The Master
The Master is a big-budget, studio-backed film directed by the acclaimed Paul Thomas Anderson. The movie has A-list stars and is a prestige project. This is “White Elephant Art,” to use Farber’s term. But, despite these factors, the movie is regarded almost universally as the best picture made anywhere in 2012. A Sight and Sound international survey of film critics on five continents determined that The Master was the best-reviewed picture of the year. (Second-place honors go to Leo Carax’s Holy Motors, a picture that we will see later this summer). Ten years from now, people will probably discover some Indonesian or Hindi film – or for that matter some small budget independent film made here or in Europe – that is objectively a greater film. But, among the pictures broadly available and, generally, reviewed, The Master has been the most-praised of all 2012 releases.
Alleged to be a veiled account of the early years of Scientology, the film features a bravura performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman, playing a charismatic cult-leader modeled on L. Ron Hubbard. (Some have suggested that Hoffman’s performance, in fact, imitates Orson Welles). Joaquin Phoenix gives an expressionistic performance as the Master’s acolyte – the remarkable acting by Phoenix is of a kind that has not been seen in American films since the Silent Era. Audiences expecting to see an expose of Scientology will be disappointed by the film. In fact, the movie depicts a relationship of affinity between two men that assume philosophical dimensions as the picture proceeds. The Master hunts for big game: it’s themes are the relationship between the cerebral and the bestial, education and the malaise of post-World War II America, and the transmigration of souls.
Paul Thomas Anderson
Generally regarded as the most important American film maker of his generation, Paul Thomas Anderson is now 43 years old. He was born in 1970 in Culver City, California to an entertainment industry family. From age 12, he tinkered with home movies and made pictures using a Betamax video camera. As a boy, Anderson was fascinated by the burgeoning porn industry in the San Fernando Valley and, in interviews, he describes riding his bicycle through anonymous warehouse districts near his home, speculating as to which of the bland looking structures harbored studios making dirty movies. Anderson’s first completed film was called The Dirk Diggler Story, a mockumentary about X-rated pictures that he shot in 1988. This thirty minute long film was later the basis for Anderson’s epic study of the San Fernando pornographic film industry, Boogie Nights (1997).
Anderson went to film school but dropped out after a couple of days. (He was also unsuccessful as a college student – he quit school on East Coast after two semesters.) He worked in television as a technician on game shows and saved his money. Using loans from his father and a girlfriend’s credit card to supplement his savings, Anderson made a twenty-minute film about the peregrinations of a twenty dollar bill, Cigarettes and Coffee. Film executives who saw the picture were impressed and Anderson was able to raise money for his first film, Hard Eight (1996) tapping various sources including Gwyneth Paltrow. The movie, a sort of neo-noir, set in a nightmarish Las Vegas, was a critical success although not broadly distributed. On the strength of Hard Eight, Anderson secured studio financing for Boogie Nights, his ambitious and novelistic ensemble film about the porno industry – the picture is obliquely based on the biography of John Holmes (“Johnny Wadd”). Boogie Nights (1997) was successful both critically and commercially and is one of the best (and most characteristic) films of the nineties. Anderson is a brilliant director of actors and Boogie Nights revived the career of Burt Reynolds, playing the part of the world-weary porn-producer, and, further, established the credibility of former underwear model, Mark Wahlberg (playing Dirk Diggler) as an important film actor. (Julianne Moore, who acts the part of the den-mother, principal sex-worker actress, and confidante to Wahlberg’s character is also extraordinary in the film.) Boogie Nights is completely surprising on all levels, disturbing, and non-judgmental at the same time, and establishes Anderson’s ability to manage a large ensemble of actors to achieve subtle effects most mainstream directors would not even attempt.
