
where the finale was filmed was built by Edward Tahini for his
1:37:28
son Ned Tahini. But that's not the only link
1:37:31
with the film. In 1929, Ned Daheny and his
1:37:35
assistant Hugh Plunkett were found dead by Tahini's wife.
1:37:38
Apparently it was murder suicide by Plunkett.
1:37:41
The rumour was that they were lovers or bad bowlers.
1:37:45
Wow. Yeah, well, he actually shot Ned
1:37:48
Doheny then himself. Yeah, right.
1:37:50
Yeah. Difficult to beat yourself to
1:37:51
death with a bowling pin. Yeah, I think.
1:37:53
Give. It a bash.
1:37:57
But also this mansion, the Greystore mansion, it's called,
1:38:00
has been in many other films too.
1:38:03
Do you know that? Hey, man, Castle Grace, that's
1:38:06
graceful. Sorry.
1:38:10
I'll be my master of the universe.
1:38:11
They were like. What do you mean?
1:38:13
What's this? This is something I don't know
1:38:15
about masters. Impossible.
1:38:19
Impossible. So it has been Wayne Manor and
1:38:22
Batman and Robin. All right.
1:38:23
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's Jeffrey Lebowski's mansion
1:38:26
in The Big Lebowski. Nice.
1:38:28
It's in the bodyguard of. Course it is.
1:38:30
Ghostbusters 2, Indecent Proposal, The Prestige, The
1:38:34
Social Network, X-Men and all three Sam Raimi Spider Man
1:38:37
films, right? OK.
1:38:40
Never looks the same in all of them.
1:38:41
That's different. Every single one.
1:38:42
How many fucking rooms is in there?
1:38:46
So probably, well, probably almost certainly the most iconic
1:38:49
line here. I drink your milkshake.
1:38:51
That's actually kind of real because PDA had some transcripts
1:38:55
from the 1920s, and Wesley's mentioned this already, the
1:38:58
teapot dorm scandal, which is where oil companies had been
1:39:01
bribing officials for land. But do we use a milk milkshake
1:39:04
as an analogy for oil in these transcripts?
1:39:07
But then also in 2003, there was an American senator called Pete
1:39:10
Domenici and he said that drilling oil was like a child
1:39:13
drinking milkshake in the kitchen from their bedroom.
1:39:17
Either way, it's a superb light. I drink it up.
1:39:24
I wonder if those transcripts also included someone going
1:39:27
drainage. Drainage, Eli.
1:39:31
I am the third revelation. That bit when he's haven't
1:39:35
mentioned it, but he's thrown the balls at him, but there's
1:39:37
that low shot, but he hits that bucket of water or whatever it
1:39:40
is and it hits the camera lens, but then he still powers on.
1:39:43
I am the third revelation, even though that I would just be over
1:39:48
the moon that I hit that. I'd be like, yes, I got that.
1:39:50
Did you get that? Do the scene, but he still think
1:39:53
that perfect it and then stomps into that bit.
1:39:56
It's incredible. And staying on the milkshake
1:39:59
theme, which I want to for as long as possible.
1:40:01
Obviously also the fake oil that they use throughout the movie.
1:40:05
That solution apparently included the same stuff that
1:40:07
McDonald's put in their chocolate milkshake.
1:40:09
Really. Yeah.
1:40:11
Healthy. So must taste nice.
1:40:13
I wonder the fucking machine never worked.
1:40:19
And to get us across the line, here we have our 3rd and final
1:40:22
question from our patrons. OK, it's on the milkshake line,
1:40:26
and it's from Derek Noonan. Hello, Derek.
1:40:28
Hello, Derek. So.
1:40:29
Derek asks. I think your milkshake is one of
1:40:32
the great FU lines ever in cinema.
1:40:34
I use it all the time, Kiddingly of course.
1:40:37
What are some other examples of characters screwing over another
1:40:40
character with a great line? So, Wesley, you love a movie
1:40:44
quote? I do love a movie quote, and I
1:40:45
think, I don't know if it's screwing over, but really
1:40:47
triumphant is a smile, You son of a bitch from Jaws, which is
1:40:52
fucking brilliant. You just want that smile you
1:40:55
sound about. And the way the bitch is kind of
1:40:57
covered over by the rifle shot, I think that's really, really
1:41:00
brilliant that yeah, probably want to be favorite.
1:41:03
That is very good. I think the king might be Clark
1:41:05
Gable to Vivian Lee and Gone with the Wind Mighty I don't
1:41:08
give a damn. Potty mouth.
1:41:10
Also, though equally as highbrow, I'm a big fan of
1:41:13
Arnold to his landlord in the Terminator.
