Also incredibly bad luck that it had to go head to head with No Country For Old Men.

It's just bad Oscar timing. You have a year where NCFOM wins Best Picture and Best Director, and deservingly so, as it is great. But TWBB should also have won Best Picture and Best Director. Then you have years where things like Crash or Chicago win.

I also happen to see this pop on my reels and find it interesting that he acted for a week and then had to kind of recalibrate.

PatAg said:

---

i drink your milkshake

---

I drink it up!

Tanya 93 said:

---

PatAg said:

---

i drink your milkshake

---

I drink it up!

---

Don't bully me, Daniel!

The only issue I had with the movie was the drink your milkshake scene and him calling it drainage. That wasn't drainage. That was a pure directionally drilled trespass and conversion of minerals. Dano could have sued the **** out of him.

General Jack D. Ripper said:

---

The only issue I had with the movie was the drink your milkshake scene and him calling it drainage. That wasn't drainage. That was a pure directionally drilled trespass and conversion of minerals. Dano could have sued the **** out of him.

---

O/G attorney, I assume? :-)

Give me the blood, Eli


I think I've shared this on the board before, but a buddy of mine (who is incredibly talented and entertaining) was trying to make it in LA during this era. He told me TWBB was the closest he came to booking a real part, and it came down to him vs Paul Dano. Obviously Dano got the job, and my buddy quit acting and moved back to Texas right after.

I have no way to verify this but I also have no reason to think he'd lie about it.

Tobias Funke said:

---

Give me the blood, Eli


I think I've shared this on the board before, but a buddy of mine (who is incredibly talented and entertaining) was trying to make it in LA during this era. He told me TWBB was the closest he came to booking a real part, and it came down to him vs Paul Dano. Obviously Dano got the job, and my buddy quit acting and moved back to Texas right after.

I have no way to verify this but I also have no reason to think he'd lie about it.

---

Wow. 1 person away from being in one of the most iconic movies of the 21st century.

Hopefully he is doing well in whatever he decided to pursue in Texas.

Complete Idiot said:

---

When I saw There Will be Blood and No Country for Old Men in theaters just a couple months apart I remember thinking that will never happen again, I will never see 2 movies that good (or at least that I enjoyed that much) so close together. They both seemed like once every 20 years type movies.

---

This is exactly how I felt when I rented both of them from Blockbuster back in the day.

normalhorn said:

---

General Jack D. Ripper said:

---

The only issue I had with the movie was the drink your milkshake scene and him calling it drainage. That wasn't drainage. That was a pure directionally drilled trespass and conversion of minerals. Dano could have sued the **** out of him.

---

O/G attorney, I assume? :-)

---

Lathspell said:

---

I wish I loved Paul Thomas Anderson movies as much as others. I've tried, always thinking they look like I should love them, and they just never seem to click with me in the same way they do with others.

Great performances in the movie... the movie itself just doesn't do it for me.

---

Word. Snoozefest.

Head Ninja In Charge said:

---

One of my favorite movies ever. To me, and I'm not exaggerating, this is basically a modern day Citizen Kane. From plot to acting to look to filming technique to set design to score - everything is top-tier.

Didn't even watch the YouTube clip you posted but Paul Dano gave one of the best acting performances of the 2000's and people rarely talk about it because it was overshadowed by maybe a top 10 performance of all-time, at least for American films. Easily DDL's best work to me and his resume is stacked with goated performances.

---

Great analysis by Tarantino on this point a lot of people don't talk about because we don't see it in the movie.

He talks about the hardship that Daniel Plainview faces getting back into town and getting help after getting injured at the start of the movie could have been its own movie. However, PTA leaves it up for us to imagine and think about it in our own heads.

Tarantino says the difficulty and hardship of the journey we don't see back into town when Plainview gets injured justifies everything else that Plainview does in the rest of the movie.

I always wondered about that.
Were the directional drilling laws on the books during that time?

Apache said:

---

I always wondered about that.
Were the directional drilling laws on the books during that time?

---

I believe trespass has always been on the books. The rule of capture is only balanced with regulations ( ie Railroad Commission, EPA, etc) and the Correlative Rights Doctrine. However none of those allow an intentional trespass.

I think the difficulty back then would have been proving that the slant hole was taking his oil. Also, it's possible that the statute of limitations may have run and not only would Dana have been precluded from suit, he might also lose his minerals under adverse possession (but that's a more difficult analysis).

bangobango said:

---

Movie is boring as *****

---

What are your favorites?

bangobango said:

---

Movie is boring as *****

---

I recommend watching it again.

Many people feel like this after watching it for the first time.

It is one of those movies that gets better every time you watch it.

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

bangobango said:
Movie is boring as *****

---

I recommend watching it again.

Many people feel like this after watching it for the first time.

It is one of those movies that gets better every time you watch it.

---

Agree. I watched it starts & stops several times and never got much out of it. This isn't "Fast & Furious", it requires attention to appreciate. It isn't for everyone.

One evening I had the house alone & watched beginning to end, kept my phone in the other room & let myself get totally absorbed. The violent crescendo at the end of Plainview going off the rails.... simply amazing.

Well now I feel better about saying this --

I think this movie is just ok. A great performance by Dano, underrated in my opinion, overshadowed by the "legend" of DDL, but the movie itself I've never really felt the need to rewatch. I enjoyed it fine while I watched it though.

Give me Boogie Nights or Magnolia over this movie all day.

For me, the number one job of a movie is to be entertaining. Anything after that is gravy, but you better entertain me for two hours or you aren't doing what a movie is supposed to do (in my opinion).

TWBB is well made and well acted, but it is not entertaining. If that makes me a Michael Bay fan, so be it, I really don't care to be high brow in my entertainment, anyways.

I found it HUGELY entertaining. Shoutout subjectivity.

Head Ninja In Charge said:

---

I found it HUGELY entertaining. Shoutout subjectivity.

---

Completely agree regarding the subjectivity. But when the response to someone saying they don't like something is to disregard them as an idiot by claiming they just like Michael Bay movies or Fast and Furious movies, then the shoe is on the other foot.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

---

Well now I feel better about saying this --

I think this movie is just ok. A great performance by Dano, underrated in my opinion, overshadowed by the "legend" of DDL, but the movie itself I've never really felt the need to rewatch. I enjoyed it fine while I watched it though.

Give me Boogie Nights or Magnolia over this movie all day.

---

I'm with you. Though I'm not sure why you put quotes around "legend". I think DDL qualifies.

I do agree that this movie (after only 1 viewing) is sorta boring. I think DDL's best performance is in Gangs of New York. But he didn't win an Oscar guy that (I don't think).

Lathspell said:

---

Head Ninja In Charge said:

---

I found it HUGELY entertaining. Shoutout subjectivity.

---

Completely agree regarding the subjectivity. But when the response to someone saying they don't like something is to disregard them as an idiot by claiming they just like Michael Bay movies or Fast and Furious movies, then the shoe is on the other foot.

---

Well, they didn't just say "I didn't like the movie." They jumped on a thread where people were mostly sharing their appreciation of a movie to say "movie was boring as *****".

I thought the person who said they appreciate the performances and some aspects of the movie but overall didn't find it entertaining or enjoyable enough was an adult way to share a differing opinion.