there has been blood (and now QT's review of CMBB)

Started by pete, November 06, 2007, 01:06:10 AM

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Ghostboy

In the script, it's specified that HW is illiterate. I think the only trace of this left in the film is that, indeed, he is holding the diary upside down, and doesn't bother to right it.

As for the murder and whether Bandy knew about it, I found myself wondering whether his drunken slumber after the murder and his awakening the next morning were in fact consecutive. I believe he kills Henry near the ocean - it's right after the night of whoring, and when he digs the grave it quickly fills with water, indicating that they're still near the ocean and not near the ranch (where water is so scarce). He probably drank himself silly every night on the journey home, and I'd wager there's probably a space of about a week in between the murder and Bandy's discovery of him.

Gamblour.

The milkshake dialogue is probably going to be incredibly famous. Like you'll see it in an Oscar montage as they remember the great movies. And the way DDL walks away and playfully dances with the straw, it's pure joy watching him.

I saw this for my second time and it was wonderful, went by so much faster. The final scene is almost restrained in containing the mania exhibited. One of my favorite elements that nobody's really touched on, because it's pretty obvious, but the signature at the gold/silver assay office at the beginning and at the end as he writes a check. It's a very telling detail.
WWPTAD?

B.C. Long

Quote from: Ghostboy on January 14, 2008, 10:59:02 PM
and when he digs the grave it quickly fills with water, indicating that they're still near the ocean and not near the ranch

I'm pretty sure that was Oil or does it say it's water in the script?

Gamblour.

It's oil, I thought, because it's part of the seepage that Paul describes. And it's really really black.

My favorite favorite thing about Plainview, and someone mentioned the sleeping parts, is that he is such a heavy sleeper. Most 'badasses' sleep with one eye open in movies, but he sleeps like a rock, and to me it shows that he is vulnerable. Also, at the beginning when he's digging in the first oil pit, and he is nearly suffocated by the fumes, he is as weak as any other man.
WWPTAD?

MacGuffin

'I drink your milkshake' may become one of those lines you can't forget
Daniel Day-Lewis's line in There Will Be Blood could be up there with Humphrey Bogart's 'Here's looking at you, kid'. So which movie catchphrases stick in your mind?
Source: Killian Fox; The Guardian

What enables a line of dialogue to leap out of a movie and burrow its way into the popular consciousness, clinging to everyday speech with the tenacity of a tick in a dog's ear? If it's a lurid, jolting quality, made even more outlandish by the context in which it is said, then the bloggers who reckon "I drink your milkshake!" will soon enter the "pop-culture catchphrase lexicon" may well be on to something.

Daniel Day-Lewis utters those words at the end of Paul Thomas Anderson's magnificently loopy new film, There Will Be Blood, which is on staggered release in the US at the moment and will open in the UK on February 8. an audio recording of him saying it, with the sort of all-dials-up-to-10 theatrical exuberance we haven't heard since Anthony Hopkins went overboard with Hannibal Lecter. (In fact, blogger Jeffrey Wells reckons Day-Lewis is paying tribute to Hopkins when he makes his milkshake slurping noises.)

Don't worry, this shouldn't give away anything about the film's (brilliant, mad) finale. Virulent catchphrases rarely do: they thrive on insider-ish glee at the shared knowledge of something that makes the uninitiated go, "huh?" - until everyone's seen or at least heard about the movie and the catchphrase either fizzles out (Is anyone still gabbling brainlessly about "snakes on a plane"? or lives on forever ("Here's looking at you, kid"; "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn").

Another mark of the successful catchphrase is malleability: its meaning can mutate dramatically once released from its original context. Thus, "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse" could quite literally mean that a generous and attractive business proposition is on the cards and no one needs to make a trip down to the nearest stud farm with a saw.

Will "I drink your milkshake!" tick that particular box? In this rapacious day and age, I'm sure fans (such as the one who has just established a website dedicated to the line) will be able to apply it with ease to any number of self-serving situations, not least the shameless siphoning off of a neighbour's semi-liquid dessert.

None of this matters, of course, if There Will Be Blood sinks at the box office, as some fear it will - although it's surely bound for cult status if it does, and cult cinema is a great swampy breeding ground for unhatched catchphrases. Maybe a throwaway milkshake reference will be the lifebelt that brings Anderson's titanic movie back to the surface in the long run.

You can refer to the AFI's 100 Greatest Movie Quotes of All Time if you want all the big lines, but, in honour of Day-Lewis and his ill-gotten shake, which, in your opinion, are the most memorably weird movie catchphrases in circulation? From the creepy banality of "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" (OK, I realise it's not actual dialogue or even original to The Shining) to the splendidly OTT "That thing in the cellar is not my mother!", what are the sick little puppies and the uncanny lines that crawl under your skin for some reason you can't quite identify?
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

pete

whoa, my friends just formed a band called milkshake like a month ago.  what good/bad timing!
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton


edison

Quote from: pozer on January 17, 2008, 10:40:18 PM
you splash around in here.

I think PTA should have kept the campfire scene in because I like how Daniel references Abel's line of "my son is a healer and a vessel for the holy spirit." I liked how Daniel was able to use his fathers praise against him.

elpablo

Am I just stupid or was this scene: not in the movie

I want to talk about it. Because I like it. Is it supposed to be before they "bless" the derrick? It's kind of clear why it was taken out - because all it does is show us that HW is there to serve Daniel, and that's already clear enough without it, but it's such a nice little scene. And Daniel's "That was my fault" makes you question whether or not he really cares about HW because he doesn't want him to feel bad. It's a nice scene.

modage

Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

idk

Quote from: pozer on January 17, 2008, 10:40:18 PM
you splash around in here.
Does anyone else think it looks like Eli is "walking on water oil" as he makes his way towards daniel

This scene is also a good example of how the trailers really took away a lot of what would have been a surprising moment, with the slapping, etc.

