Anderson, Master, IV,

[David Morris]

I'm watching The Master now. It has engaging drama. Mr Phoenix is perfect
in this role. It is not subtle, his performance. It shouldn't be.

I think Mr. Phoenix is a fine actor.

David Morris

On Monday, December 1, 2014, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:

> I thought the Master one of PA's better films, actually, though the scene
> with all the naked women, clothed one minute all nude the next with the
> main leads highly questionable; I found it embarrassing. I'm coming to
> highly questionable  gratuitous nudity in films (see Wolf of Wall Street)
> Magnolia was annoying, shooting for the profound in so unsubtle ways.
> life's magic is made up of what many may think everyday, but it's not
> forced; it just is. raining frogs and such, not so much
> boogie nights should have stuck with the porn, he tried to make it all
> scorcese in the second half and it flopped and wahlberg and that irish dude
> just arent keitel and de niro I'm afraid
>
> I think Phoenix can do it though its not like doc sportello is some deep
> fictional character
>
> rich
>
> On Sun, Nov 30, 2014 at 3:50 PM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','brook7 at sover.net');>> wrote:
>
>> I was not bowled over by the Master as drama,  but it seems to me to be
>> asking important questions about the origins of religion and particularly
>> American religious figures. It does so with enough depth and sympathy for
>> an unlikeable character to have inspired in many
>> serious thought and attention to the story and the theme.  The story has
>> cultural weight. A great many truly powerful leaders in almost every human
>> arena are projectors of a kind of religious truth, depicting their ideas as
>> tools/weapons of liberating warfare against darkness, while profiting
>> handily from the true believers. So the theme is worthy of serious effort.
>> It seems to me that what The Master failed to do was show the magical
>> appeal of the leader or his message.  We know he is a skilled psychological
>> manipulator, but where is the group charisma, how did he make this
>> enterprise work?
>>    Maybe that is some of the point and we are asked to consider that
>> power structures are key to an enduring religion more than the leader.
>> Joseph Smith was a kind of sci fi writer as much as Hubbard(visiting
>> angels,  magic glasses and invented tribes of the Americas) and the power
>> structure of the Mormons is similar in being layered with serious earthly
>> rewards for the inner circle. Thomas Jefferson connected himself to the
>> myth of the independent , self reliant, self taught yeoman farmer. Don't
>> think about african slaves
>>    I think one of the failures of the Master was hanging so much on
>> Joaquin Phoenix who I think is over-rated in terms of his range as a
>> performer, and who created a character that provided a very limited view of
>> the religion being born.  I feel like the only American who is seriously
>> underwhelmed by Phoenix. I will be very surprised if he really conveys
>> anything of the lively craziness of Doc Sportello in IV. He seems to me
>> utterly wrong for the part. On the other hand I think Anderson is a good
>> choice to make this movie in many ways. I hope it is enjoyable and takes on
>> some of weird paranoia and cultural cross currents proper to the book.
>>    I have come to feel that if you think of Lot 49, IV, Vineland, and
>> Bleeding Edge as Pynchon's  contemporary fiction there is a profound
>> consistency of theme and a powerful tracking of the rise of the new right
>> and the ineffectualness despite some real heroism of substantive
>> resistance.  The rest is song and dance.
>>
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>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>>
>
>
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