Quote :

"Did you not watch the first 15 minutes of the movie?"

instead of being a dick, why don't you just tell me to what you're referring to?

[Edited on April 9, 2008 at 2:55 PM. Reason : pg 2]

4/9/2008 2:55:26 PM

Quote :

"he could barely contain himself from beating eli right there in front of his congregation"

I think it's hilarious that they filmed that whole scene the day after filming Daniel beat Eli in the mud.

4/9/2008 2:55:34 PM

nevermind, i just read wikipedia. somehow i missed the part where he adopts HW.

4/9/2008 2:57:20 PM

In one of the first scenes, Daniel is working with a crew, two men are in the hole, one (the father of HW), gets killed by a falling piece of machinery. Daniel assumes the role of HW's father.

I'm not being a dick, I just don't see how you could have missed that.

4/9/2008 2:58:06 PM

I'M GONNA BURY YOU UNDERGROUND!

4/9/2008 2:58:39 PM

for some reason i assumed it was plainview's son, and the other guy was just watching after the kid.

4/9/2008 3:00:10 PM

hence the "bastard in a basket" rant

Quote :

"So was he just putting on a show for the congregation when he was baptized?"

he was a con man - all the time, everything he did was out of greed

[Edited on April 9, 2008 at 4:46 PM. Reason : a]

4/9/2008 4:45:04 PM

Quote :

"I was never sure if he was faking it in that scene or not. You could argue that he was a complete sociopath, but the little flashback to him laughing with young HW after he disowns makes me scratch my head. The only person that he really lets in is Henry, and thats solely because he thinks that he's family. You could make the case that he's only sincere with family and as such he never cared about HW."

I just saw the movie a second time and payed more attention to the interactions between Daniel and HW. Starting when HW was an infant, grabbing Daniel's mustache on the train. Daniel said HW was just a pretty face to buy land, and that might've been his original intent. But Daniel loved that kid.

Pay attention to the flashback. The flashback shows what was wrong, not what was right. In the memory, HW is laughing and messing with Daniel's hat. Daniel laughs a little, but then he shoves HW away and walks towards the oil derrick. Same thing after the fire, Daniel rescued HW but right away ran back to the derrick. He loved HW, but he loved oil more.

HW's deafness only made the existing problem of "money > kid" worse. Anyone else have a theory of why things soured between them over the years?

4/9/2008 6:25:00 PM

worst dvd packaging ever

4/9/2008 6:34:40 PM

^^ That's what I'm thinking as well. At the end he initially chastises HW for being out of touch for so long, which implies that he cares somewhat. If he were just a pretty face to buy land he would have outlived his use and would have been cast aside years before. It wasn't until he ended his business relationship with Daniel that he was disowned.

He also blew out the other oil guy when he told him that he needed to take care of his son. Of course, that could have been more an issue of his pride due to the competition between the two.

In both cases, HW came after oil.

^ Fuck yeah. I was going to buy a few copies of the standard version as gifts, but then I picked it up and was trying to figure out if that was some kind of cheap presale package or something. Needless to say I gifted the deluxe version instead.

4/9/2008 8:48:07 PM

buy me one

4/9/2008 10:15:06 PM

when HW gets off the train with his sign language teacher Plainview seems to care about him

but he abandoned him in the first place to focus on work

what a conflicted character

4/10/2008 12:10:30 AM

I'm gonna download this movie again and give it another try. Perhaps I can finish it this time, but I dont know. It is just so slow and there is almost no story I don't know if I can make it through. I made it last time to the point where HW sets the cabin on fire. It was like they just threw that in out of nowhere. "Well we don't have any other ideas, lets just have the kid set the cabin on fire for no reason, maybe that might add something"

I think I just wasn't prepared for such a slow slow movie when I went into it the first time. The previews made it look somewhat entertaining, but once you get into it it just drags and drags.

