The film Quentin Tarantino called “definitely one of the best movies” of the 2000s
Only a fool would argue that Quentin Tarantino doesn’t know a thing or two about movies. Not only is he an acclaimed screenwriter and director, having handled some of the most memorable productions of the last three decades, but he’s also regularly proven himself to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the medium and history of cinema.
We know full well that Tarantino is a huge fan of the western film genre, particularly the works of Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah, just as it’s public information that the Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs filmmaker has an undying passion for Asian cinema, like the martial arts movies of Hong Kong and the samurai films of Japan.
While many of Tarantino’s movies are found in the eras of cinema gone by, going as far back as the 1950s, the iconic director has never stopped short of considering which films are the best by filmmakers he considers his contemporaries. When it comes to Paul Thomas Anderson, for instance, Tarantino actually calls him a friend, as well as admiring his work.
As far as Anderson’s work of the 21st century goes, for Tarantino, it doesn’t get much better than his legendary 2007 work There Will Be Blood, starring Daniel Day-Lewis in one of his greatest ever roles as the bloodthirsty oilman Daniel Plainview. When presenting the film for Sky Movies, Tarantino said that There Will Be Blood is “definitely one of the best movies made in” the 2000s.
In fact, Tarantino said he was actually “proud” to make such a claim, owing to the fact that Anderson is one of [his] “best friends”. Tarantino went on further and said that Anderson is his “most friendly competitor” and feels “glad to be making movies at the same time as [him].”
There Will Be Blood is widely considered to be one of the best films of the 21st century. Loosely based on Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel Oil!, it focuses on Daniel Plainview’s maddening journey towards wealth in the oil boom of southern California in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Also starring Paul Dano, There Will Be Blood is a true masterpiece of modern cinema, earning the acclaim of Tarantino and most other cinephiles across the world.
Interestingly, though, Tarantino’s favourite Anderson film is not actually There Will Be Blood, but one of his earlier works, 1997’s Boogie Nights, which tells of the Golden Age of the porn industry in Los Angeles. While Tarantino admits to the “exquisite” quality of There Will Be Blood, he still prefers the “exuberance” of Boogie Nights.
Still, Tarantino believes that There Will Be Blood is a film that needs to be seen on more than one occasion in order for its brilliance to be fully understood. “If ever there is a movie that demands to be seen twice, if not more,” he said, “before you can really have an intelligent discussion about it, it would be There Will Be Blood.”
The director added, “It’s so overpowering; to even try and talk about There Will Be Blood a few days after seeing it would amount to gibberish until you’ve seen it a second time.” Indeed, There Will Be Blood is a complex work that needs serious investigation, but considering the fact that it is truly one of the best movies of the 2000s, watching Anderson’s movie twice isn’t too much of a slog at all.