1:41:15
But you asshole probably choose between them.
1:41:18
Obviously Connery. Everyone sounds like Connery.
1:41:24
Fuck you. Asshole.
1:41:27
So 2 joint winners there for me and math.
1:41:31
One I really like is at the end of the apartment when Baxter's
1:41:35
finally stands up from self to sheldrake and doesn't give him
1:41:38
the key. And he says I've decided to
1:41:40
become a Mensch, you know what that means, a human being.
1:41:42
And then just walks out. Oh, that's a beautiful moment,
1:41:45
that love that. Yeah, going to cry.
1:41:46
Yeah, Yeah. So this scene or I'm struggling
1:41:51
to think of any of the final scene that is famous since this
1:41:54
one. Since this one, 2007, yeah,
1:41:58
yeah. Yeah, I think I would struggle
1:42:00
as well. Yeah, yeah.
1:42:01
Yeah, but that's the end of the film.
1:42:03
HW heads to Mexico with Mary. He lies dead.
1:42:06
Or isn't, if you believe Wesley and Daniel is finished intense
1:42:10
enough for you. Just about.
1:42:12
Yeah, yeah. Deception and awards.
1:42:21
Paul Thomas Anderson isn't exactly a box office busting
1:42:24
filmmaker, but There Will Be Blood did do very well on a
1:42:27
budget of $25 million. It took 76.2 million and isn't
1:42:31
the most profitable film at the time and critics wise probably
1:42:36
not a surprise. Nor that There Will Be Blood
1:42:37
received mostly favourable reviews.
1:42:40
Armand Roger. Roger Ebert gave the film 3 1/2
1:42:44
stars out of four very specific score.
1:42:46
That and he said There Will Be Blood as a kind of film that is
1:42:50
easily called great, but I am not sure of its greatness, it's
1:42:54
lack of women or any reflection of ordinary society may see it's
1:42:58
reach exceeding its grasp. Right.
1:43:01
Not sure what the three North stars are for then slammed it.
1:43:06
The lack of women though, that is a bit of an issue, isn't it?
1:43:10
It is, yeah. It is, I think the affection
1:43:13
that he gives Mary is a little bit for me, a little bit weird
1:43:16
sometimes, like almost like he wants her to be his daughter
1:43:20
over HW and kind of wants to bring her on board as well and
1:43:24
fusses her quite a bit. I'll look after you.
1:43:25
I'll be there for you. But yeah, there's no strong
1:43:28
female characters. But I think you're not just I
1:43:31
mean, I might be damned for saying it, but it's not not just
1:43:33
a reflection of this time when this happened.
1:43:36
It was. They just didn't have any flaw
1:43:39
to speak. You know that even on the
1:43:41
opening, if you watch the background when people are
1:43:43
talking and Plainview comes out and explains that he's an oil
1:43:47
man and everyone starts shouting and there's a guy just over his
1:43:50
shoulder on the right to just get her out of here, get that
1:43:52
woman out of here, she's got nothing to say, get her.
1:43:54
And he's furious about a woman speaking as opposed to
1:43:57
Plainviews argument. So I think that might just be a
1:44:00
reflection of the time, unfortunately, as disgusting as
1:44:02
it is. Because I would hate, hate, hate
1:44:06
Daniel Plainview to be in a relationship.
1:44:07
Because that would be horrible to watch.
1:44:09
Yeah, yeah, it would repeat. Hey, you could be right.
1:44:12
Reflection of the Times, maybe from PTA.
1:44:15
MPO magazine gave the film five stars out of five and said
1:44:18
uncompromising, intelligent and searing cinema.
1:44:21
Along with The Assassination of Jesse James and No Country for
1:44:24
Old Men, this is the best batch of Western set dramas in
1:44:27
decades. John Houston would have been
1:44:29
proud. Big top three.
1:44:30
They're huge. Yeah, you'll be loving the Jesse
1:44:32
James reference in there. Right that.
1:44:35
'D be a good classic, right episode, do you think?
1:44:38
Yeah, we'll have touched on it before, haven't we?
1:44:40
But not not the. Yeah, it's an incredible film,
1:44:43
Yeah. And Andrew Soros called the film
1:44:45
an impressive achievement in rendering the simulated
1:44:48
realities of a bygone time and place, largely with an inspired
1:44:51
use of regional extras with all the right moves and sounds.
1:44:54
All the right movies and sounds. That's us when we're brunching
1:44:58
into music. Fantastic.
1:45:00
All the right movies and sounds at the Oscars?