In 1999, Anderson made Magnolia starring Tom Cruise. In some ways, the film is a precursor to The Master. Cruise plays a charismatic charlatan, a character like Elmer Gantry, leading a self-actualization movement. For most critics, Magnolia was regarded as Anderson’s sophomore effort after Boogie Nights and viewed with some suspicion. The movie is also unusual in that Anderson’s principal themes are derived from the speculative metaphysical writings of Charles Fort – the climax of the film is a rain of frogs and the movie’s subject is coincidence. The movie is highly intricate and contains excellent performances. Lacking the lurid subject matter of Boogie Nights (which characteristically for Anderson was treated in a distinctly non-lurid manner), Magnolia was less successful commercially, but still critically acclaimed. People tend to either love or despise Tom Cruise and so the film had many vocal detractors on that basis.
Anderson felt that his pictures had become too long and complex. He indicated that he wanted to make a short genre picture, in fact, as he said “an Adam Sandler comedy.” The result is Punch-Drunk Love, starring Adam Sandler, and at 90 minutes the shortest of Anderson’s feature films. The 2002 picture baffled audiences – Adam Sandler fans were disappointed with the picture which is opaque and abstract; serious movie critics, who would never be caught dead watching an Adam Sandler comedy, couldn’t get past their distaste for the leading man in the film. In fact, the film, which is about male rage, is unsettling and the kind of picture that leads to bad arguments on a first (or later) date. Nonetheless, the movie had decent revenues and, further, established Anderson as one of the most unique and surprising talents in Hollywood.
Five years later, Anderson released There will be Blood. (In the interim, Anderson had acted as standby-director to Robert Altman with respect to that director’s last picture, The Praire Home Companion Movie, much of which was shot in St. Paul – Altman was ailing and 80 when the movie was made and Anderson was on-hand to take over if he became incapacitated.) There will be Blood was Anderson’s first film based on material that was not developed by the director – the movie is roughly adapted from Upton Sinclair’s novel Oil. This picture was universally praised by critics internationally and, although not successful in the United States, made much money internationally – perhaps, the film’s critique of American capitalism was too intense for local audiences. I don’t admire There will be Blood which I think overly schematic, too long, and repellent in some ways. But the picture is certainly impressive and alarming.
The Master was released in 2012. Anderson is presently shooting Inherent Vice from a screenplay written by Thomas Pynchon and based on that writer’s 2009 novel. This is one of the most exciting projects in Hollywood today. Pynchon has never before worked with the film industry and the picture stars Joaquin Phoenix, Owen Wilson, Sean Penn, Martin Short, and Reese Witherspoon.
L. Ron Hubbard
The story of L. Ron Hubbard is so bizarre, complex, and controversial that it is impossible to provide any clear account of his biography, particularly within the scope of a note of this kind. It suffices to observe that just about everything known or claimed to be known about Hubbard is disputed by some one or some group. Facts adverse to Hubbard’s reputation are denied by the Church of Scientology. Facts that might be construed as supporting Hubbard’s self-proclaimed status as holy man, sage, and bold explorer are, generally, denied by Scientology opponents. Certain official records exist, however, and can be used to provide a bare outline of Hubbard’s acts and days – but, bear in mind, that the Church of Scientology alleges that all government records relating to Hubbard have been systematically falsified to libel their prophet.
Hubbard was born in Tilden, Nebraska in 1911. He was raised in Helena, Montana. (He claimed he was made a blood brother in the Blackfoot tribe when he was only four years old.) With his parents, he traveled widely throughout the twenties, although it may be doubted that he made treks into inner Mongolia or the Himalayan mountains to lecture Buddhist priests and mystics as his official Scientology biographers claim. Hubbard enlisted in the military and served on active duty in World War Two. He was twice commissioned to command Marine Reserve attack vessels but demoted as “unfit for duty as a commander.” He seems to have sat out the waning days of the war in a military hospital with duodenal ulcer. Even before the war, Hubbard had written prolifically, publishing short stories and novels as early as the mid-thirties. After the war, he set out to make a living as a writer.
