Rewatchables Reference

Cast

Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson

Written by: Paul Thomas Anderson

Notes

• First-ever two-part episode of The Rewatchables (five years into its run). All formal categories are in Part 2.
• Bill Simmons calls it his favorite movie of the last 25 years. His wife confirmed it's the movie he's watched the most since they started dating in 1998.
• PTA was 26 years old when he made it. His second film after Hard Eight.
• PTA made a student film/mockumentary about a porn star named Dirk Diggler at age 17 – the germ of this movie.
• Robert Ridgely ('The Colonel') was in that student film playing Jack Horner.
• PTA was influenced by 'Exhausted' (a documentary about John Holmes) and a Current Affair segment about Shawna Grant.
• Burt Reynolds hated the film and the experience with PTA, despite earning an Oscar nomination.
• George Lucas is quoted: 'He's the greatest natural filmmaker I've met in a long time.'
• Robert Elswit described the film as 'actually an American backstage musical.'
• The studio kept pressuring PTA to narrow the story to just Dirk and Jack; PTA insisted it was about the whole family.
• PTA originally wanted 3+ hours and an NC-17 rating; the studio pushed it under 3 hours and to an R.
• The original script was 185 pages.
• Focus groups were a disaster. Bob Shaye (New Line) did his own cut.
• Jeff Lynne gave permission for 'Living Thing' by ELO after seeing a screening where Dirk pulls out his prosthetic.
• Andrew Sarris: 'Not since Terrence Malick's Badlands has there been such an explosion of sheer talent on the American movie scene.'
• Oscar nominations: Best Original Screenplay (lost to 'Good Will Hunting'), Best Supporting Actress for Julianne Moore (lost to Kim Basinger), Best Supporting Actor for Burt Reynolds (lost to Robin Williams).

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