Paul Thomas Anderson: Family, Religion, and some analysis

Very few people can consider themselves a master of cinema; even less can call themselves good at it. Very few directors are able to put themselves above the rest by being innovative, imaginative, and powerful with a film camera. Enter Paul Thomas Anderson who by the age of 41 has written and directed five movies, four of which have gathered universal critical proclaim, been nominated for five Academy Awards, won the Golden Bear, and won the Best Director award at the Cannes film festival. A master of the long take and being able to craft epics that focus on multiple characters, Paul Thomas Anderson is a one of a kind filmmaker unlike anyone else before him. As Entertainment Weekly put it, Anderson is “one of the most dynamic directors to emerge in the last 20 years” with movies that “crackle with energy and typically showcase volcanic performances” (EW Staff). What makes Paul Thomas Anderson so great? He explores deep themes like family as he explores the ideas of surrogate fathers and creations of new families. He also analyzes religion in his films by comparing it with consumerism and letting Exodus and liberation play a big theme in Magnolia. In this paper I will attempt to explore the story behind Paul Thomas Anderson by analyzing his autobiography and how his life is seen through his films, then explore the themes of family through all of his films, and religion in Magnolia and Boogie Nights.

         Before I dive into his filmography and the analysis of his film, it is important to freshen up on his biography to see how Paul Thomas Anderson went from birth to filmmaker. Born in 1970 in San Fernando Valley into a business family, he had a very outgoing father who dominated a family of nine children and two marriages. Paul Thomas Anderson “adored” his father and was “surrounded by the chaos of numerous children, eighteen dogs, and his father’s showbiz friends” who always seem to be a steady stream in the Anderson household. His sisters were also a big positive influence on him but also called them “tough” and “fighters.” One of the significant events in his young life was when he found a stash of porn at the age of nine in his father’s basement and watched it “obsessively” during his teens. Growing up in the Valley, Paul Thomas Anderson was surrounded by porn productions and it was commonplace rather than perverted. The only down side to his charismatic father was that he was “extremely self-absorbed, treating his kids as appendages to his needs.” His mother also seemed to be a problem as she was “cold” and “belittling” of her son’s talents even dragging them to church when things weren’t going her way (Waxman, 83-85).

            School was an entirely different story where he was repeatedly dropping out of schools, even schools for behavioral issues; repeating multiple grades, and eventually dropping out of college. While in boarding school he was scared to be so far away from home and ran with a dangerous crowd where drugs were heavily involved. He then dropped out of the New York University Film School and headed to California where he became a messenger and production assistant for TV shows like Quiz Kid Challenge.  Paul Thomas Anderson went on to write the script and shoot the short Cigarettes and Coffee, which eventually led to the making of his first feature length film Hard Eight. From there his career soared and from that he made Boogie Nights to Magnolia and etc. (Waxman, 86-87).

            As you watch Paul Thomas Anderson’s work you can very clearly see how his own life bleeds out into his films like a true auteur. In fact Paul Thomas Anderson himself said that his first three movies (Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, and Magnolia) “reflected his life in small, intimate, personal ways…you can be sure there’s a lot of my dad in these movies” (Waxman, 85). The providing father figure can be clearly seen in a lot of his film especially in Hard Eight, There Will Be Blood, and Boogie Nights.  Also where he grew up became an important part of his filmmaking in two ways: Magnolia and the porn industry. With Magnolia, Anderson himself said that it was his pursuit to “make the epic, the all-time great San Fernando Valley movie” (Strauss). With Boogie Nights it seemed that growing up in the 70s in the Valley provided the foundation and the inspiration to make the movie as it follows Dirk Diggler and his rise and fall from pornography fame. It also seems evident that the discovery of porn in his father’s basement at such a young age proved impact him enough to become infatuated with the porn business. Anderson’s childhood was full of white vans pulling up to vacant houses to use as a set and he probably saw or possibly met some of the people in the business. Another huge influence on the Boogie Nights movie was experiences with his own mother and dropping out of high school. Rollergirl and Dirk Diggler bother drop out of high school and miss the chance of college in order to make their way into the porn business. Especially when Anderson explores the feelings and confusion that Rollergirl felt while at school taking tests it seems that Anderson is expressing his own personal experiences and problem that he faced while in the school system.