1:45:05
They will be. Build was nominated for best
1:45:06
picture, best director, best adopted screenplay, best art
1:45:09
direction, best film editing and best sound editing.
1:45:12
Yeah, and it won best actor for Daniel Dale Lewis and best
1:45:15
cinematography for Robert Elswit, right?
1:45:18
Nothing specifically for PTA seems a little harsh.
1:45:21
Does seem a little harsh. Yeah, yeah.
1:45:23
But they'll be blurries regarded as one of PTA most popular films
1:45:26
today, and it was that way very quickly after its release.
1:45:29
Success at the box office, lots of critical acclaim, figured
1:45:32
heavily at the awards. And now a modern classic.
1:45:35
Yeah. That was shut up, right?
1:45:37
So easy Sequels and influence. No sequels to There Will Be
1:45:46
Blood, obviously. Imagine There will be Blood to.
1:45:50
The Dallas hears, Yeah. There will be more blood.
1:45:54
Plainview in prison for killing Eli.
1:45:56
No words for the whole film. Do you see him hacking away at
1:46:01
the walls? It was a notable film on its
1:46:05
release, though the first There Will Be Blood.
1:46:07
How do you think we've seen its influence since it was released?
1:46:09
Matt I think its influence is mainly on popular culture
1:46:14
because that end and was as instantly iconic like everybody
1:46:18
you've seen this can quote the milkshake line.
1:46:20
If you shout drainage really loud, people will get what you
1:46:23
mean where that comes from. And certainly the character of
1:46:25
Daniel Plainview himself just instantly went down as one of
1:46:28
the the greatest characters of the 21st century in cinema, I
1:46:31
think, and just one of the all time great villains in the
1:46:33
cinema. But also I think just the
1:46:35
influence on PTA himself. Like Sarah.
1:46:37
I'm a huge fan of all these films, but there's such a clear
1:46:40
dividing line between this and F them before.
1:46:43
And I think everything that's come after this does feel like
1:46:45
it's a different director. Somebody's more mature and is
1:46:48
his own person now. That's where I think the main
1:46:50
influence is lovely. One of the great anti heroes, I
1:46:54
think. Plainview, yeah.
1:46:55
Yeah, I just think it brought this grandeur back to cinema and
1:46:59
it's brought this real kind of time to explore this epic nature
1:47:02
of it. I think Tarantino said it best
1:47:04
when he was talking about when this film came out, and I know
1:47:06
he's very good friends of Paul Thomas Anderson.
1:47:08
There's a good clip on YouTube with him talking specifically
1:47:12
about this film. And I think you get the likes of
1:47:14
Inglorious Buster to get the likes of Hateful 8 because of
1:47:18
this. And it made him step his game
1:47:20
up. And he said I'm a better
1:47:21
director because Paul Thomas Anderson exists.
1:47:23
And Paul Thomas Anderson is better director because I exist.
1:47:26
If I do say so. Yeah, that's what he said.
1:47:28
It was amazing. He said he was like Marlon
1:47:31
Brando and somebody, I can't remember who it was now, but
1:47:34
it's just like this. And you you liken themselves.
1:47:38
To. Just, you know, but it has, you
1:47:40
know, this these big sweeping epics that have came after it
1:47:44
and you know, the, the the late 2000s and it is down to this and
1:47:49
it's down to like character again and it's down to dialogue
1:47:51
again. And it was down to real cinema
1:47:53
again. And I don't think there was
1:47:54
anything else. I mean, Assassination Jesse
1:47:56
James as well came after this, which is a huge, this was a huge
1:48:00
influence on that. Well, he can do it.
1:48:01
I can do it. You know, it's that it got had
1:48:03
that kind of influence on Hollywood.
1:48:05
It's just it's got that real vibe to it and it's got that
1:48:08
real Classic Cinema vibe, which in my heart of hearts, I hope
1:48:12
never, ever dies. And we need to see more films
1:48:14
like this, even now. So no sequels for There Will Be
1:48:18
Blood, Not yet anywhere. Even now people are saying like
1:48:22
the new Scorsese film. If you like that Paul Thomas
1:48:24
Anderson film that you made in 2007, you'll live the new
1:48:27
Scorsese film. And Scorsese's going.
1:48:29
Hang on a minute, he's been copying on me.
1:48:30
Fuck off. I've done silence.
1:48:33
It's legacy though, pretty much sealed as one of Paul Thomas
1:48:35
Anderson's great films. Absolutely.
1:48:37
That show of doubt, it's best work for me.
1:48:39
Yeah, all the right movies ranking.
1:48:47
So we're at the end of all There Will Be Blood episode.
