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The Rewatchables ·

There Will Be Blood

year 2007decade 00sdirector Paul Thomas Andersongenre Drama
host Bill Simmonshost Chris Ryanhost Sean Fennesseyproducer Craig Horlbeck
All 34 categories

The Stephen A. Smith Hottest Take Award · 1:31:58

Three takes argue Daniel may be sexually attracted to Henry, the film is much better and more important than No Country, and Day-Lewis cannot be greatest without a mass-audience movie.

The Henry theory draws on betrayal, brothel jealousy, beach intimacy, impotence, and Daniel’s absence of women; the counterview sees a needed surrogate after H.W.’s injury.

Sean Fennessey: All three prefer There Will Be Blood to No Country despite calling the latter an exceptional Best Picture winner.

The film

There Will Be Blood (2007)

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson · Drama

158 minutes

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Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Daniel Day-Lewis Daniel Plainview
Paul Dano Paul & Eli Sunday
Ciarán Hinds Fletcher Hamilton
Russell Harvard H.W. Plainview
Dillon Freasier young H.W. Plainview
Colleen Foy Mary Sunday
Sydney McCallister young Mary Sunday
David Willis Abel Sunday
Hans Howes William Bandy

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

50:29

Roger Ebert's review
In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:50:29Read transcript
  • The lack of women is acknowledged as a real feature, with screenplay material about Daniel’s impotence helping explain his separation from ordinary society. — Bill Simmons
  • Peter Travers’s decade-best praise and bet on PTA are cited as a contemporary judgment that aged better. — Bill Simmons
  • PTA’s slow camera movement, landscape construction, fresh lumber, and non-linear use of locations make viewers physically follow the image.
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1:37:12

Casting What-Ifs

Kel O’Neill’s removal after three weeks forced Paul Dano into both Sunday roles; Philip Seymour Hoffman was originall...

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)
Approx. transcript time · 01:37:12Read transcript
  • 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.
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1:42:13

Recasting Couch

Philip Seymour Hoffman as Henry; Paul Dano retained as Eli

Philip Seymour Hoffman as Henry; Paul Dano retained as Eli

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:42:13Read transcript
  • Hoffman as the false brother would create a different two-actor confrontation at a fitting career moment. — Bill Simmons
  • Ledger is the strongest Eli alternative but perhaps too beautiful; most other candidates feel too contemporary or famous for the period world.
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1:46:06

Half-Assed Internet Research

The milkshake metaphor to Albert Fall’s Teapot Dome testimony, the adjacent No Country fire disruption, difficult fin...

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)
Approx. transcript time · 01:46:06Read transcript
  • PTA paraphrased the milkshake metaphor from a congressional investigation of Albert Fall. — Bill Simmons
  • Smoke from this production entered No Country shots nearby. — Bill Simmons
  • Day-Lewis studied period laborers’ letters and photographs. — Bill Simmons
  • The mansion belonged to Doheny, whose life overlaps Daniel in Wisconsin, Kansas, mining, oil, Teapot Dome, and possible family scandal. — Bill Simmons
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1:53:46

Picking Nits

The unexplained mine escape, orphan’s mother, Daniel’s late discovery of Henry, Eli’s agelessness, and Paul’s cheaply...

The unexplained mine escape, orphan’s mother, Daniel’s late discovery of Henry, Eli’s agelessness, and Paul’s cheaply sold family fortune

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:53:46Read transcript
  • Eli appears unchanged across roughly sixteen years. — Bill Simmons
  • Daniel should have tested Henry’s Fond du Lac knowledge immediately. — Bill Simmons
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1:57:02

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Is Day-Lewis cinema’s greatest facial-hair actor? Why does Daniel hate Standard Oil so intensely?

Is Day-Lewis cinema’s greatest facial-hair actor? Why does Daniel hate Standard Oil so intensely?

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:57:02Read transcript
  • Mustaches, Bill the Butcher hair, and Lincoln’s chin strap demonstrate Day-Lewis’s range. — Bill Simmons
  • The Standard executive’s mild advice about H.W. seems insufficient to explain Daniel’s throat-cutting threat, implying missing backstory. — Sean Fennessey
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1:58:27

Best Double Feature

No Country for Old Men, Citizen Kane, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Chinatown, The Karate Kid Part III, and Top G...
There Will Be Blood
No Country for Old Men
Citizen Kane
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Chinatown
The Karate Kid Part III
Top Gun: Maverick
In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 01:58:27Read transcript
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Mentions across The Rewatchables

Recorded movie reference

Pulp Fiction

The Rewatchables · aired July 29, 2024

Best Picture losers: introduced as ten, twelve titles named without ranks

Transcript time unavailableRead transcript
Source 1