The Master (2012) by Paul Thomas Anderson

[catalog]

View attachment 21067

Beach Party (1963)

The Master (2012)

It's a good film. Maybe PTAs best?

I read an interview with him and he said that he read somewhere that after a war, new religions form. And he wanted to examine that.

Let's discuss the film a bit.

A few starters:

• Joaquin Phoenix could be the greatest actor of his generation. I prefer him to Leo. He has that genuine madness about him.
• L Ron Hubbard is a great shadow figure who continues to cast something over America, even today. He's like Crowley.
• There's something very emotionally charged about the films ending. It feels to me like he set out not to make it based on scientology, then got captured by it?

 

[vershy versh]

Maybe PTAs best?

Definitely PTA's best.

 

[vershy versh]

One of the things I like about it is the loose structure. The Altman influence. It does go somewhere, but it rarely feels like it. It just drifts around like the protagonist does. That scene on the bike in the desert often comes to mind. The sound of it. That sense of wanting to go faster and faster and hit escape velocity.

 

[catalog]

Yeah it's definitely baggy, but in a pleasant way. I think a lot of that is phoenix's performance... You are happy to go along with him?

 

[catalog]

Has anyone not watched it? And if so, would you be prepared to watch it and post a review?

Maybe I should watch it again.

It's definitely not as good as master and commander, but there's something going on.

 

[vershy versh]

Pynchon's son worked on it and the story's partly based on V. The stuff in the book with the alligators in the sewer was in the original script, but ended up being cut.

Q: The earlier draft of the script took some different turns (Freddie visiting cousin Bob, meeting Ellen in the Burlesque club, Freddie daydreaming about cutting off The Master’s head, waking up in the hospital). Were any of these scenes filmed and cut out? And will any of these (or other sequences from the trailers) will appear in longer form on the Blu/DVD?​

​

A: COUSIN BOB!!!! I hadn't thought of him in a while till I saw this question. Oh that stuff was long ago. I still hope Cousin Bob will show up in a story I write someday. All that stuff with Alligators in sewers was stolen from Pynchon's V. We looked around some sewers in upstate New York...... eventually decided to ditch the whole story line in writing before spending money and time on something unnecessary to the Main Event. Freddie daydreaming about cutting Master's head was an OK idea....not worth pursuing. the kind of thing you get excited about for a while, then leave. never to be shot. and that's fine by me.​

​

EXCLUSIVE: Making ‘The Master' with Paul Thomas Anderson

Cigarettes & Red Vines is proud to present the very first installment of "Making The Master," our brand new series of in-depth interv...

cigsandredvines.blogspot.com

 

[luka]

Not heard of it before. I'd hate it presumably?

 

[catalog]

Please watch it luke, you are our only hope

 

[catalog]

It's got a fun scene at the beginning, when he's in the navy. I reckon you'll like that. And like version said, there's a good speeding motorcycle scene later.

 

[Corpsey]

I did like it but I've not watched it in ages, I only remember the opening bit where he's boozing and having to run for his life through a field etc. that whole bit is spellbinding.

The other thing I remember about it is that it looks absolutely amazing on blu ray, I guess cos it was filmed in 70mm.

 

[catalog]

Would love to see it in the cinema. It's got a lot of wide open spaces.

You also have Philip Seymour Hoffman, really at the top of his game.

 

[luka]

He was one of the Hollywood pedos wasn't he? Seymour Hoffman?

 

[catalog]

Was he? Did not know that.

 

[Corpsey]

No he wasn't lol

He was a heroin addict I think?

Great actor, "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" is worth watching

 

[vershy versh]

He died with a syringe in his arm.

 

[Corpsey]

I really rate a big time actor with an ugly weird face

Like Paul giamatti

You know they got there on merit

 

[kid charlemagne]

havent seen in over 4 years.... i should give it another go.... i liked it at the time, but never found it to be his best

 

[0bleak]

I thought it was middling.
I think Luka would think it's abso brilliant, a life-changer, amazed by the power of cinema, he finds his new passion: making porn. "The River Pornos"

 

[sus]

That scene on the bike in the desert often comes to mind. The sound of it. That sense of wanting to go faster and faster and hit escape velocity.

I feel like the... first chapter? second? the Bonneville Flats chapter of Rachel Kushner's Flamethrowers is exactly this. The DeLillo modernist desert thing. Pure lines. Clean feeling. Wind and dust and a metal engine and the trace in the sand left by the rubber tire.

 

[sus]

I guess I've been thinking about deserts lately as a place for old people but they're also a place for nomads, a pure place a clean slate on which the young and strong can prove themselves and feel their speed their power their energy