Review #574: 'The Master' (2012)

Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, his first film since 2007's spectacular There Will Be Blood, explores many of the themes of alienation, dysfunction within family and individual, that he has engaged with throughout his filmography. But where his previous film focused on the desperation for power in an increasingly Capitalistic, but almost primitively savage landscape, his latest probes and juxtaposes ideas of control and chaos within a substitute family.  The surrogate family that drunk, chaotic Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) enters serendipitously, headed by "writer" Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), is a representation of a cult, incredibly loosely based on science fiction writer, L. Ron Hubbard's religious invention, Scientology. No doubt the allusions within the screenplay to this increasingly clandestine and insidious organisation (with powerful Hollywood membership from Tom Cruise and John Travolta), have been eradicated to avoid any problems - Scientologists are secretive, and appear aggressive and paranoid (I'm just goading, but it's true!).

The Master opens in the closing moments of World War Two, the drunken and isolated Freddie, winging his way on a Navy ship. He seems awkward in the presence of these men, iconographically like the muscular, homoerotic imagery of Kenneth Anger or Jean-Paul Gaultier. On a sun kissed beach, the sailors watch in bemusement as Freddie mock-fucks a woman made of sand, leg akimbo, the audience full of laughter, until the misogynist display goes on, becoming increasingly uncomfortable. In subsequent scenes Freddie shows his infantile, possessive obsession with sex and female genitalia, and the drunken fantasy that drifts in and out of his consciousness. He's a drifter with no place to go, a fractured family life, with no skills but a dangerous ability to make alcohol. In the chaos of his intoxicated mind, he wants a father figure, and after an accidental poisoning with his alcoholic concoctions, of a man he told looked like his father, Freddie stumbles upon a ship sailing sailing from San Francisco to New York through the Panama canal, and meets leader of The Cause, Dodd.

Like Hubbard, Hoffman's Dodd is a publisher of a book who's ideas create a loyal, devoted following in 1950's America, where religious movements separated from traditional ones were beginning to surface in greater numbers. The ideas within this quasi-religion, The Cause, are differing in many ways to Scientology (it does however include the idea that humans have existed for trillions of years), and Dodd confidently states that our spirits live for millennia, living through different physical vessels - not unlike the concepts in what is now called past life regression. But here, Dodd claims that through confronting past demons the subject can return to an emotional state of "perfect". It's a flimsy concept, and one which Dodd even has difficulty in defending or explaining when confronted with challengers to his philosophies. His son, Val (Jesse Plemens), tells Freddie that his father makes this stuff up as he goes along; this is not a stable functioning family, let alone a legitimate, or cohesive cult, where all followers agree with every alteration, or frivolous concept that The Master orates.

The film is not clear about the full nature of Lancaster and Freddie's relationship; at times it is like a father/son  dynamic, then a homoerotic tinge is suggested, but they almost always seem at odds, battling even when calm and collected. But the real chaos that Freddie brings is juxtaposing the more secretive chaos behind the doors of the cult. On the surface Lancaster is jovial and accommodating, but as with Freddie, his demons, his complications, and his occasional inability to explain his wild theories, at times highlights his own chaotic psychology. In the time that Freddie stays with The Cause, Dodd is preparing his second book, 'The Split Sabre', and it seems that cracks are perhaps appearing in the "congregation", and Dodd is desperately attempting to cling to his followers, and with it continue leading with false ideas, and often ludicrous practises. The Master is about the destructive nature of these two characters, who often provoke each other into obscure and dangerous behaviour.

It would be impossible to write about this film without mentioning the two central roles. Hoffman plays Lancaster with a cool charisma, and he must have been intended for the role (he has worked with Anderson before). With simple motions he captures the belief of power in the character, he approaches other men, dramatically swinging his hand to slap against their hand. Dodd is in control of these people, he holds the power, but he is playful, a possessor of humour used as psychological warfare. In a scene at the end of his daughters wedding reception, he leaves, grabbing the audiences attention, announcing to not rise for his departure, whilst laughing but waving his hands up, in a motion to stand. Phoenix is also quite exceptional as the tortured cheat, his eyes saying more about anxiety and pain than any words could achieve, so an Oscar nomination was inevitable. He probably won't win due to another nominee having portrayed an American icon. Hoffman also received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Anderson again displays his incredible mastery of cinematic form. The images are astounding, Mihai Malamare Jr's cinematography and Jack Fisk's (along with David Crank's) production design, complement beautifully Anderson's almost constantly moving camera, with small moments of dark, Film Noir lighting, contrasted with the sun drenched, saturated images outside. In a second collaboration with Radiohead guitarist, Jonny Greenwood, the soundtrack almost counters some of the scenes, lending the film a jarring, uncomfortable feeling. It could be seen as a total musical score of the psyche. The scatological nature of these two unhinged men, fit the more abstract and psychologically oppressive soundtrack to insanity - after all, it is easy to argue that Dodd and Freddie are insane to the eyes of government and society.

The post-war rise of psycho-analysis, particularly in the United States, could be seen as another tool of control. Civilisation determines what sanity and insanity are, or what it looks like. In The Master, these two men are both sane and insane simultaneously, and they may represent that change in culture and society after such a monumental war, with realities that even now are difficult to comprehend (yet they still happen today). Something that struck me whilst watching this film was the central idea of past lives. I was overwhelmed with the profound nature of death, and this somehow explains why people attach themselves to religion, and other ideas of the continuation of existence. It is difficult to comprehend death as the end. It may simply be easier to cling onto a seemingly ridiculous idea than confront the possibility of an absolute end to life. Whilst Anderson's film is not perfect in fully committing to the many, often erratic, ideas that permeate the film, the combination of the performances, the beauty of the image and the music, create an experience that is incredibly rewarding.


Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams
Country: USA

Rating: *****

Marc Ivamy