4/10/2008 12:41:35 AM

lol, they threw in HW setting the cabin on fire randomly? maybe pay attention and keep watching next time so you can avoid making ignorant statements

4/10/2008 1:02:40 AM

Ok, I think pretty much everyone thinks that Paul and Eli were actual twins, two separate people... but Ebert at least has questioned it and it would definitely make things interesting...


and it does seems odd that they were twins but nothing was ever really made out of it (a little bit at the end I guess)... I know that every single thing doesnt have to be a plot point but it seems like if they made them twins it would have played a bigger part...


thoughts?

4/10/2008 1:16:07 AM

I was sitting on my couch watching the movie in total silence with nothing else going on. My attention was pretty well focused on the movie.

4/10/2008 1:22:00 AM

^^I thought they might be the same person until eli talked shit about paul to his father.

^no. in that case just keep watching. it is addressed, but you do have to figure it out a little i suppose, it doesn't exactly spell it out.

4/10/2008 3:11:18 AM

even then though it could be some weird multi personality thing... or some pre/post Christian conversion thing. As I said, I think they were two separate people but just opening it up for discussion

4/10/2008 10:12:20 AM

they are the same person - he used the other name to hide behind when he first approaches daniel about the oil b/c he was ashamed for pursuing such a thing - daniel calls him out about the fake name at the end of the movie

i think when paul yells at his father about "eli" - he was a bit deranged & the dad never confirms or denies eli's existence, he just seems boggled at what his son is saying

oh & hw set the house on fire b/c he discovered that guy was an imposter ( he found the diary), he was lying about being daniel's brother

[Edited on April 10, 2008 at 10:56 AM. Reason : i may be getting the names mixed up ]

[Edited on April 10, 2008 at 10:58 AM. Reason : z]

4/10/2008 10:54:53 AM

Quote :

"and it does seems odd that they were twins but nothing was ever really made out of it (a little bit at the end I guess)"

Paul Dano was cast as Paul only until 4 days before filming when the actor set to play Eli was fired.

There is no plot twist about them being the same person, Eli is not Tyler Durden.

4/10/2008 1:05:36 PM

I think the story is that Dano took the role of Paul a few weeks after the shooting began. The guy who was originally playing him had already shot several scenes and they had to be re-shot with Dano. Eli is not Paul; this is getting worse than the Lost thread.

4/10/2008 1:07:48 PM

You sniveling ass.

4/10/2008 2:44:21 PM

Quote :

"oh & hw set the house on fire b/c he discovered that guy was an imposter ( he found the diary), he was lying about being daniel's brother"

duh

4/10/2008 2:46:17 PM

yea i'm pretty sure they aren't the same person

at the end Plainview tells Eli he gave Paul $10,000 for telling him where the oil was and he shreaks in agony

i think he gave him $500 but lied to Eli to make his pain even worse

4/10/2008 2:48:16 PM

statefan - i was explaining it for the person who didn't know b/c you were too pompous to explain it which makes me think you didn't really know either

4/10/2008 4:14:46 PM

the fact that they changed the story to make them twins after Dano was hired shows that they could have changed it to them being the same person as well...

4/10/2008 4:23:37 PM

Quote :

"yea i'm pretty sure they aren't the same person at the end Plainview tells Eli he gave Paul $10,000 for telling him where the oil was and he shreaks in agony i think he gave him $500 but lied to Eli to make his pain even worse"

Exactly.

4/10/2008 4:48:10 PM

but that could have just as easily been Eli lamenting that he wasted his fortune... unless there were scenes planned but not shown, Plainview could have been just as ignorant was we are about if there were two of them or not.

4/10/2008 5:36:23 PM

Quote :

"the fact that they changed the story to make them twins after Dano was hired shows that they could have changed it to them being the same person as well..."

...but they didn't.

4/10/2008 5:41:57 PM

ooooh Ernie... you stupid stupid man... look what you have done

4/10/2008 7:20:46 PM

Awful movie... awful awful awful.... there an awful for each miserable hour of that piece of shit.

