by the Blog Author
The Master is a triumphant film about cultism and the attraction that cults have for those with disturbed personalities. Joaquin Phoenix is perfect as Freddie Sutton, a young and alcoholic World War II sailor stuck in a time warp of adolescent sexuality and possessed of an uncontrolled temper. Running away from a group of migrant workers because he has shared one of this dangerous concocted drinks with a worker who the other workers think has been poisoned, Sutton winds up sleeping on a boat which is at sea when he awakens. Sutton realizes that the boat is making a private cruise for a cult leader, Lancaster Dodd, played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
The cult leader likes the young alcoholic sailor and his dangerous mixed drinks. The two get along. Dodd forces his family to accept Sutton as an acolyte, but Sutton misbehaves and has a tendency to violence. The family confronts the cult leader and suggests that Sutton be purged. But Dodd can’t quite force himself to take that advice, though he thanks his family for their concern and protective impulses.
There is a masterful scene in which both Sutton and Dodd are arrested and given side-by-side jail cells. Phoenix, as Sutton, gives us a bravura performance of frustration and violence.
With careful direction, we are lead to suspect the stability of the cult founder’s personality. The founder’s family and followers also become suspect for their own abnormalities, especially in the face of their blatant obsequiousness.
Sutton may be disturbed and angry, but when he revisits the home of his young wartime girlfriend, he talks to the girl’s mother instead. He is informed that she has grown up, gotten married and has children of her own. Phoenix superbly demonstrates that this confused character was obsessed with this young woman, but he has no right to interfere with her well-adapted adult life.
The film is about cults and false cures, and these are not ultimately positive themes. There is a final, edgy meeting between the cult founder and the sailor in which the founder makes dark spiritual threats against the sailor. As preposterous as this scene might appear by itself, it is cloaked in intense realism by the building of these characters that has taken place throughout the film.
Many critics and moviegoers wonder if this film is an expose of Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard. That seems to be a reasonable supposition. But a more accurate comparison might be Elmer Gantry encounters The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. Thus, through this admixture of abnormalities, The Master is a nightmare melodrama worth seeing and worrying about.
The Master is a triumphant film about cultism and the attraction that cults have for those with disturbed personalities. Joaquin Phoenix is perfect as Freddie Sutton, a young and alcoholic World War II sailor stuck in a time warp of adolescent sexuality and possessed of an uncontrolled temper. Running away from a group of migrant workers because he has shared one of this dangerous concocted drinks with a worker who the other workers think has been poisoned, Sutton winds up sleeping on a boat which is at sea when he awakens. Sutton realizes that the boat is making a private cruise for a cult leader, Lancaster Dodd, played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
The cult leader likes the young alcoholic sailor and his dangerous mixed drinks. The two get along. Dodd forces his family to accept Sutton as an acolyte, but Sutton misbehaves and has a tendency to violence. The family confronts the cult leader and suggests that Sutton be purged. But Dodd can’t quite force himself to take that advice, though he thanks his family for their concern and protective impulses.
There is a masterful scene in which both Sutton and Dodd are arrested and given side-by-side jail cells. Phoenix, as Sutton, gives us a bravura performance of frustration and violence.
With careful direction, we are lead to suspect the stability of the cult founder’s personality. The founder’s family and followers also become suspect for their own abnormalities, especially in the face of their blatant obsequiousness.
Sutton may be disturbed and angry, but when he revisits the home of his young wartime girlfriend, he talks to the girl’s mother instead. He is informed that she has grown up, gotten married and has children of her own. Phoenix superbly demonstrates that this confused character was obsessed with this young woman, but he has no right to interfere with her well-adapted adult life.
The film is about cults and false cures, and these are not ultimately positive themes. There is a final, edgy meeting between the cult founder and the sailor in which the founder makes dark spiritual threats against the sailor. As preposterous as this scene might appear by itself, it is cloaked in intense realism by the building of these characters that has taken place throughout the film.
Many critics and moviegoers wonder if this film is an expose of Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard. That seems to be a reasonable supposition. But a more accurate comparison might be Elmer Gantry encounters The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. Thus, through this admixture of abnormalities, The Master is a nightmare melodrama worth seeing and worrying about.
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