1:48:49
We've been through it all and now is the time when we rate the
1:48:52
film out of 10. All right.
1:48:55
So Matt, we'll start the ball rolling your summary and score
1:48:57
for There will Be Blood players. The bowling ball.
1:49:01
Yeah, it's just absolutely huge this film.
1:49:05
I mean, huge performances from Deluxe and yeah, that really
1:49:08
underrated performance from DNO, which just keeps up with it
1:49:11
somehow. Massive work from Greenwood and
1:49:14
Elswood as well. The production design is
1:49:16
incredible, but then you look at Paul Thomas Aniston and that run
1:49:20
of Boogie Nights, Magnolia punched on glove.
1:49:22
I mean, that's a great run. But then he just elevates
1:49:25
himself to a completely new level here of what he's capable
1:49:28
of. And yeah, it it sounds like a
1:49:30
really obvious thing to say. Oh, there, There will be blood.
1:49:33
Is PD his best film? But I think it's true.
1:49:36
I do think this is still his best film.
1:49:38
I think it's a masterpiece of the century.
1:49:39
So I'm giving it the full 10. Lovely.
1:49:43
Nice. Yeah, as we've said, it's
1:49:45
regarded as one of the great films this century by many, and
1:49:48
I definitely go along with that. Beautiful to look at, beautiful
1:49:51
to listen to. And there's a character study
1:49:54
piece of one man. I think it really excels.
1:49:56
The writing of Daniel Plainview, I think is extraordinary.
1:50:00
Amanda wants the thing he never had closest to friends and
1:50:02
family. He has no idea though how to get
1:50:04
it. So allows narcissism to take
1:50:06
over. He allows his anger and hate to
1:50:08
grow until he's totally consumed by it.
1:50:11
And in realizing that character from page to screen, Daniel Day
1:50:14
Lewis gives one of the great Hollywood performances.
1:50:16
I think I would say it's a touch dryer than I would like at some
1:50:20
points. And the complete like a woman in
1:50:23
the main cast. I do find a problem to be
1:50:25
honest, but PT as best film, one of the best this century and for
1:50:30
me it gets and not quite perfect, but a big 9.5 out of
1:50:34
10. Wow.
1:50:35
OK. And Rusty your some marine score
1:50:38
for there will be blood please. Yeah, I mean, like I say, I've
1:50:41
watched it every day for the last week, just trying to absorb
1:50:46
it, just trying to get into the headspace of how do you make
1:50:49
this wait? How do you approach this?
1:50:52
The fearlessness of it, the grandeur of it, the scale of it,
1:50:55
the just the ambition of it. And everything pays off on every
1:51:00
single level. Soundtrack, sound design,
1:51:03
cinematography, performances, writing, direction.
1:51:07
I mean, for our this is our generations, like Giant, this is
1:51:13
our generations, the searches, this is our Generations film.
1:51:16
And it came out in 2007. And when, you know, people are
1:51:19
really getting serious in the film, you kind of go.
1:51:21
There Will Be Blood is the grown up film to watch for us.
1:51:25
It made you feel like a grown up.
1:51:26
Like if you understood it, it's not Boogie Nights anymore.
1:51:29
It's not, you know, all these flash neon stuff.
1:51:31
There's not cameras flying everywhere.
1:51:33
You have to sit down and you have to watch it and you have to
1:51:36
listen to it and you have to just get involved in it.
1:51:39
And it's an immersive experience.
1:51:41
It's a cinematic experience. I would pay a lot of money to
1:51:44
see it again on the big screen. It is still mind boggling be
1:51:48
good after watching it five times in one week.
1:51:50
So for me it's got to be a 10. Lovely, massive scores.
1:51:54
Yeah. We opened it up to our Twitter
1:51:57
followers as well, and some comments from them on There Will
1:51:59
Be Blood. Lily Rose at Wave or Water said
1:52:03
one of the best I've seen and I keep my 10 out of 10s for the
1:52:06
very best. Storyline is clear yet
1:52:09
sophisticated, all acting as fab.
1:52:11
The scores progressive and Daniel Day Lewis's Plainview is
1:52:14
stunningly good. 9. I think we agree with Lily Rose.
1:52:18
Absolutely. Yeah, Yeah.
1:52:20
BP at BP squared head said a hesitant 10.
1:52:25
There are movies I like more, but the distance between them
1:52:27
and this seems rather small. Plus, I know how large its
1:52:30
reputation is among the film community, so fine 10.
1:52:34
Right. He's just.
1:52:35
Yeah. Come on dude, don't feel
1:52:38
bullied. Yeah, have some belief in
1:52:40
yourself. Have some belief in your
1:52:41
choices. Don't just do it because
1:52:42
everyone else wants you to do it.