According the Guinness Book of World Records, Hubbard is the most published author in world history. His bibliography includes 1084 titles. He was a pulp fiction writer and published books and stories in every known genre. By the late forties, Hubbard focused his attention on Science Fiction. At that time, he was living in Pasadena as the guest of an eccentric millionaire, a devotee of the black magic of Aleistar Crowley, and presided over some celebrated orgies involving depraved Hollywood types. In 1950, he developed the “science of the mind,” Dianetics, ideas that are at the center of Scientology. The religion itself followed with the cult’s first organized activities occurring in 1952.
Scientology became well-known in the fifties and flourished until 1967. Under investigation for tax evasion (and the FDA for claims made about the cult’s E-Meter) as well as other crimes, L. Ron Hubbard took to international waters, sailing around the world as Commodore of a fleet of Scientology vessels. (This hegira on the open seas is the basis for SeaOrg, the highest ranking order in the hierarchy of Scientology, a cult within the cult entrusted with maintaining internal discipline – SeaOrg manages the finances of the religion, operates its own training, reeducation, and penal facilities, and has a sinister reputation for terror, intimidation, and litigation.) Docked mostly in Corfu, Hubbard waited for the outcome of thousands and thousands of lawsuits filed against the IRS and their agents devised to coerce the United States government into according Scientology with tax-exempt religious status. This campaign of litigation didn’t conclude until 1993 when the IRS capitulated and agreed that Scientology would be regarded as a tax-exempt religious organization. By that time, Hubbard was dead. He died in California in 1986.
According to Scientologists, Hubbard was a prophet, genius, and the savior of mankind. According to his detractors, Hubbard was a drug-addicted, if charismatic, charlatan with only a tenuous connection to reality.
Anderson’s film, The Master, is loosely based on Hubbard’s activities in the early fifties, during the Dianetics phase of his development of Scientology. (The conclusion of the film, set in England, refers to Hubbard’s 1959 acquisition of the Saint Hill Manor House, now a Scientology headquarters, in West Sussex, United Kingdom.) The movie is discrete and restrained. The actual circumstances involving Hubbard’s career, claims, and adventures is far more mind-boggling than anything depicted in the movie. Any film actually depicting the true circumstances of Hubbard’s invention of Scientology would strain credulity.
A little bit of Scientology
Scientology, the religion based on the philosophy of Dianetics, asserts that the soul is immortal and suffers reincarnation over “trillions of years.” Trauma endured in past lives accumulates and burdens the soul with dysfunctional thoughts and processes. Dianetics and Scientology offers its adherents the opportunity to “go clear” – that is, to purge the soul of its encumbrance of past trauma that is toxic because repressed. In theory, Scientology is not much different from certain brands of Buddhism and Freudian psychoanalysis. Auditors are Scientologists trained in the practice of assisting believers in recalling, identifying and eliminating trauma accrued from previous existences. “Auditing” is the term that Scientologists use for these processes. An E-Meter is a “cylindrical electrode” claimed to scientifically measure the degree that biologically-encoded trauma afflicts an individual – supposedly, the E-meter measures electrical resistances in human tissue diagnostic of the presence of repressed trauma. The object of Scientology is to become an Operating Thetan (OT). OTs, existing in three Roman-numeral-identified categories, are like enlightened masters (or Bodhisattvas) in Buddhism – Operating Thetans can recall their past lives and have freed themselves from trauma impairing their further progress toward the Truth.
The episode in The Master in which Freddie Quill is ordered to pace from wall to window over and over again is derived from an 8-C or “opening procedure” described in Scientology practice manuals. 8-C involves compelling the acolyte to repeat a simple gesture or action until the mind becomes blank and, therefore, susceptible to recalling past lives. Hubbard recommended that the 8-C “opening procedure” be employed for not less than 15 hours continuously.
