Spoilers right ahead but not too severe
The Master
• The Master will divide us all but in the end will separate the wheat from the chaff. It is a clean exhibition of cinematic art which is most welcome at this time when one might be thinking this kind of production could not happen. It is just so different from all of its contemporaries (with a wide scoop of a range, into decades).
• The stillness of The Master is immaculate; the locations are carefully chosen and pictured and the effect is the height of cinematic art. It is joyous and one is (and will continue to be) grateful to have the mise-en-scene captured and delivered in this way. What is equally (if not more) rewarding to an admirer of cinematic craft is what we see around the characters in these huge shots. This is a film to be seen on a giant scale and photographed. This is a film to learn by as well as to immerse oneself in its story.
• The Master’s performances are extensively nuanced; both leads have wholly assumed their characters which is evident in long takes where we can see all the twitches.
• Lancaster v Freddie: Freddie’s primeval being reacts and tries hard to fit into each context he finds himself in. His resemblance to a simian is, perhaps, too obvious and doesn’t bear much need to discuss further, except to say the strongest example of such is at the end when he is entertaining/being entertained by the English lass. His aping of Lancaster is the most interesting aspect of his unrefined and undeveloped self, a basic attempt at mimicry which is then disrupted by a very basic element of coitus. Lancaster is a disturbing and immensely unlikeable character – his brazen patronising of Freddie (regardless of Freddie’s submission to such) is so crude you can appreciate the hard job Seymour-Hoffman had to pull off – surely it is much harder to play the unlikeable guy than the likeable one. Despite this example of Lancaster’s off-putting nature he remains compelling because he seems so real. This guy DOES exist, not necessarily in the shape of L Ron Hubbard but in many other guises of men and women who try to pull the master card with others less forceful than themselves. His longing for Freddie as a subject may certainly involve something more biological than mere work-related interest. There is a passion and dedication there that is more than merely objective than one can reasonably accept as so. His serenade of Freddie at the end could be something of a landmark homoerotic moment in cinema. It is serious but yet patently cheesy to someone who has no interest in homosexual love. It may be a fault of too many film interpretations to bring homosexual undertones (or overtones) into the mix but for the Lancaster – Freddie dynamic it certainly is merited.
• How the film facilitates debate on scientific enquiry versus the “will of one man” is also another skilful, strong point of The Master. I can only shudder at how someone less subtle (ahem, Paul Figgis) would have approached this. Rather PTA can stand back, or maybe more accurately, set up the stage and let the powerful actors take it away. This was bound to work well considering the actors which were involved – this is both confidence and skill on the part of PTA.
• The score (and other various music choices) feature prominently, which is good not only for the film but simple aural pleasure because Jonny Greenwood’s work is, both in a supporting way and separately, haunting and emotive. The flute-type motif running through the score is instantly effective but its unsettling power is of a more cerebral manner. The music at times is quite strong in the mix which might seem slightly jarring but at no point is it used in an obviously miscalculated way. Essentially, it does the business (and the score is a rewarding listen by itself).
• In the interest of brevity and to avoid repetition amongst other commentary this review will focus from here on one of many indelible elements of The Master – the power play between Lancaster Dodd and his wife Peggy, which has expectedly garnered much talk of how Peggy may be the force behind it all.
In the scene where she “man handles” her husband, Peggy seems to be completely in power over him; she seems to convince him of anything she says and can get him to repeat it back to her verbatim. But one would be amiss to think this was so straightforward a treatment. Peggy targets Lancaster at quite a vulnerable moment by masturbating him; she will not have much difficulty in drawing out of him what she wants to hear and for him to give her guarantees. But with an understanding of more depth we notice that Lancaster has just been sick from drinking Freddie’s hooch and is not at his most resolved. When Peggy starts to masturbate him he is in no fit state to defend his own convictions. That Peggy has to give her strongest and most forceful message to Lancaster while masturbating him suggests that she cannot convince him on an even footing; that she must “get” him at a vulnerable state. Furthermore when Freddie visits the school in England, Peggy is over to the right in the dark, strained at an angle to address Freddie while Lancaster sits in the centre with all the light from the great window coming in behind him. He seems almost oblivious to what Peggy says and delivers his own ultimatum to Freddie. As well as this Lancaster does not refuse to treat Freddie after Peggy and their daughter and son-in-law (who is clearly being directed by Peggy) try and convince Lancaster to drop “the scoundrel”.
The bathroom scene with Lancaster and Peggy also exemplifies PTA’s adeptness for layering; the initial reaction to this scene is that Peggy seems to be completely controlling of her husband – the power behind the scenes – but on a deeper analysis we can see it more clearly. Lancaster’s respect and love for Peggy is not doubted but he does not believe she knows better on this subject than him. In another scene where she vents on their current frustration he is turned away from her hammering away on his typewriter – he may be inspired by (or transcribing in some way) what she is saying but that is clear at all. Rather it seems as though he is writing his own thoughts and does not hear the words of Peggy. Peggy herself may be frustrated by not being able to control the situation(s) and she deploys various tactics to bring about her end but ultimately the decisions and actions of Lancaster and Freddie move the show along. Just as Lady Macbeth is often inferred (mistakenly) to be the ultimate power behind her husband, Peggy, though tough and driven, is very much second fiddle to the Master’s first.
• If The Master does end up lauded by the vacuous, easily-pleased machine of Hollywood, the joke will be on it. No academy that can give its top gong to tripe like ‘Crash’ or ‘The Artist’ can be expected to handle The Master. It masters all.