            When he moved to California, his early jobs in TV and game shows impacted his filmmaking as seen in Magnolia as one part of the film revolves around a game show for kids as they face adults, very similar to a show he worked on titled Quiz Kid Challenge. Even in the future his work and interaction with television led to more projects as a visit to Saturday Night Live with his then girlfriend Fiona Apple led to a friendship with Adam Sandler that eventually led to the two collaborating for Punch-Drunk Love. Paul Thomas Anderson also seems to have a very interesting past relationship with religion, possibly positive or negative. While in some aspects we can see his appreciation and understanding of religion in Magnolia we also see the negative light and rough side of religion in There Will Be Blood. As he said earlier, his father’s impact can be clearly seen in his early films and in There Will Be Blood but I will discuss this throughout the rest of the paper. In my opinion it seems that the greatest impact that his childhood and past had on him more than anything was the vibrant and alive environment that he grew up in his household. By being surrounded by sisters and his father’s friends, Paul Thomas Anderson was able to interact with mass amounts of different and unique people that surely helped his writing. I would say that it is these years that allowed him to be able to create so many different and bizarre characters in Boogie Nights and Magnolia while at the same time being able to connect them all together and give each one the time they respectfully deserve. The special mention of his sister also makes the sister from Punch-Drunk Love stand out and feel more real and possibly a representation of Paul Thomas Anderson’s own sisters in his life. I also would infer that the constant stream of his father’s friends would influence his favoritism towards creating your own family that sticking to your biological one, this will be explored later.

            A big theme that plays out through Paul Thomas Anderson’s work is the theme of family whether you are creating your own or rejecting the one you were born into. Every single film Anderson has made explores these themes and they seem to reflect Anderson’s personal views on family. The first big theme from family comes the idea of surrogate fathers who take a son under their wing to be their protégé and to become a role model for them. In his first feature film, Hard Eight, the film starts off by Sydney picking up John off the streets to help him learn the ins and outs of gambling. Quickly and understandably John becomes fascinated with Sydney and sees him a father figure using him to help him in dangerous situations and always using him for advice and guidance. As John puts himself in a sticky situation by assaulting a man, Sydney sacrifices his money and possibly his life to make sure John will make it out ok and live for a better day with Clementine.

            In his second feature film, Boogie Nights, we are introduced to Jack Horner who has become the father to not just one, but many, young men and women of the porn industry. He approaches Dirk to give him a chance at the business but Dirk declines. It is after a brutal fight with his mother and being kicked out of the house that Dirk comes back to Jack hoping to find shelter, a job, and a family that loves him. Jack becomes a father to Dirk by taking care of him and helping launch his porn career to astonishing heights. Though this is not just Dirk, Jack Horner is a mentor to Reed, Rollergirl, and even Scotty. He is indeed the man of the house in Boogie Nights and the piece that holds the big family together. In the end he also takes Dirk back into his arms, like the Prodigal son, after Dirk hits rock bottom. Lastly in There Will Be Blood Daniel Plainview adopts H.W. after his father dies on the site of an oil dig. Taking H.W. under his wing as just a baby, we see that Daniel actually cares for the young child and considers it his own. As the film continues we see that Daniel has continued to raise and take care of H.W. hoping for him to succeed him after he passes. After a nasty explosion at the oil rig H.W. becomes deaf and acts out negatively from it causing Daniel to abandon him to a special school in San Francisco. At the end of the film the father and son are completely the opposite from where we started. While at the beginning there was young and innocence, money and greed have destroyed their chances of establishing their relationship once again.