Hubbard is said to have invented Dianetics on a bet made with science fiction writer Robert Heinlein. In a barroom, Hubbard wagered that he could start a new religion because “that’s where the real money is.” William Burroughs was briefly a believer. He recommended Scientology spiritual practices to his friend, Allen Ginsberg. But, by 1970, Burroughs was no longer affiliated with the organization and, in fact, denounced it publicly – “it is as if,” Burroughs wrote, “Isaac Newton had founded the Church of Newtonian Physics and barred admission to all those who would not pay him to be allowed to enter.” Burroughs would be said to have “blown” – that is, left the sect. The power of Scientology over Burroughs is implicit in this statement – although the writer rejects the cult, he still seems to believe that Hubbard discovered something true and revolutionary, on the order of Newton’s discovery of laws of gravity.
65 mm
The Master may be the last Hollywood movie shot on actual wide-screen film. Anderson has said that the use of 65 mm film gauge was an important aspect of his conception for the picture. Since the 1970's most films have been shot on 35 mm film gauge and, then, blown up to 70 mm for prestige showings. (The resulting blow up has lower resolution than the footage projected from the original 35 mm negative.) 70 mm (technically 65 mm) photography requires special camera apparatus, is expensive and hard to light as well as difficult to process, and, furthermore, requires special projection apparatus that most theaters no longer possess. 70 mm’s aspect ration is 2.2 : 1.
65 mm film gauge, generally called 70 mm film process, is high-resolution and produces beautiful wide-screen effects. The film gauge was one of several used in early silent pictures – in fact, some of the first surviving documentary pictures were shot in 70 mm including an 1894 reel depicting the Henley Regatta. Various products competed for wide-screen photography applications during the Silent Era. (This history reminds us that just about all aspects of the cinema were invented before 1930). In 1914, Italian studios were using a 70 mm process called Panoramica. Fox Studios patented a 70 mm process called Grandeur in 1928. (Raul Walsh’s The Big Trail an important early-sound western made in 1930 and starring John Wayne was shot in an exceptionally wide-screen process of this sort.)
Sound films were mostly made in 35 mm. However, in the fifties, studios revived wide-screen film to differentiate their movies from early television, a medium thought to be competitive and, potentially, commercially disastrous for Hollywood. Variant wide-screen versions of 70 mm were named Cinerama, Cinemascope, Vistavision, and Todd-AO. Several notable early sixties pictures represent the most sophisticated use of 70 mm – these films are Lawrence of Arabia, My Fair Lady and The Sound of Music.
Economic pressure led the studios to abandon the process in the early seventies. 70 mm was still used for special effects, but the resulting footage was reprinted from wide-gauge negative to 35 mm format. Most films were shot on 35 mm stock and, then, if required, reprinted to 70 mm blow-ups. For instance, The Empire Strikes Back was shot in 35 mm and, then, blown-up to be projected in a 70 mm format.
IMAX requires 70 mm negative film and so some recent blockbuster films have sequences shot using this process, mostly footage devoted to special effects – there are 28 minutes of 70 mm film used in Inception and an hour of 70 mm in The Dark Knight Rises. Special effects in Terence Malick’s The New World were shot on 70 mm.
Paul Thomas Anderson insisted on using 70 mm for The Master and clearly intends some images in the picture as hommages to Lawrence of Arabia. (See, in particular, the desert sequences involving the motorcycles on the salt playa – a part of the film that invokes both the brutal climax of Erich von Stroheim’s Greed, lensed in Death Valley, and some passages in David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia.) Anderson was able to procure three 70 mm cameras for the film. The last Hollywood-produced film wholly using 70 mm format was Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet released in 1996. About 25% of The Master was shot on 35 mm and blown up to 70 mm. Unfortunately, only a few theaters have the equipment required to project a 70 mm image with full fidelity and so Anderson’s use of this film stock must be regarded as somewhat quixotic. In order to project the film on 35 mm equipment, the wide-screen image was cropped from 2.2 : 1 to 1.85 : 1 (35 mm aspect ratio).
Anderson had technicians develop and make a manual rough cut of the film daily so that he could scrutinize the picture as it developed.
