The Master (2012)

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Saw this yesterday.  Fantastic acting and cinematography, but the script was weak on story and lacking in theme.  The film didn't provoke a single thought, other than (as Dave asks) what provoked the director to make the movie?  Anderson's a great director and a lesser screenwriter.  Which makes me hope that he'll seek help with the Inherent Vice screenplay.

Laura


-----Original Message-----
>From: Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>
>Sent: Sep 23, 2012 11:24 AM
>To: Phillip Greenlief <pgsaxo at pacbell.net>
>Cc: Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>, pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: The Master (2012)
>
>On Sat, Sep 22, 2012 at 5:25 PM, Phillip Greenlief <pgsaxo at pacbell.net> wrote:
>
>> you might be disappointed. this film doesn't succeed in capturing the feel
>> of los angeles (my birthplace) the way MAGNOLIA and other anderson films
>> have done. and locations skip around a bit. it's not set there exclusively.
>
>... there's not a lot of context, or even rationale, throughout.  I'll
>eventually see it again, if only to catch what I might have missed
>(restroom, distractions, anxiety, brief blackout [which is why I've
>been unemployed for 2 1/2 years now, by the way]), but I do have the
>screenplay, + it's not necessarily any help, so ... the ultimate
>question (or, @ ay rate, the most interesting one, so far as I'm
>concerned) is, what provoked any of this in the 1st place?  + to what
>effect (on the audience, on cinema, on ...)?  I know someone not
>entirely dissimilar to the Joaquin Phoenix character, maybe even
>someone like the PSH one, all I could think is, this is how people
>fall into these things, this is how they act when they do, + I can't
>help but think that, insofar as anything is in the movie (not so sure,
>it's not all to difficult to imply significance, @least, as We all
>Know) is that (SPOILER ALERT?) "mortal enemies" line towards the end
>might provide a key of some sort ...