Defamer
amusements
Posts Tagged “
there will be blood
”
amusements
movements
Unleash Your Inner Oil Baron
While we wait for Paul Thomas Anderson to reissue a There Will Be Blood DVD edition that his masterpiece and its fans deserve, we can take comfort in the imagination of said fans around the Internet. We've learned that today, for example, is the first-ever International Talk Like Daniel Plainview Day, honoring Anderson and Daniel Day-Lewis's eminently quotable anti-hero for the ages. "If you've ever heard about 'Talk Like A Pirate Day,' this is essentially in the same vein," write organizers Harrison Simon and Donald Polaski. "Also, do your best to drink a milkshake, preferably someone else's." Some sample quotes follow, but we will probably default to taking our dates to the Peach Tree Dance. I said, get liquored up and take 'em to the Peach Tree Dance! Bastard in a basket! I'm finished. [Facebook]
rants
An Open Letter to P.T. Anderson on the Occasion of 'There Will Be Blood''s Miserable DVD Release
Dear Paul Thomas Anderson,
You know we love you. We've seen everything you've done multiple times, once even all in the same day. Our hearts soared when Daniel Day-Lewis credited your "mad, beautiful head" for his Oscar triumph this year; his appreciation spoke for us as well. Sure, we have issues with Magnolia (OK, we hate it), but at least when the DVD came around we were able to make a little more sense of your passion and indulgence. That behind-the-scenes doc by Mark Rance? Fantastic. We'd have preferred the commentaries like those in Boogie Nights and Sydney (a/k/a Hard Eight), but hey. If you're going to charge us for two discs, you'd better make the second one worth our dime.
Which gets us to this new two-disc "collector's edition" of There Will Be Blood, which Paramount Vantage released April 8. Pardon us, but what the fuck is this?
More »
there will be blood
Behold! 'The Moment Of Truth!' Destroyer Of Lives!
After billing The Moment of Truth as a brilliant Frankenshow combining the most intriguing aspects of F. Lee Bailey's Lie Detector, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, and Cheaters, the culmination of a life's work for Fox's President of Apocalypse-Expediting Alternative Entertainments Mike Darnell failed to really deliver on its life-destroying promise. Not even a desperate casting stunt that replaced the show's evil robot voice with a string of celebrity she-bots (Small Wonder, Rosie from The Jetsons, Richie Rich's Irona) managed to really hook viewers. More »
there will be theories
Overthinking 'Blood': What Did Daniel Plainview Tell Eli?
Remember a few years back when a not-quite-audible stolen whisper between Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson in Lost In Translation got the entire cinematic world buzzing? Well, while taking in our third viewing of There Will Be Blood the other evening, we noticed a scene in which something very similar occurs. Just moments after Daniel Plainview's now legendary "I have abandoned my boy!" outburst at the Church Of The Third Revelation (the scene that will likely go down as having locked up Daniel Day-Lewis' second Oscar for Best Actor), there is a brief exchange that takes place between him and Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) just after Plainview has been violently baptized. In the clip (see above), not only can no dialogue between the actors be heard, but Paul Thomas Anderson's shooting script does not specifically indicate what the characters are saying to each other at this moment. Yet, as the clip clearly demonstrates, there is a relatively heated (if one-sided) conversation between the two. We have a few theories on what went down but, at this point, we would rather open it up for you to discuss. Leave your comments after the jump! More »
tyrants who care
Uncompromising Superproducer Scott Rudin Would Gladly Sacrifice 1000 Assistants For One 'No Country'
As a shepherd of great literary works from page to screen, assistant-gobbling producer/Kraken Scott Rudin is arguably without equal: He produced both of the dark, uncompromising visions currently vying for Oscar greatness, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood. In an LAT profile, Rudin is credited with scooping up rich source material before it even hits bookstore shelves, pairing it with the right director, making casting suggestion, and even tweaking crucial moments in the script. (Recent legend has it that he quietly pulled P.T. Anderson aside between Blood takes to question if "maybe some other beverage besides Ovaltine might work better in that one line," before staring down at a half-finished Wendy's Frostee for the creative epiphany of a lifetime.) Still, no Rudin profile is complete without the requisite paragraph on his notoriously mercurial temper:
cocktails
Puke Up A Blue Slushee In Honor Of 'Juno' At The Polo Lounge
One of our favorite Oscar traditions is the menu of original cocktails inspired by the five Best Picture nominees, as devised by the clever bartending staff of The Polo Lounge. We gave them a call to see what they came up with this year (yes, these are all real):
· To honor No Country for Old Men, they have Blood and Sand: Johnny Walker Red, cherry brandy, sweet vermout, and a splash of OJ served strained in martini glass. Enough of those should give you a hangover that feels like a bolt-stunner to the melon.
· The Juno drink is a Blue Slushee, named for the frozen treat our hero upchucks into her stepmother's urn: Stoli raspberry, blue curacao, and lemonade, blended with ice.
there will be blood
Paramount Taking Full Marketing Advantage Of 'I Drink Your Milkshake' Mania
In a crowded awards season, studios have never been above resorting to clever marketing gimmicks to get their movies noticed, plying critics and journalists with everything from fanciful Juno hamburger phones to desktop pneumatic-bolt-stunners accompanied by notes reading, "How many times do we need to drill this into your skull: No Country for Old Men is this year's most acclaimed film!" Hopping upon that bandwagon is Paramount Vantage, who, reports slashfilm.com, have caught wind of the "I drink your milkshake. I drink it up!"-mania currently gripping the nation:
More »
subtext
Can We Just Put The 'There Will Be Blood' Homoeroticism Issue On The Table Already?
[Warning: Some spoilers ahead.] There's been an ongoing There Will Be Blood debate over here at Defamer HQ, with one faction having emerged from the P.T. Anderson masterpiece convinced what we had just witnessed wasn't just a searing allegory encapsulating the epochal struggle between American capitalism and religion, but also some very kinky oil-prospector-daddy on boy-of-the-cloth goings-on. (OK, fine. That faction was us.) More »
Don't say we never gave you anything: Paramount Vantage's awards consideration site has made the shooting scripts for all their contenders available for download. That's A Mighty Heart, Margot at the Wedding, Into the Wild, The Kite Runner, and There Will Be Blood. [Vantage Guilds via Slash Film]
awards
Swarthy Psychopaths Hot This Year Among New York And L.A. Film Critics
Rejoice, for year-end accolades season is upon us: Like the National Board of Review, the New York Film Critics Circle awarded No Country For Old Men their best picture honors, with Daniel Day-Lewis and Javier Bardem both taking Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor Who Virtually Disappeared Into the Part of an Inscrutable Psychopath Whom You Have to Admit Was Pretty Damn Good At His Job, respectively.
More »