            Along with surrogate fathers, Paul Thomas Anderson supports the idea of creating your own new family when your biological one abandons you. There are two cases of this happening: Hard Eight and Boogie Nights. In Hard Eight the new family created is between Clementine, John, and Sydney. Sydney takes on the role of the supporting father and Clementine and John his kids. Both Clementine and John are saved by Sydeny, whose generous nature takes them home with him to save Clementine from the life of a prostitute and John from a life on the streets. Sydney becomes protective and takes on a sacrificing nature towards them especially near the end of the film where he is willing to help finance their honeymoon and cover up the assault. Boogie Nights is where we see the biggest creation of the new family under Jack Horner as the father. Amber Waves becomes the mother of the group as everyone else like Dirk, Reed, Rollergirl, Buck, Becky, Scotty, “Little” Bill and Thomas Jane come together under the same roof of the porn industry as they support, love, and care for each other. Dirk and Reed become brothers while Dirk and Rollergirl make Amber their mother. Sadly most of this comes from the rejection their real families so they create the family with each other in order to feel loved and the need of companionship.

The reason the need for the new family is in Paul Thomas Anderson’s works is because he rejects the biological one in each one of his films. Paul Thomas Anderson did experience divorce and remarriage in his life so it makes one question if this influenced this theme that he explores in films, especially when you understand his rocky relationship with his mother. It could also be a reflection on his father’s behavior that seemed to possibly make him feel like an appendage. Starting with Hard Eight, the film begins by telling us that John’s parents are dead and that John is desperate for money to bury his mother. Right off the bat the biological family is kicked out of the picture and replaced with Sydney. Later on in the film we learn that it was indeed Sydney who killed John’s father, which creates a paradox complex foe the audience. You want to root for Sydney because we know he is a nice man and he has done great things for John but it is Sydney himself that put John in the situation he was stuck in at the beginning of the film. This act also flips our perspective on Sydney himself as people question whether he has ever really cared about John or if guilt has taken over him.

Boogie Nights has a very similar feel to what happened to Paul Thomas Anderson in real life when I focus on Dirk’s relationship with his mother. Rather than come a supporting home, Dirk’s mother is mean, ruthless, uncaring, inconsiderate, and works hard against bringing the family together. She is not supportive by any means and kicks her own son out when he is still in high school, letting him free to do what ever he wants which leads him to the porn industry where he can create a new family.  After knowing Paul Thomas Anderson’s background this relationship seems to very much reflect the relationship with his own “cold” and unsupportive mother. The other rejection of the biological family is seen through Amber Waves struggle to see her kid. Being a porn actress and her addiction to drugs create a stumbling block that continuously stops her form being able to be considered safe for her son. Rather than give up her lifestyle in an attempt to get custody rights, I understand it’s not simple, she continues to go deeper into drugs and depression and tries to make Rollergirl fill the void left in her heart.

Now we can focus on Paul Thomas Anderson’s masterpiece Magnolia that is full of family drama, problems, and religion. In Magnolia we see the deconstruction of the American family that is being replaced by broken homes and burial of emotions. The first example of this rejection of the biological shows up between Claudia and her father who seem to have a dark past. While the film never clearly explains what happened between the two it is suggest that Jimmy molested her as a child, Still, Claudia refuses to listen anything that her father has to say and ends up yelling at him until he leaves. With he father gone, we see that his presence causes Claudia to go into drugs and random men who will sleep with her. We sympathize with her because he do have no idea that Jimmy Gator did and can see te mental consequences of his actions. Next we have Stanley and the interaction with his father that seems to be verbal abuse and pressure to succeed on the game show. This is similar to Donnie Smith, whose parents took all the money he won on the show away, who has severe lack of social skills. While Donnie was unable to stand up to his parents, Stanely steps up to his father demanding better treatment. The last big rejection of the biological comes with the relationship of Frank T.J. Mackey and his father Earl Partridge. Earl left his wife and son behind and it has drastically affected Frank’s life who has been unable to over come the emotions of his mother’s death and a life without a father. As Frank sits at Earl’s side while he dies we see a mental breakdown from Frank caused by the complicated feelings he is experiencing. Magnolia is a film that is about the freedom and liberation from oppressive fathers and families and it certainly easy to see why.

