The Master
“The Master”, is a film about a World War 2 veteran named, Freddie with post-traumatic stress disorder. He drifts until he meets a man named Dodd on a yacht. Dodd is leader of cult and wishes to bring Freddie in, but Freddie’s PTSD symptoms cause the other cult members to dislike him and create more conflict.
One of the primary creative artists involved in this film is director Paul Thomas Anderson. Anderson’s films usually deal with family dramas and an individual trying to cope with psychological issues. The actor Joaquin Phoenix displayed how a tragic person like Freddie behaves. Freddie clearly thought in a different set of values from other people. He’d get into fights, fiercely defend a man he barely knows, and he drinks a lot. First, he gets into fights a lot. In the movie he got into a fight with one of his customers after becoming drunk. It was cleary Freddie’s fault for being rude, but in his mind it was he was angry and he reacted. Second, during the interview with the psyche, the psyche asked him about an incident he was involved in. Freddie at first, avoided the question, then when the doctor forced the answer out of him Freddie proceeded to laugh. This showed that a serious situation to everyone else was nothing but a joke to him. Third, he fiercely defends Dodd when someone questions him. Freddie stalks the man to his hotel and then assaults him even though he barely knew Dodd. These are clear examples that Freddie’s experiences completely changed his morality to the point that he barley cares about anything, and that life is nothing but a place to experience emotions and get angry when people go against the little values you have.
This goes to show how great Joaquin Phoenix’s acting is, and how Paul Anderson knows how to work with actors to get the results he wants. There is also a sociological theme present in the movie. It shows how one man with influence man can control the minds of others. To start, Dodd is a very charismatic and inflectional leader that has extreme control of his subjects. They respond to threats to him, they follow him wherever he goes, and they do trials to be accepted in his society. When Freddie’s eccentric behavior threatens Dodd’s reputation and lifestyle, his followers quickly begin to hate Freddie and try to remove him from the group. Also, his people follow him around just be in his presence. They follow him in elevators, and in packs to protect him, make him comfortable, and so he knows that they are with him. The members even go through trials to be fully accepted into his society. One trial requires an individual to go through a dessert on a motorcycle. This goes to show that the members truly believe he is a messiah and that fulfilling his trials will put them through a spiritual journey. All of this proves that influential and charismatic people can completely control a certain group of people if they wanted to.
Overall I say the movie correctly portrayed how a man with in deep PTSD problems would act in a society. It presents a good background story; it’s excellently displayed by the creative artist, and has a sociological theme in it. The background story is very believable. Solders coming from war usual still experience effects of PTSD, and going to a society often makes the problem worse. In addition the creative artist like Joaquin Phoenix help make the story more believable. Joaquin Phoenix’s erratic behavior and excellent use of frequent eccentric outburst show a PTSD victim is and it greatly opens eyes for audiences. Lastly, it shows an adequate and interesting sociological theme. Having an influential leader and having a crazy man in the same situation applies great appeal to the piece. The leader, Dodd is clearly an influential man who has clearly controlled the minds of his people. The followers literally follow Don around and go through trials to get a spiritual awakening and be accepted in his cult. This theme makes the movie more interesting by having a greatly influential man partner with a complete outcast in society. All in all, the movie greatly portrays PTSD victims and has interesting sociological themes to support it.
This is a psychological realism piece. The main focus of the movie is Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of Freddie and how he adapts to the environment. The elements of drama, in order, are Character, Thought, Diction, Plot, Spectacle, and Music and Sound. Character was the primary element of drama because the film shows how trialing Freddie’s life is as a PTSD victim is. Freddie’s adaptation to a post war environment serves as the backbone of the film, and that is why character is the primary element of drama. The secondary element is Thought. Thought in this movie is shown when Freddie speaks to the psyche about a recent conflict he had. Freddie experienced a terrible situation at his job and laughed at it. This conflicts the viewer because people don’t usually handle situations that way, and it foreshadows how the rest of the movie would display Freddie and his different ways of handling taboo situations. Third, is Diction. This is displayed by Dodd using his great speeches and inflectional lingo to win the hearts of the people. Freddie also displays diction with his irregular speech patterns. Fourth, Plot puts the characters where they are. Freddie and Don are put in unusual situations. They are put in a jail cell, tent, and a dessert, and when this happens the characters start to act eccentric, the audience begins to think of what’s going to happen next, as two people with different personalities react in unusual circumstances. The fifth element is Spectacle. Spectacle is mostly shown with Freddie’s vivid imagination, imagining females throwing themselves on him. The sixth element is Music/Sound. Low violin tunes are played, and they play moody tunes, then suddenly stop, then play it again. The use of musical rollercoasters stimulates the viewer, so they experience emotions just like Freddie experiences emotions. Freddie’s life was terrible in WW2, then the war was over and his life was good again, then he moves back to society, and his life is miserable again, these vast changes causes him to not care about the state of his life anymore. Thus he creates a new set of rules to live by so that he can go through his life with a mentality that can handle vastly different situations. The elements of drama show how certain characters with a different set of morality and ethics react in certain situations.
