With multiple masterpieces under his belt, Punch-Drunk Love is one of the greatest romances ever portrayed on the big screen.
Anderson’s style didn’t come to him fully formed in a fateful dream; it’s the result of a cocktail of cinematic influences mixing together to create something new. So, here are 10 movies that have influenced Paul Thomas Anderson’s directorial style.
Goodfellas (1990)
Anderson reportedly watched possibly the greatest mob movie ever made; with its bleak true-to-life ending, it’s a cautionary tale about the dark side of the mafia lifestyle.
Scorsese himself was inspired to give Goodfellas its breakneck pace and all-over-the-place storytelling style by the opening scenes of François Truffaut’s Jules and Jim.
The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (1948)
While he was writing the script for There Will Be Blood, Paul Thomas Anderson reportedly watched John Huston’s classic western The Treasure of the Sierra Madre every night before he went to bed.
Anderson said of the film’s influence, “When I watch this again, all of life’s questions and answers are there in the movie: the way to make movies, live your life, get along, everything.”
Jaws (1975)
“Jaws was a big, big, big, big, big deal to me,” said Paul Thomas Anderson of Steven Spielberg’s industry-changing, shark-hunting masterpiece. When Anderson was a kid, Jaws was one of two movies (along with The Wizard of Oz) that he watched over and over again.
The great thing about Jaws is that it’s not really about a shark; the shark is just there to force the three very different protagonists to work together.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Anderson’s style has been heavily inspired by Stanley Kubrick, but one film of his that he’s mentioned as being particularly brilliant is his sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey, which charts the history of humanity before boldly leaping into its future.
Specifically, Anderson was influenced by Kubrick’s use of music in his movies. Anderson sweepingly declared, “It’s so hard to do anything that doesn’t owe some kind of debt to what Stanley Kubrick did with music in movies. Inevitably, you’re going to end up doing something that he’s probably already done before.”
Stray Dog (1949)
Akira Kurosawa’s crime drama Stray Dog plays like a Japanese take on the American film noir. It tells the story of one bad day in the life of a young, inexperienced detective.
Despite the complex plotting of a lot of Anderson’s movies, what he loves about this one is the simplicity of its storytelling: “You can say it in one sentence: a rookie cop loses his gun. It’s unbelievable.”
Rear Window (1954)
A second viewing of Alfred Hitchcock’s Phantom Thread changed Anderson’s perception of it.
He explained, “Rear Window really spoke to me, particularly Grace Kelly’s performance and the sort of whole idea that Jimmy Stewart was this bachelor who would never get married and he’s a single guy and ‘I’m a photographer’ and ‘I’m out there in the jungle and you don’t want any part of this’ and that kind of thing.” This dynamic clearly influenced Reynolds and Alma’s troubled relationship in Phantom Thread.
The Silence Of The Lambs (1991)
When Anderson was asked to name three directors who have influenced his career the most, he replied, “Jonathan Demme, Jonathan Demme, and Jonathan Demme.”
In particular, Anderson has pointed to talking directly to the camera in conversation scenes.
Raging Bull (1980)
Your average P.T. Anderson protagonist, from Dirk Diggler to Daniel Plainview to Reynolds Woodcock, will have a staggering fall from grace. This follows the tragic trajectory of boxer Jake LaMotta in Martin Scorsese’s brought harrowing vulnerability to Jake’s violent rage.
The final scene of Boogie Nights, with Dirk talking to himself in the mirror of a dressing room, is a direct parallel to the final scene of Raging Bull, in which De Niro emulates LaMotta emulating Marlon Brando’s “I coulda been a contender” monologue from On the Waterfront.
Putney Swope (1969)
Robert Downey, Sr.’s cult hit Putney Swope has been named by Anderson as a pivotal influence on his approach to filmmaking. A favorite of many underground film buffs, Putney Swope is a searing satire of the advertising industry.
Don Cheadle’s Boogie Nights character Buck Swope was named in honor of this film, with permission from Downey (who makes a brief cameo appearance in the film).
Short Cuts (1993)
Adapted from a handful of Raymond Carver stories, Robert Altman’s Short Cuts is a sprawling anthology that provides a rounded portrayal of life in Los Angeles through the perspectives of various disparate characters.
Anderson formulated his own take on this premise with Magnolia, another sprawling dramatic epic about the everyday lives of Los Angelinos. Anderson has also clearly taken inspiration from Altman’s film Nashville, but the influence of Short Cuts is a lot more obvious.