We see similar actions and feelings in both Punch-Drunk Love and There Will be Blood. In Punch-Drunk Love, Barry Egan is socially awkward and deals with some mental problems that is brought on by his oppressing, mean, and insulting sisters who always seem to be correcting him or making fun of him. The great dinner scene provides an example of this as his sisters continuously call him “gay boy” and poke fun at him for being so weird. How does this affect Barry? He literally punches the windows to the back porch and breaks down crying in front of one of his sister’s husbands. In There Will Be Blood we see two examples of the rejection of the biological family. For starters the death of H.W.’s real father doesn’t give the biological family a chance and shows that fate prefers the creation of new rather than the one you’re born in. The fight between Eli Sunday and his father also give us insight to the problems Eli had with his own family that pushed him to violence against his own father.

One of the major themes of classic film noir films is the theme of the inescapable past that will inevitably catch up to the character and let justice play its hand. This same thing is sprinkled throughout Paul Thomas Anderson’s work and plays a major plot piece in his films. Hard Eight becomes a film all about Sydney’s past in the second half of the story. As the audience has come to love and root for Sydney we learn that he has a dark past that Jimmy knows about. If Jimmy does not get the money he is demanding then he will have to call up John and tell him that John’s father was killed by Sydney. Sydney becomes helpless and must pay the money up and we question why he offered to help John in the first place all over again. In Boogie Nights after the fall of Jack Horner and his film company, the porn actors and actresses try to find a life outside of the industry. Dirk turns to prostitution similar to the beginning of the film by jacking off for customers but ends up getting assaulted and robbed. His life choices, to drop out of school and focus on pornography, have left him in a situation. He seems to have no future outside of the porn industry and the “gift” that he believes God gave him is the only thing he will be successful at. For Rollergirl, when participating in a sex on the street gimmick for a new porn film, is confronted by an old high school classmate who hurts her and attempts to rape her. While the attempt it failed the damage as she realizes that she will forever be associated with pornography and the implications of that start to set in for her. One of the saddest parts comes with Buck and Jessie St. Vincent become pregnant together and Buck hopes to support them with a stereo equipment store. The only problem is that because of their careers as pornographic actors that bank refuses to give them a loan to start the business. They are shocked and stunned while to plead that they are actors while the bank refuses to listen.

Magnolia is filled jam-packed full of people who are trying to escape from their past. For starts Jimmy Gator is trying to reconcile with his daughter for what he has done to her. Unfortunately she will not listen to him and refuses to see him as their relationship will never see repair. This guilt and regret come back in the form for cancer for Jimmy Gator as his past actions start to kill him slowly as punishment for his actions. Then we come to Donnie Smith whose childhood ruined his adult life. As a child genius, Donnie Smith was able to win a lot of money on a TV quiz show only to have that money stolen by his parents, which caused serious mental damage to himself. He is socially awkward and lost in the world with little direction to help him find his meaning in life. The betrayal by his parents becomes a day-to-day problem for him, as he is unable to overcome the feelings of depression and not being loved. In fact a lot of Donnie Smith’s motivation is just to be loved in return for the love he has to give; this comes from the fact he never felt that his parents loved him. This is the major theme that drives Linda Partridge struggle with her relationship with her husband. Originally marrying him for money she slowly fell in love with the dying Earl and now does not feel like she deserve him and she becomes constantly haunted by her actions of sleep with other men and her feeling that she does not deserve a man like Earl. Donnie Smith near the ending of the film breaks his key into the store he is robbing, effectively sealing his fate because he will get caught and probably arrested. Lastly, this is the most important element to Frank T.J. Mackey’s story and arc in the film. As Frank is confronted about his past that he has been lying about, he sits quietly during the interview and is unwilling to express the truth about his past. When he finally is confronted with meeting his true father, Frank breaks down emotionally as he cannot over the feelings of abandonment and anger towards his father for leaving him and his mother alone.

