During the oil gusher scene when Daniel is running to the well, he is yelling something that starts with an H. is he just yelling HW or his name?
Homeless Waif
Herbert Walker?
Howard Walter? Henry Wadsworth?
Love it, Fletcher!
Isn't he yelling "Lights out!!" when he's racing out of his office?
yeah he's definitely yelling "lights out! lights out!"
as for what HW stands for...humble waffle.
Lights out huh? is that old oil man argot?
Well, I think he wants all flames extinguished, so an oil fire doesn't start.
I just recently realized that there's an earlier incident of "lights out" in the movie, when the Coyote Hills well comes in. There's that shot of a gusher hitting a roof, and you can hear somebody go "lights out!", and a lamp is extinguished. (It's on the right in the screenshot below, but already turned off.) I'd always missed that.
much obliged, Fletch.
Hey, Mr. hamilton, do you have any stills of Plainview when he is shooting int teh mansion and he looks into the telescope? i tried google searching it but failed
I just thought Herbert Walker was too obvious.
yeah same here. PTA is a little more subtle, and every interview i've read with him (and i've read them ALL), he poo-poos the political reading of the film...the closest he's got to actually encouraging it was when henry rollins asked him like two years ago if a movie about oil with the title there will be blood had any relation to current events, and PTA smirked and went "oh no, henry, where would you get that idea?" and then left it at that. so who knows.
I was kinda joking. I think PTA plays with political/contemporary allegory all throughout TWBB, but he's too sly to tip his hand too much. It's all in there if you really want to dig for it, but it's never laid on too thick -- everything's so specific, it's never just an allegory. Anyway, I think PTA might be having some fun with the Bush thing.... or was H.W. a common name? Who else is called H.W.?
So who named HW? DP or Ailman?
I was at an early screening where PTA and Paul Dano spoke after the film. Somebody asked why the boy was named HW, and PTA said he happened to have a book on his desk by an author HW something (I don't remember) and that is how he named the boy.
I posted this in another thread and E.W. Marland suggested the author might be historian HW Brands, pointing out that the surname Brands is also used in TWBB.
yeah, i'm going to have to agree, regardless of whether or not PTA meant it, it's definitely there....he also says a lot that he really has no recollection of writing the film, so maybe he just doesnt remember putting all that in. but i think you're right that it stands on it's own, allegorical or not. i hate those movies that are so blatantly a metaphor/allegory for something else that the filmmakers forget about crafting an interesting story.
Thanks Bandy tract