Oscar-Nominated filmmaker, Paul Thomas Anderson’s philosophically stimulating, existentialist, Oscar-Nominated drama, “The Master” Film Review:

By: Charlie Weil

While viewing Oscar Nominated filmmaker, Paul Thomas Anderson’s brilliantly evocative, existential, Oscar-Nominated drama, “The Master (2012)”, I found the film to have many themes of religion, scientology, loyalty, manipulation, and brainwashing. The film had exceptional performances, beautiful cinematography, and effective editing. The film is a master- class in acting, with Oscar-Nominee, Joaquin Phoenix, the late, great, Oscar-Winner, Philip Seymour Hoffman and the incomparable, 5-time Oscar-Nominated actress, Amy Adams who gave such dynamic and powerful performances that added many levels of natural authenticity. I believe that Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffmann have given the best performances of their respective careers in this film. They both fully immersed themselves into their roles, so that the audience stopped seeing them as actors and started seeing them as the complex characters of Freddie Quell and Lancaster Dodd. It was a very engaging and explosive film to watch and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I found that the director of the film, Oscar-Nominated director, Paul Thomas Anderson, incorporated many of these themes in order to show the power of joining a cult and the ramifications it had on a person’s psyche. For example, Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character, Lancaster Dodd, was a man who brainwashed, manipulated and controlled people with his idea of “The Cause”. He wanted to brainwash people with his idea of “The Cause”. He recruited as many people as possible because he wanted to be powerful. “The Cause”, in reality was completely unproven and unfounded. Lancaster Dodd was a con artist who liked to brainwash and manipulate people on ridiculous facts without providing any credibility or factual statistics to back up his claims. He felt powerful and authoritative when he pronounced these groundless theories because of his very political stance with scientology. In the film, Lancaster knew that he could manipulate and brainwash Freddie Quell due to his irrational, self- destructive and unpredictable nature.

In the incredibly underrated, 3-time Oscar-Nominated artist, Joaquin Phoenix’s Oscar-nominated brilliant portrayal of Freddie Quell, he gave the audience a portrait of a broken, emotionally damaged man, with a propensity towards violence, anger and deep emotional turmoil. Freddie also was an alcoholic, womanizing scoundrel who did just about anything he could do in order to self- destruct and numb the pain in his life. Freddie’s unpredictable behavior, his emotional detachment with people, his temper and his alcoholism could all be attributed to the traumatic experience he had when he fought in World War II. In 1950, where the film took place, there was not a diagnosis for Freddie’s emotional troubles. However, now in 2018, it seems clear that Freddie suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Therefore, it was easy for Lancaster Dodd to manipulate and brainwash the protagonist, Freddie Quell to become a member of “The Cause”. He did it in order to motivate him to change his unhealthy lifestyle and quit his erratic, alcoholic ways.

The film also brought to light the issue of religion. This film talked about scientology and its hypnotizing affect on people. It was clear throughout the entire film that everything Lancaster was proclaiming was completely nonsensical and lacked any statistical data. In the film, when Freddie was looking to Lancaster for his guidance, Lancaster’s son, who was a participant of “The Cause”, thought it was ridiculous. He told Freddie that everything his father said was untrue. Throughout the film, his son acted as if he was enthralled by his father’s so-called “wisdom”, but deep down he knew that his father was a fraud.

Although, Lancaster was a nuclear physicist, a best selling author and a PHD, all of his theories had absolutely no credence or factual evidentiary support. Whenever someone in the film confronted him that his theories did not make any sense, Lancaster would quickly get defensive and lose his temper. He hated it when people challenged his theories and make him explain his reasoning behind them. The audience clearly saw that he did not always believe in what he was proclaiming. Due to Lancaster’s insecurity, he would start to lose his temper. The film did not specifically state that the theme of the film was scientology but it was very much implied. The film had a very ambiguous tone and left it to the audience to interpret.

