#157: The Master
Release Date: September 14th, 2012
Format: Theater (David Geffen Theater at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, CA)
Written by: P.T. Anderson
Directed by: P.T. Anderson
4 Stars
Paul Thomas Anderson loves his characters. I don’t mean he loves creating them, I mean he loves them as human beings.
He loves Amber Waves, the coke head absentee mother and porn star from Boogie Nights. He loves Frank T.J. Mackey, the rage-fueled alpha bro from Magnolia. He loves Barry Egan, the emotionally stunted man-child from Punch Drunk Love. He even loves Daniel Plainview, the murderous oil baron, whom P.T. Anderson shoots as if he is the devil incarnate.
It is a distinction between Anderson and Quentin Tarantino, whom film history will regard as peers and even rivals, the two most powerful and enduring voices to emerge from the indie film boom of the ‘90s.
No doubt Tarantino loves his characters too, but he loves the personification of his characters. He loves crafting and molding these people, creating and deepening them to mythical proportions. But he doesn’t love all of them as people. He hates Monsieur Calvin Candie, the plantation owner from Django Unchained. He hates Zed, the rapist biker from Pulp Fiction. He hates Nazis and the Manson Family and misogynist killer stuntmen (well, Stuntman Mike at least).
And rightfully so, by the way. He creates these characters to be hated. They are morally awful people, and Tarantino deals in vengeance.
P.T. Anderson deals in humanitarianism.
His 2012 film, The Master, is about two men, Freddie Quell and Lancaster Dodd, who couldn’t seem more different. Freddie is a disorganized failure, a violent man with a marginal education, who can’t hold a job or maintain any sort of positive relationship. Lancaster Dodd is a charismatic intellectual and founder of The Cause, a new religion that can save your mind, body, and soul. Dodd has a fortress of leather bound books lining his study, and not only can he maintain relationships, but he gains followers who listen to his every word.
However, scratch beneath the surface of these men and you’ll see they are the same person. In fact, when the two characters meet (Freddie sneaks onto Lancaster’s yacht during a party to steal booze), Lancaster remarks, “You seem so familiar to me.”
He should seem familiar. Both men are alcoholics. Both men are liars. Both men are running from something. Both men are angry and stubborn and insecure.
And P.T. Anderson loves the hell out of both of them.
If you go into The Master looking for a satirical attack on the creation of Scientology, which served as inspiration for the film, you’ll be disappointed. That just isn’t where Anderson’s heart lies. Lancaster Dodd, the stand-in for L. Ron Hubbard, is not a prototypical villain. He’s just a man, susceptible to all the pitfalls of our species, no matter how elevated his diction. Freddie Quell is not a prototypical protagonist. He’s just a man, susceptible to the same pitfalls as his mentor.
When the two men, these two brothers bound together by the stars, separate at the end of the film, they are largely unchanged. Lancaster is still a confidence man, traveling the world seeking admiration from total strangers. Freddie is still a simpleton, who wakes each morning with the hopes to find enough booze to get drunk and maybe a woman to sleep with.
And god does P.T. Anderson love them both.
As for the rest of the movie, The Master is richly rendered. Anderson collaborated with Romanian cinematographer Mihai Mălaimare Jr., shooting on 65mm film, and the results are stunning. The characters’ faces have that slightly oversaturated quality that you see in ‘40s and ‘50s color photographs, and the period costuming and sets are perfectly appointed. Anderson also employed frequent collaborator Jonny Greenwood, of Radiohead fame, for the scoring, which is equal parts hypnotic and restless, qualities that match well with our two central characters.
It’s undoubtedly one of P.T. Anderson’s best films, and two of his best characters, although I’m sure he’d say he loves them all.
