☆★☆★☆★☆★
Roger Ebert gave three and a half stars, saw its greatness but doubted its perfection because of its unbending characters, lack of women, ending, and relentlessness; the panel says history disproved the doubt.
In the discussion (3)
- The lack of women is acknowledged as a real feature, with screenplay material about Daniel’s impotence helping explain his separation from ordinary society.
- Peter Travers’s decade-best praise and bet on PTA are cited as a contemporary judgment that aged better.
- PTA’s slow camera movement, landscape construction, fresh lumber, and non-linear use of locations make viewers physically follow the image.
Kel O’Neill’s removal after three weeks forced Paul Dano into both Sunday roles; Philip Seymour Hoffman was originally imagined for Telford.
In the discussion (3)
- The hosts avoid blaming O’Neill beyond the sourced account that PTA was not getting what he needed; he never acted again.
- Dano’s lack of preparation and immediate opposition to Day-Lewis make his eventual performance more impressive.
- PTA rejected familiar collaborators to make a new statement, removing Hoffman from Telford consideration.
Philip Seymour Hoffman as Henry is the favored improvement; recasting Eli ultimately returns to Dano after considering Gosling, DiCaprio, Ledger, Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, Hirsch, Plemons, Foster, and Grenier.
In the discussion (2)
- Hoffman as the false brother would create a different two-actor confrontation at a fitting career moment.
- Ledger is the strongest Eli alternative but perhaps too beautiful; most other candidates feel too contemporary or famous for the period world.
Research traces the milkshake metaphor to Albert Fall’s Teapot Dome testimony, the adjacent No Country fire disruption, difficult financing, Day-Lewis’s laborer letters, Greystone Mansion, and Edward Doheny parallels.
In the discussion (4)
- PTA paraphrased the milkshake metaphor from a congressional investigation of Albert Fall.
- Smoke from this production entered No Country shots nearby.
- Day-Lewis studied period laborers’ letters and photographs.
- The mansion belonged to Doheny, whose life overlaps Daniel in Wisconsin, Kansas, mining, oil, Teapot Dome, and possible family scandal.
The unexplained mine escape, orphan’s mother, Daniel’s late discovery of Henry, Eli’s agelessness, and Paul’s cheaply sold family fortune generate the nits.
In the discussion (2)
- Eli appears unchanged across roughly sixteen years.
- Daniel should have tested Henry’s Fond du Lac knowledge immediately.
Questions ask whether Day-Lewis is cinema’s greatest facial-hair actor and why Daniel hates Standard Oil so intensely.
In the discussion (2)
- Mustaches, Bill the Butcher hair, and Lincoln’s chin strap demonstrate Day-Lewis’s range.
- The Standard executive’s mild advice about H.W. seems insufficient to explain Daniel’s throat-cutting threat, implying missing backstory.
No Country for Old Men, Citizen Kane, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Chinatown, The Karate Kid Part III, and Top Gun: Maverick are distinct choices.
In the discussion (1)
- No Country for Old Men, Citizen Kane, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Chinatown, The Karate Kid Part III, and Top Gun: Maverick are distinct choices.
Roger Ebert's review