Barry Egan in Punch-Drunk Love has his complete story and struggle in the film revolving around an inescapable past. At the beginning of the film as he makes a sex hot line phone call, it turns out that the company behind the sex line is threatening him for money and even taking out physical violence against him. The whole story revolves around him trying to get rid of these threatening men so that he will be able to return to normal and have a chance with Lena. Barry Egan though unlike some of Paul Thomas Anderson’s characters faces his past with a vengeance and is able to fix the problem with the sex hotline and protect the girl of his dreams.

There also seems to be a clear theme of doppelgangers throughout his films. In Hard Eight we are able to see Sydney’s two sides, his good side and dark past, reflected in John and Jimmy. With John we see Sydney’s happy, youthful, gambling, and protective side. On the other hand Jimmy represents Sydney’s dark past and the lifestyle that he once had as a killer. In Magnolia we see multiple characters that are experience very similar problems and issues. For example Frank and Claudia both have deep emotional stress and trauma from their childhood interaction with their fathers. Jimmy and Earl both are being affected by cancer and are attempting to reconcile with their children before it is far too late. Lastly in There Will Be Blood, there is a bizarre comparison between the rivalry of Eli Sunday and Daniel Plainview who are more similar than either would like to admit. They both are greedy, self-centered, and arrogant characters who believe they deserve respect, money, but most of all power. Daniel focuses this on his pursuit of oil, land and money while Eli focuses on the church and he reach of power.

While Paul Thomas Anderson might have been rushed to the church as a young boy, he still had an intense knowledge of religion and uses it into Magnolia and There Will Be Blood to add more depth to the story in an incredible way. As for Magnolia the film centers around the idea of oppressing fathers: you have Jimmy over Claudia, Earl over Frank, and Rick over Stanley. In each pairing we see the effect these fathers have on their children and the oppressed feelings they create. At the same time we follow Officer Jim Kurring who is a man of simple faith who just wishes to do the right thing and help people. He prays everyday and works as a cop in order to “protect and serve.” As the film moves through its epic journey, it slowly becomes a story about liberation and how these trapped children are set free from their oppressors. While Jim Kurring does pray every day it is not enough and Paul Thomas Anderson shows him that it takes raining frogs to liberate these people. Indeed taking straight from Exodus, which Paul Thomas Anderson tease in the television audience during the quiz show, at the films climax the sky starts raining frogs into the Valley. So what do the frogs mean? Well it is a representation of the liberation from oppressing forces and the beginning of a new life. For the Jews in Egypt is meant escaping from the rule of the tyrant Pharaoh. In Magnolia it marks the turning point in many characters stories, as they finally are able to overcome their oppression. Stanley is finally able to stand up to his father and demands to be treated nicely. Frank was able to be with his father at death and got to express himself before it was too late and will now be able to put it all behind him. Claudia, after all the drugs and crying, ends the film with a smile signaling that everything is going to be alright and that she will finally be able to overcome her past. We also see the use of a prophet in Magnolia through the young rapper who tells the whole story to the audience and Officer Kurring, both who are likely to miss the point to his prophetic message.

In his 2007 epic There Will Be Blood Paul Thomas Anderson takes a hard look at religious fanatics especially in the time of the early 20^th century. There is a rivalry between Eli Sunday and Daniel Plainview and I think it is safe to safe that it represents the competition between religion and money. Eli’s pursuit is for the church to succeed but ironically for him to become famous along the way while Daniel wants his own personal success and could care less about what happens to the church. In fact any mention of the church causes Daniel to freeze or ignore it, showing Daniel’s general distaste and disagreement in it. There is this constant battle between the two of them for control and power. Daniel denies Eli the chance to bless the drill as revenge for Eli making the land he bought cost so much money. Then Eli humiliates Daniel in front of the congregation during his baptism, something Daniel must do in order to gain new land, but Daniel returns the favor by “baptizing” him by pushing him and his face in oil. In its final act, we see Eli finally a powerful preacher and Daniel a rich and powerful old man as religion and money come head to head. While Eli hopes to strike a financial deal to help his financial woes, Daniel forces him to confess that he is a false prophet as a final humiliation. Then Paul Thomas Anderson shows his true views on religion by having Daniel literally beat Eli in the head with a bowling pin until he is dead. While it is obvious the level of knowledge that Paul Thomas Anderson has about religion is high, There Will Be Blood makes on wonder what his personal views are on it. Being forced to go as a kid because of his mother, this film could possibly reflect his views on religion or at least the problems he sees in it. It will be interesting to see how religion will play into his next film, The Master, which follows a cult called “The Cause” which is supposed to be similar to Scientology. He certainly has religion on the mind and where he takes this story will be interesting to find out.