1:52:44
There's no such thing as a hesitant 10.
1:52:46
An oxymoron. Begrudging 10 from BP.
1:52:49
Squared. Yeah, I might as well give it a
1:52:50
text. Everyone else thinks it's great.
1:52:52
He's not wrong, but fuck me you have some panache.
1:52:54
Oxymoron. Panache.
1:52:56
What you've been reading, you've.
1:52:57
Got word of the day? Toilet paper?
1:53:02
I've watched this five times in a week.
1:53:03
I've had something else to read on a night.
1:53:07
And Ronak Kamat at Ronak under score.
1:53:09
Kamat said. A straight 10 with very little
1:53:12
debate. A masterpiece in every sense of
1:53:14
the word. DDL is out of this world.
1:53:17
And Daniel drops a stellar performance.
1:53:19
It's a perfect film. Yeah, yeah.
1:53:20
Great. Yeah, great.
1:53:22
And as a counterpoint to all the gushing praise, OK, Paul Maka at
1:53:26
Paul Maka 20. Not the Paul Maka McCartney, I
1:53:29
don't think, although, hey, who knows?
1:53:31
Who knows Maka? I gave a short review.
1:53:33
He just said they will be boredom so not so hot of the
1:53:39
film review is Mecca. Not fair enough.
1:53:41
There will be boredom. Pretty good song, right?
1:53:43
I know. Isn't he?
1:53:44
Yeah, he's great. Yeah, looks good to you now.
1:53:46
And all together, our Twitter followers rank the film as what
1:53:50
would you guess? 9.
1:53:52
I reckon they gave the full 10. Right in the middle it was 9.5,
1:53:58
so that gives there will be blood a score of 39 out of 40 in
1:54:02
total. You can check our website,
1:54:04
alltherightmovies.com for the leaderboard to see where it
1:54:07
sits, if you'd like or not. We're not.
1:54:10
We're not going to bully you into doing it.
1:54:12
We're finished. Well that is a wrap on There
1:54:17
Will Be Blood. Hopefully you've enjoyed it and
1:54:19
not been building your hatreds piece by piece while listening.
1:54:22
I see, I hear the worst in people.
1:54:25
I don't want anyone else to succeed.
1:54:26
If you have liked this, please share us on your social media
1:54:29
channels as that helps us out a lot does.
1:54:30
And if you liked it a lot, you can support us on Patreon.
1:54:33
Yeah. So to find out more about
1:54:35
accessing our podcast archive, bonus episodes, and supporting
1:54:38
us in what we do, please visit patreon.com/all the Right
1:54:42
Movies. Worth an investment, Yeah, Looks
1:54:44
like Plainview. If he was to give that speech,
1:54:47
it'd be the same, John. Be the same.
1:54:50
Next time, Luke, Wesley and Matt are following the money as they
1:54:53
talk the 70s political thriller or The President's Men.
1:54:56
Talk and talk and talk, talk about it.
1:55:01
That's somehow one on Twitter poll.
1:55:03
Luke surely fixed that. Looks right.
1:55:05
He's doing laps. He's doing laps of his estate
1:55:08
screaming wonderful things. Volt rigging going on there.
1:55:12
So please subscribe, Rain Reviewers and iTunes, Apple
1:55:15
Podcasts and tell your pals about us too.
1:55:17
That helps us out. Please do.
1:55:19
And socially, you can keep up with all the right movies on
1:55:21
Twitter where we are at AT Right Movies.
1:55:24
Take a look at our videos on YouTube if you've not yet, which
1:55:26
is at youtube.com/all the Right Movies on Instagram.
1:55:31
We are at all the under score right movies.
1:55:34
TikTok is at all the right movies.
1:55:36
Find our movie group on Facebook to join in with all the movie
1:55:39
chats and our website full of great features and our podcasts
1:55:42
is all the right movies.com. Sure is.
1:55:45
Get involved. What's stopping you?
1:55:47
What's stopping? You trike oil.
1:55:49
Exactly. Get that pipeline sorted.
1:55:51
Patron Pipeline. We're all off now to see if
1:55:55
Westies Gardens hiding some oil. We'll see.
1:55:58
And come back next time for all the President's Men
1:56:23
Awards, darling. And is now acclaimed as one of
1:56:25
the great films this century. My name is John.
1:56:27
And with me today are a couple of sinners asking for salvation.
1:56:31
That's Matt. That should have put you in a
1:56:33
glass jar on the mantelpiece. Connery.
1:56:40
Highlanders got rumors.