‘Landman’ Star Billy Bob Thornton Has A Message For Those Who Question The “Morality” Of A Show Promoting The Oil Industry

Can’t we just enjoy the show?

Taylor Sheridan has yet another massive hit on his hands with the success of his latest series Landman. The show from the creator of Yellowstone features an all-star cast including Billy Bob Thornton, Demi Moore, Andy Garcia, Ali Larter, Jacob Lofland, and Michelle Randolph, among others, and follows a landman for an oil company, played by Thornton, trying to navigate the West Texas oil business and all that comes with it during an oil boom.

The show set a streaming record for Paramount+ last year when more than 14.9 million people tuned in during the show’s first four weeks, and filming for the second season of the Paramount+ show is already underway with Sam Elliott officially joining the cast for the upcoming season.

But the show hasn’t been without controversy. Because it involves the oil industry, naturally liberals have accused Sheridan and the show of promoting “Big Oil” while trying to dismiss or mock clean energy and climate change. I mean, what do they expect from a show with a protagonist who works for an oil company? Of course it’s pro-oil…that’s the character’s job.

Earlier this week, Thornton was asked about the politics of the show – and he had a message for those who question the “morality” of a show focused on the oil industry:

“Here’s the thing. First of all, Taylor’s written a show that doesn’t have an agenda. It shows you what happens. So this is just a peek behind the curtain of an industry that a lot of people don’t know anything about. And he’s not saying ‘Yay oil’ or ‘Boo oil,’ he’s just saying, ‘Here’s how it works.'”

Thornton also said that he wasn’t going to get into the politics involved in the show:

“I think we need a party called the Common Sense Party.”

Of course the show also had liberals outraged after a rant from Thornton’s character, Tommy Norris, against so-called “clean energy” went viral thanks to a share from President Donald Trump.

Episode 3 of Season 1 found Billy Bob’s character chatting with hot shot, big city lawyer Rebecca Savage (Kayla Wallace), who gets excited to see some windmills in big oil country.

“They use clean energy to power the oil wells?”

Norris responds that “they use alternative energy, there’s nothing clean about this,” before launching into another epic Taylor Sheridan rant meant for the “100% electric” crowd. You know, the folks in California who wants to have the entire world run on “clean” electric energy like wind or solar.

There’s just a few problems with that… as Billy Bob Thornton’s character masterfully explains:

“Do you have any idea how much diesel they have to burn to mix that much concrete or make that steel, and haul this sh*t out here and put it together with a 450 foot crane? You wanna guess how much oil it takes to lubricate that thing or winterize it? In its 20-year lifespan it won’t offset the carbon footprint of making it.

And don’t even get me started on solar panels and the lithium in your Tesla battery. And never mind the fact that if the whole world decided to go electric tomorrow, we don’t have the transmission lines to get the electricity to the cities. It would take 30 years if we started tomorrow. And unfortunately for your grandkids, we have a 120-year petroleum-based infrastructure. Our whole lives depend on it.

It’s in everything… that road we came in on, the wheels on every car ever made, including yours, tennis rackets, lipstick, refrigerators antihistamines, anything plastic, your cell phone case, artificial heart valves, any kind of clothing that’s not made with animal or plant fibers, soap, hand lotion, garbage bags, fishing boats, you name it… every f***ing thing. And you know what the kicker is… we’re gonna run out before we find a replacement. 

And believe me, if Exxon thought them f***ing things were the future, they’d be putting them all over the place. Getting oil out of the ground is the most dangerous job in the world, we don’t do it because we like it, we do it because we’ve run out of options. And you’re out here trying to find something to blame for the danger besides your boss. There ain’t nobody to blame but the demand that we keep pumping it.”

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