Paul Thomas Anderson also does a great job at addressing his love for movies and film in his movies. This is mostly seen in Boogie Nights where the plot starts to focus on the transition from film to video. While to most people this might not seem like a big deal, this is a huge change for directors and filmmakers. It changes how you shoot, direct, and even edit the material that was a strange time back in the 80s. It shows just how knowledgeable Paul Thomas Anderson was about the change and its impact on directors. The film shows the struggle that Jack Horner has as a man of film being forced into the world of video. This is relatable to Anderson because in the late 90s is the beginning of the debate between film and digital shooting. We also see a nice nod to the film This Is Cuba by featuring a similar long take that goes from above water to following someone into a pool. His other showcase for love of film is the beginning and ending of Punch-Drunk Love where he displays his love for avant garde film. He uses a unique blend of colors and music to drag emotions out of the audience. It is nice to see this in the 21^st century as a tip of the hat to such a classic style of filmmaking and shows Anderson’s depth of knowledge about film.

The last aspect of Paul Thomas Anderson as a filmmaker that I wish to explore is the use of random occurrences throughout his films. Focused heavily in Magnolia and slightly explored in other films, he uses unexplained phenomena to push forward his stories and explore the randomness of real life. Magnolia is where he puts this on the spotlight as the film opens up explaining random, seemingly impossible events that actually happened in real life. From a man scuba diving and being pickup up by a airplane to a suicide jumper who gets shot by a shotgun on the way to his death, Magnolia becomes a message that there is no such thing as coincidence and that everything is connected some how some way. For example the suicide jumper was shot by his parents ironically as he fell onto a safety net, which would’ve saved his fall. The scuba diver who got picked up by the airplane had been in a fight with the pilot just the day before at a casino. As the story continues, we learn that all the characters from Frank T.J. Mackey to Claudia are connected to each other through random occurrence. Of course the message here is that these events are indeed not random but rather the expectation. Think of Boogie Nights when Rollergirl goes out in the limo for sex on the street and the first guy choosen is her old classmates. Even the raining frogs at the end are supposedly based on real life reports of frogs raining down to the ground. We see similar random acts that have meaning and importance to his stories like the harmonium at the beginning.

Paul Thomas Anderson also seems to be introducing a new type of melodrama, in my own words a neomelodrama. The typical melodrama in film is trying to heighten the emotions of the audience while using music and drama with stereotyped and unrealistic over the top characters. With the neomelodrama, I would say Paul Thomas Anderson is using the same deep themes, emotional plots and music, over the top characters, but in a much grounded and more realistic sense. Where melodramas take their stories over the top into an unrealistic realm, Paul Thomas Anderson is exploring the same stories, themes, and use of music but not letting his characters or story become unrealistic.

            Paul Thomas Anderson is a deep, meticulous filmmaker who has made some of the greatest films in the past 20 years. He was a deep devotion to his craft and creates some of the best stories that have graced the big screen. Taking a lot from his childhood by being surround by characters and his unique family, Paul Thomas Anderson has written some of the most unique and original stories told by man. Exploring religion, family, pornography, fathers, and more, he has put him self up with the greats and hopefully more will come from this brilliant mind in the future.