How John Huston inspired Paul Thomas Anderson
Many believe that Paul Thomas Anderson‘s masterpiece movie is his 2007 offering, There Will Be Blood, a project famously starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano. The film tells of Daniel Plainview, a silver miner come oil man who embarks on a steadfast journey towards wealth during the oil frenzy of the turn of the century in Southern California.
The film was loosely based on Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel Oil!, but Anderson created one of the most stunning movies of the 21st century, aided no doubt by one of Day-Lewis’ best-ever performances. Still, like any auteur, Anderson has his inspirations, and even though There Will Be Blood is undoubtedly his own vision, there has been at least one work that he looks to have been heavily influenced by when making his movie.
One movie that really seemed to enlighten Anderson’s masterpiece is John Huston’s 1948 western The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. In fact, Anderson had Huston’s film in mind while he was making his movie and wanted to make something with the same “economy” and directness as Huston.
In an interview with The Guardian, Anderson once said, “Tell the story! Tell the story! That’s what I saw in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. The films that I love are very straightforward stories, like really old-fashioned stuff. I’ve never been a fan of whimsical or confusing storytelling.”
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is Huston’s adaptation of B. Traven’s 1927 novel of the same name. It saw Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt play two down-and-out-on-their-luck men who team up with an old prospector (played by Huston’s father, Walter Huston) to go in search of a fortune of gold in Mexico.
Anderson added that with the making of There Will Be Blood, “It was such a great feeling – cutting things out, slashing away. I didn’t have any desire I might have had ten years ago to shoot every single word that I wrote.” Evidently, Anderson felt a level of freedom to take out what was unnecessary from his narrative.
This was something that the director had not always felt comfortable with, rather cramming his films full of detail rather than serving the story. When asked if he gained the confidence to make cuts came as he got older, Anderson replied, “I think so, yeah. That’s definitely what it is. You feel more comfortable in your own skin and learn that omitting things is the same as writing things.”