The performances in this film were very powerful and enthralling to watch. Oscar-Nominated actor, Joaquin Phoenix gives the best performance of his career to date, as a man so hell-bent on self- sabotage; he would do anything to eradicate his pain. His performance as Freddie Quell was so believable that it became almost painful to watch him endure his difficult experiences. The audience felt compelled to sympathize with Freddie because he seemed to be completely directionless in his life. This caused him to become susceptible to being brainwashed and controlled by Lancaster Dodd, the leader of a cult. Freddie did, however, proved not to be a victim, but to be his own man. His out-of-control, unpredictability was what fascinated Lancaster about Freddie, which was why he personally took him under his wing. The audience wanted Freddie to ultimately succeed and get out from under Lancaster’s control.

Oscar-Winner, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Oscar-Nominee, Amy Adams also give phenomenal performances as well. Specifically, Philip Seymour Hoffman, who also gives one of his best performances, as the cult leader of “The Cause”, Lancaster Dodd. Philip Seymour Hoffman was such a versatile actor that his legacy will continue to inspire generations of thespians for many more years to come. In his interpretation of the antagonist, Philip Seymour Hoffman brought many things to the table. He was manipulative, narcissistic, calculating, ruthless, mysterious and vulnerable all in one.

Although, he believed he was helping Freddie fix his life and his clients. As an unlicensed doctor, he honestly saw Freddie as the son he always wanted. He saw a little bit of himself in Freddie, which he tried to exploit out of him, to no avail. He also liked Freddie because, ultimately, he was not responsive to Lancaster’s brainwashing because he had his own original, authentic ideas. Lancaster had more respect for Freddie than he did for his own son or his son-in-law because they were completely submissive to him; whereas, Freddie ultimately proved he was the opposite of them.

The exceptionally talented, 5-time Oscar Nominated genius, Amy Adams also was spectacular in her performance as Lancaster’s current wife and co- leader of “The Cause”, Peggy Dodd. The audience could clearly tell that Peggy was under the control of Lancaster’s brainwashing of “The Cause”. She also proved to have her own mind. Peggy, in many ways, had more control over her husband than he did of her. She also was very manipulative, ruthless and conniving like her husband and had clear disdain and jealousy towards Freddie. Peggy saw Freddie as a threat to sabotaging “The Cause” and would have done anything to keep him from demolishing it. She also saw Freddie as a threat to her already deteriorating marriage. Peggy controlled many aspects of her husband’s life in the film and she made many decisions regarding what stances the cult should make to any outsiders who were skeptical of Lancaster’s unconventional methods.

In many ways, Peggy dominated her husband in every sense of the word and proved to be just as conniving, domineering and ruthless as her husband, if not more so. In every intimate scene she was in with her husband, she was either emasculating him or threatening him in some way. She had her husband “whipped”, so to speak. In fact, whenever someone challenged Lancaster’s ideas regarding “The Cause”, she would suggest they attack outsiders because in her twisted mind, the only way they could defend themselves and their stance was to attack people emotionally and physically. She saw no other alternative. Peggy became this way because she was manipulated, controlled, and brainwashed by her husband and her husband’s ideals. It was a captivatingly powerful performance from Amy Adams, where she once again proved that she is just getting better with age.

In conclusion, I thought the film was incredibly powerful and effective. I loved the film because the incredibly versatile, Oscar-Nominated, Paul Thomas Anderson incorporated many themes of religion, scientology, loyalty, manipulation, and brainwashing. I also enjoyed the film because of the exceptional Oscar-nominated performances from: Oscar-Nominee, Joaquin Phoenix as the protagonist, Oscar-Winner, Philip Seymour Hoffman as the antagonist, and multiple Oscar-Nominee, Amy Adams as the antagonist’s wife.

The film was ambiguous on many levels that kept the audience literally on the edge of their seats, enthralled and encapsulated with their uncertainty. Overall, the film was a deep, psychological drama that dealt with many controversial themes that kept the audience questioning things at every turn. It was an astonishing feat by one of the best directors working today: the one and only, Paul Thomas Anderson.