Dodd character traits create a different mix into the film. He is a controlling, self-sure, and legacy-wanting. He puts ideas into peoples mind after gaining their trust from using his knowledge. He says something that makes people go through a revelation, then he continuously makes people experience revelations to the point where everyone thinks he is an all-knowing messiah, and they all to worship and help him. This makes him able to control as all he has to do is make them realize something and he can make them do what he says. Second, Dodd is self-sure. He knows he has power and money so he just throws it around and enjoys life. In the film, he is at the point in his life where he can just show up to an event, influence people and then cruise on yachts whenever he pleases. Third, Dodd is a giving individual. He sees a legacy in his son and Freddie. He wants to show them how his way of things work(presenting a view to people and getting money, making them happy, then living as a messiah). He show this to his son and his son rejects it because he uses people, and Freddie eventually hates it because Freddie can’t think straight with Dodd talking to him.
The major dramatic question in this film is, “What does this mean”. One major example of when this question is seeing Dodd’s character after his speeches. For one, Dodd acts a certain way after speaking to a group of his followers. He starts acting successful and happy, and when people talk to him afterwards he displays a successful messiah. Audiences constantly see this and eventually realize he is using people with his knowledge of reveling things to his readers after and making himself richer.
The major dramatic conflict in the piece is psychological. Freddie lives a miserable life as a victim of PTSD, and he must cope with these issues. His effects include, heavy drinking, and a complete new set of morals. One, he is a heavy drinker. He still feels angry and conflicted about the war and his previous life issues, so he greets people with attitude. In addition, the alcohol takes away morals that prevent him from fighting everyone, and it combines with his collage of emotions, so he fights people at will. Also, he gained a different set of morals. His life was so miserable that his intense emotions made his previous morals cease to exist and now he has a new set of morals that help him better cope with life. His new morals, however, cause him to consistently get into a fight, or be shunned by other people because of him not caring about the majority of things other people care about.
Language is used to show how people react to certain individuals. Dodd is an inspirational person, so people act happy towards him, and Freddie is an eccentric man, so people act angry towards him. When Dodd speaks, people become happy and gain knowledge so they eventually start looking at him as a messiah. When Freddie speaks people become uncomfortable and his views anger them, so they try to shun him and destroy him. It just goes to show how society treats messiahs and eccentrified people.
Time is manipulated with camera angles and music in this piece. When the audience is introduced to a new area, music starts to play to get their emotions in a certain fling. The camera also starts out with a wide view of the area so the audience knows that the setting is different. This successfully sets the mood for areas and displays them in a way that doesn’t confuse the viewer.
The film is extremely believable. The film is semi-Photo Realistic. It has believable characters, a believable setting, and believable events. Freddie is crafted so greatly to the point where audiences know some of the trials PTSD victims have to go through. The setting is believable because of WW2 and American society. After WW2 there were a great amount of victims of PTSD with great problems in their lives because of lack of understanding from members of society. American society is displayed well. Throughout American history there is an influential leader and a lot of people typical bandwagon to the leader, and portray them as a messiah. The film used real world situations to increase its Verisimilitude.
“The Master”, accomplishes the dual purpose of art. This film arouses emotions and stimulates thought. The Film accomplishes arousing emotions by having Freddie get into fights. The audience at first becomes confused when he starts talking irregularly. While they are still confused Freddie burst with emotion and starts to fight people making the audience anxious, angry, and confused at Freddie’s behavior. It stimulates thought by having Dodd manipulate everyone. Dodd uses good points in his speeches and the audience start to think that he is a good guy. All of a sudden, they start to see him after the speeches and his son’s opinion, and eventually come to realize he is using people. This make the audience fell slight portrayal and reflect on how someone manipulated their mindset.
Overall, the film uses a great concept and portrays it greatly. It uses two people with completely different personalities and puts them in the same situation. The first personality Freddie is a lost individual who is trying to survive while dealing with PTSD. The audience learns more about his life throughout the movie and sees that he is actually a tragic victim. Unfortunately his conflicted character gets him into fights and shunned by society. The second personality, Dodd is portrayed by seeing from multiple perspectives. Dodd is seen as the model citizen and he is treated as a messiah for helping people. After seeing him in multiple scenarios and behind the scenes the audience learns the truth. In reality he is just a manipulator trying to gain more perks. It uses two people with completely different personalities and situations, and puts them in the same situation to create an excellent piece of Psychological Realism. The audience learns a lot about manipulators and war victims and comes out of the movie theater viewing individuals in a completely different train of thought.