As for the diary, one thing i noticed that hasn't been discussed is the couple words we got a closeup of as daniel is reading it right before he breaks down crying(i think thats when), i couldn't make out what it said... also lets remember there was a picture of a women, which i think is what H.W. saw and then daniel sees the picture of the young boy (not sure who looked at which picture). And from what i remember at the time when H.W. is reading it we don't know it belongs to Henry(or rather daniel's real bro). I also originally assumed the picture of the women to be H.W.'s mom but since we know thats not the case does this mean its Daniel's Mom? AND what about the newspaper ad for the guns that H.W. looked at? Could possibly this mean Henry had bought a gun to kill Daniel's real bro so he could come and try and get rich off Daniel, but that dosen't make much sense cause isn't it supposed to be Daniel's real bro's diary that was stolen by Henry. Which leads to the real question of how do we know this is Daniel's real bro's diary? Does the movie make this clear or am i just thinking this because someone in a previous post said it was.... or am i just crazy, i have only seen this movie once so i might be missing something

To clarify the important questions. Why did H.W. set fire to Henry's bed, was it his way of telling his father that this guy is a fake, if this is the case then maybe the reason Daniel crys is because he realizes H.W. was looking out for him, a show of loyalty, when at the time this was probly one of the reasons that led Daniel to sending H.W. away. Or was it a show of malice towards Henry because H.W. felt Henry was replacing him as his fathers "righthand man".? And who's diary/journal is read by H.W. and then later on by Daniel? Who are the pictures of that fall out of the diary/journal?


Jeremy Blackman

Quote from: idk on January 19, 2008, 04:07:15 PM
Does anyone else think it looks like Eli is "walking on water oil" as he makes his way towards daniel

Good call... that seems legit. We know PTA is not averse to biblical references.

Quote from: idk on January 19, 2008, 04:07:15 PMThis scene is also a good example of how the trailers really took away a lot of what would have been a surprising moment, with the slapping, etc.

Yeah, I'm so glad I didn't watch the trailer... I was actually considering it. (Though I did play the trailer for someone else. I ran out of the room, came back back when it was done, and asked them how it looked.) PTA wasn't involved with the trailer, was he?

idk

I just looked at the script and it does specify that it is the real Henry Plainview's journal that the fake Henry had brought with him.

Does anyone have any ideas about the significance of the red painted stakes Daniel and Henry are driving into the ground for the pipeline, I remember the camera holding on them for quite a while. Maybe a connection with the red stripes usually painted at the tops of bowling pins (probly not)

I asked my friend who hasn't scene the movie what he thinks about when he thinks of bowling/bowling alleys and he said that he thinks of it as a game that older people play or something people play to fall back on cause they aren't good at any other sport. He really painted it as ungrand, kind of a sport without much dignity. He also pointed out bowling alleys usually have bars and they're always filled with cigarette smoke...maybe kind of a place for the common man... Also i thought of the cliche "back alley fight", which fits nicely.

RegularKarate

Seeing this again, I think that we're maybe putting too much thought into why HW sets the fire. 
Children with communication problems (speech impediments etc...) often lash out against the world from frustration.
HW can't communicate... when he looks at the book, he can't make heads or tails out of it... he wants to know who these people in the pictures in this book are, but he can't read it and he can't ask anyone, not even his own dad (who he's already mad at) so he starts the fire out of anger.

It was also nice to see it this time with a big group of friends, almost all of whom laughed in the right places.

Jeremy Blackman

Quote from: Jeremy Blackman on January 13, 2008, 06:19:05 PMI had questions before about how sincere Plainview's baptism confessions really were. I think I have a pretty good grasp of it now. Paraphrasing:

You abandoned your son.
I abandoned my son.
You abandoned your son.
I abandoned my son.
Louder!
I abandoned my son!
Louder, Daniel!
I abandoned my son!
I abandoned my boy!

Plainview was repeating after Eli, just saying what he was supposed to say, until that last line, where he says "my boy." This is his statement, not Eli's, and he definitely means it. The rest of it was recital, but this is real.

Also, it's interesting that a baptism scene like this would normally be a moment of catharsis, release, forgiveness. Instead, this is a high point of conflict, and you can see Plainview's anger building and building and building. He takes that with him. There was no release.

Here is an audio clip of the baptism scene that I pulled from the very spoilerish Paul Dano Fresh Air interview. I think it might be edited down a little, but the part I was talking about is there.

A more accurate transcript. DDL parts are in red.

So say it now. I am a sinner.
I am a sinner.
Say it louder. I am a sinner.
I am a sinner.
Louder, Daniel! I am a sinner!
I am a sinner.
I am sorry, Lord.
I am sorry, Lord.
I want the blood!
I want the blood.
You have abandoned your child.
I have abandoned my child.
I will never backslide.
I will never backslide.
I was lost but now I am found.
I was lost but now I am found.
I have abandoned my child. Say it, say it!
I have abandoned my child.
Say it louder, say it louder!
I have abandoned my child!
I have abandoned my child!
I have abandoned my boy!