Quentin Tarantino Says This 21st Century Western Is Near-Perfect Except For "Weak Sauce" Actor

Iconic filmmaker Quentin Tarantino of Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill fame labels Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood as a near-perfect movie, but calls out one actor’s performance. The epic period drama follows a prospector who becomes an oilman, played by the legendary Daniel Day-Lewis; it narrowly lost a historic Best Picture race to No Country for Old Men.

Day-Lewis did take home the Oscar for Best Lead Actor, one of his three wins in this category. PTA’s career-defining feature also stars Paul Dano, Kevin J. O’Connor, Ciarán Hinds, and Dillon Freasier. There Will Be Blood remains a landmark piece of cinema, making it unsurprising that Tarantino named it one of his favorite movies of the 21st century on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast.

Miramax

Tarantino ranked There Will Be Blood at No. 5, putting Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down at No. 1. No. 2 is Toy Story 3, No. 3 is Lost in Translation, and No. 4 is Dunkirk. Also among his favorites are Zodiac, Mad Max: Fury Road, Shaun of the Dead, and Midnight in Paris. However, there was a caveat to There Will Be Blood which prevented it from being his all-time favorite.

Tarantino says on the podcast that “There Will Be Blood would stand a good chance at being #1 or #2 if it didn’t have a big, giant flaw in it…and the flaw is Paul Dano.“ Dano was only cast as Paul Sunday but took on the dual role of also playing Paul’s twin Eli at the last minute. “[Dano] is weak sauce, man,” says Tarantino. Check out the filmmaker’s full comments below:

Daniel Day-Lewis. The old-style craftsmanship quality to the film. It had an old Hollywood craftsmanship without trying to be like that. It was the only film he’s ever done, and I brought it up to him, that doesn’t have a set piece. The fire is the closest to a set piece. This was about dealing with the narrative, dealing with the story, and he did it f*****g amazingly. There Will Be Blood would stand a good chance at being #1 or #2 if it didn’t have a big, giant flaw in it … and the flaw is Paul Dano. Obviously, it’s supposed to be a two-hander, but it’s also drastically obvious that it’s not a two-hander. [Dano] is weak sauce, man. He is the weak sister. Austin Butler would have been wonderful in that role. He’s just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy. The weakest fucking actor in SAG [laughs].

Tarantino has previously critiqued Dano in There Will Be Blood, saying then that “there’s nothing bad about it [Dano’s performance], it just does seem a compromise.” Dano himself also pointed out that he had little time to prepare for the role, while also being at an earlier stage in his career, and he has been defended and praised by others, including Day-Lewis.

Eli Sunday preaching to the crowd in There Will be Blood.

Dano was still nominated for a BAFTA for his turn in There Will Be Blood, and has since achieved further acclaim as an actor for his performances in Little Miss Sunshine, 12 Years a Slave, The Fabelmans, and The Batman. The circumstances of this movie were not kind to him, but he has led a successful career despite Tarantino’s repeated criticism of this performance.

Dano (and Day-Lewis) also missed out on starring in what looks to be the movie that could finally win PTA an Oscar, with One Battle After Another leading the race this year. Audiences will have to judge for themselves whether Dano in There Will Be Blood is a dealbreaker — if he is actually bad, just not quite as good because of the dual role, or totally underrated in this picture.