4/10/2008 10:53:40 PM

LOL

4/11/2008 12:58:39 AM

Quote :

"statefan - i was explaining it for the person who didn't know b/c you were too pompous to explain it which makes me think you didn't really know either"

they said they stopped watching when the cabin was set on fire, so i suggested they keep watching(they said they were going to give it another try) rather than spoil it like you did. It becomes obvious after you see it's not his brother. congratulations.

This person stopped watching because it seemed the writers threw in HW burning the cabin because they were "out of ideas," and used that as a major shit-talk point about the movie do they really deserve an explanation?

[Edited on April 12, 2008 at 2:24 PM. Reason : asdffdfdfdfdre]

4/12/2008 2:20:05 PM

people who are trashing the plot are absurd. the actual story (what happened) is nothing impressive, but the plot (what happened and WHY everything happened) was great. i've got a feeling those who are disappointed with the plot, don't understand the plot or mistook the movie for Transformers. the main themes and the characters that this movie presents, and how it all works together, are excellent.

and plainview definitely loves his his son. a lot. that much was clear throughout the whole movie- he's not good or bad. he's good and bad. but yes, he loves oil more. he's a complicated person with conflicting interests- a really intriguing character that only ddl could pull off.

btw...i saw the crucible for the first time last night. ddl was of course amazing in that as well. and it was a great movie.

4/12/2008 5:45:25 PM

I thought the Transformers was the worst piece of shit outside of Van Helsing, I liked There Will Be Blood a lot, but it wasnt amazing, as I said, great acting, great from a technical standpoint, but the story was ok, could have been better.

4/12/2008 5:49:26 PM

Quote :

"mistook the movie for Transformers"

yeah, the people i saw it with the first time hated it. kept cleverly asking "dude, where's the blood??" were expecting a gory action packed mindless action movie i suppose

4/12/2008 5:59:32 PM

My roommate is watching it for the first time and I just realized that the whole flashback is just showing Daniel walking away from HW and going to the oil. I'm pretty dense.

4/12/2008 9:07:15 PM

i liked this movie

4/12/2008 9:42:20 PM

This movie kind of pissed me off, but I liked it. I like it when a movie actually has me saying "What?! That's the end?!" It's kind of how I felt at the end of "No Country for Old Men"

4/13/2008 1:24:27 AM

^most term that feeling... displeasure.

4/13/2008 11:49:25 AM

I think DDLs best performance was in The Crucible. If you havent seen it you should. He was unreal as John Proctor.

[Edited on April 13, 2008 at 1:38 PM. Reason : the]

4/13/2008 1:38:38 PM

Its a shame he doesn't make more movies.

4/13/2008 4:54:29 PM

hes signed on to do Airheads II with Rob Schneider and the father from Friday

4/13/2008 5:12:54 PM

They were giving out the dvd on the radio and the DJ was like "You just won There Will Be Bloooooooooooood"

And the stupid bitch said "Yay, I love horror movies" - she's gonna be disappointed

4/13/2008 6:56:51 PM

I gave a copy of the DVD to a realtor that I do some work with and her 16 year old son asked if it has good action scenes.

I told him to check out Shoot 'Em Up instead.

4/13/2008 7:00:35 PM

Shoot 'Em Up was SO awesome, loved it. Although I did get into an argument with a friend of mine who somehow thought it was supposed to be a serious action movie.

[Edited on April 13, 2008 at 7:07 PM. Reason : d]

4/13/2008 7:07:11 PM

I can't wait to have a house big enough to get hammered and shoot guns indoors.

4/20/2008 4:17:52 AM

horrible what a waste of three hours

4/20/2008 7:04:21 PM

whoever said "did he get converted when he was baptized"...

did you not hear him under his breath right before he got up after the baptism and say "there's a pipeline" or whatever?

it was completely a "do whatever it takes to get what you are after" move

4/22/2008 4:33:12 PM

Awesome movie.

4/22/2008 8:48:55 PM