Paul Thomas Anderson has described Werner Herzog as a defining influence — specifically Aguirre, the Wrath of God, which is also about a monomaniacal man consumed by an impossible vision in an unforgiving landscape. Daniel Plainview is Klaus Kinski's Aguirre transplanted to California oil fields. Herzog showed Anderson that you could build an entire film around the terrifying spectacle of a man losing his humanity to obsession. Aguirre is on Criterion Channel and is one of the great performances in cinema history.
Films That Influenced There Will Be Blood
