A collection of interpretations of Paul Thomas Anderson’s clash of titans.
I didn’t get this. I’m not proud to admit it, but I can’t pretend to have understood the… well, point. I mean, beyond the incredible performances (sidenote: who else wants as badly as me to see a Paul Dano / Adam Driver buddy road movie?), Robert Elswit‘s classic, Lawrence of Arabia-esque cinematography, Dylan Tichenor‘s tense, thought-provoking editing, and the visceral production design, my thought throughout was “… but, why?”
It’s possible my entire viewing experience was simply a Ron Swanson meditation moment, where I saw both the parts and their sum just fine without realising it, but I’ve chosen to assume that I simply missed whatever the why was, and have sought to try to understand There Will Be Blood by collecting other people’s takes. Maybe some wisdom will float to the surface…
Now You See It locates the film’s central interest in power dynamics: who talks, who listens, who controls conversation and perception, who ultimately gets their way:
Nerdwriter takes that provocative nature of the editing as the entire point of this – and of any – film:
Wisecrack interprets the characters as devils, and the oil as the “blood” of the title:
Quentin Tarantino‘s friendship with Paul Thomas Anderson and his fandom of his work may lend his take some insight:
Further Viewing
In Depth Cine looks at the cinematography style of DP Robert Elswit:
We take more lessons from the work of Paul Thomas Anderson in One Battle After Another (2025):