As you can probably tell from my last article, I'm a huge fan of Paul Thomas Anderson's films. I've spent the last week looking back on all of his films and I was finally able to watch The Master again with it coming out on DVD in America recently. While I was watching The Master, I couldn't help but compare it to his other films which got me thinking about what the greatest moments of his short yet brilliant filmography are. There are going to be some obvious moments, but for the most part I really tried to really watch his films closely and use this list to highlight some scenes that don't normally get considered as his best but really should be. Anyways, spoilers are to be expected, so if you haven't seen all of Anderson's films, I certainly recommend you check them out...
10. The Conversation At The End Between Sydney & John (Hard Eight)
Hard Eight is certainly the least amazing of all of Anderson's films, but for a debut it's extremely solid. It's actually really refreshing to see a movie almost entirely populated by character actors in the starring roles. The final scenes bring a really nice emotional depth to to the film and the best part of the entire movie is the final conversation between Sydney and John after it's revealed that Sydney had killed John's father prior to the events of the start of the film. The fact that they're both using pay phones really allows the audience to see the anguish in Sydney's face since he has nothing to hide in his appearance from John. It's very subtle moments like this one that Anderson has been able to master throughout his career but Hard Eight set the blueprint perfectly.