I saw the picture at the Suburban World Theater near Lake Street. I suspect that the film that I saw had been digitized and, therefore, was digitally projected. The imagery was very beautiful and persuasive but had a slightly dim, vaguely smoky character – I wonder if these qualities were not the result of seeing 70 mm film projected through a digital system. (Standard VHS and DVD formats do not successfully reproduce 70 mm with complete success – BluRay, however, is capable of accurately transferring 70 mm imagery from analog to electronic, digitized media.)
Making The Master
Paul Thomas Anderson says that he was thinking about the subject of this film for about 12 years before actually writing the screenplay. While directing Magnolia, Anderson worked closely with Tom Cruise and gathered information about Scientology. Also during the production of Magnolia, Anderson talked to Jason Robards, one of the actors in that film, about his heavy drinking in the service during World War II. Some of Robards’ anecdotes were used in Anderson’s script. Initially, Anderson had difficulty amassing financing for the 35 million dollar project. (There are unsubstantiated rumors that Scientology cult members may have lobbied film executives against the movie.) Anderson wrote and re-wrote the script during periods of time when financing on the picture was delayed – production was originally slated to begin in 2010, but the film was not actually shot until May 2011. The production schedule involved approximately five months of shooting – May to September 2011. The movie was made at locations in Oahu, Hawaii, Los Angeles, Vallejo (Mare Island shipyard and neighborhoods), as well as Oakland harbor. Interiors were shot at the historic Hillside Elementary School in the Berkeley Hills.
Anderson said that the film was originally inspired by a comment that he read somewhere: words to the effect that the period of time between wars was particularly productive of charismatic religious movements. Anderson screened John Huston’s 1946 documentary made of the United States Armed Services (and suppressed by the government for forty years) Let There Be Light. That documentary shows psychologists treating soldiers and sailors suffering from shell-shock and battle-fatigue. Anderson and his designers used the Huston film as a source for both costumes and production design.
Anderson screened the film for Tom Cruise and watched it with him. Anderson will not publicly discuss Cruise’s reaction. Cruise thought the film was unfair to Scientology and, particularly, protested the sequence in which Lancaster Dodd’s son tells Freddie Quill that Dodd “is making it up as he goes.” Scientology has not disseminated any official reaction to the picture.
The director has expressed some mild discontent with the film and his script. “Despite my efforts to do something new,” Anderson said, “I always ending up making the same type of movie.” Critics have observed that Anderson’s films usually are driven by a conflict between two very different types of people – this is the structure of Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love which applies this paradigm to romantic comedy, and There Will Be Blood as well as The Master.
The much-praised score The Master is by Jonny Greenwood, the performer with Radiohead who also wrote the music for Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. “Slow Boat to China” is a Frank Loesser tune published in 1948. The phrase “I want to get you on a slow boat to China,” although given romantic meaning by Loesser, was originally gambler’s argot for victimizing a poor poker player – the gambler would like to have as much time required by a “slow boat to China” to loot his prey. “Get thee behind me, Satan” as heard in the film is performed by Ella Fitzgerald.
U.S.S. Potomac
The scenes of Lancaster Dodd’s yacht, Aletheia (Greek for “Truth”), were shot on the U.S.S. Potomac, Franklin Roosevelt’s presidential yacht now docked in Oakland Harbor near Jack London Square. Roosevelt used the yacht, which was specially built for him, during his presidency. When he died, the vessel was converted in a Coast Guard cruiser. In the fifties, the yacht was decommissioned and sold to the Maryland Tidewater Commission for use in aquatic biology studies. By 1960, the boat was in private hands, owned by a Delaware millionaire. Elvis Presley bought the yacht in 1964 and owned it until his death.
The Potomac was sold by Presley’s estate and, then, passed through a variety of hands. It was being used for drug smuggling in 1980 when the yacht was seized and sunk near Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay. A few years later, the vessel’s historic significance was realized and it was salvaged, restored, and moored at its present location. The vessel is fully functional and Anderson shot scenes on the yacht both in Oakland harbor and under power in San Francisco Bay as well as on the Pacific Ocean.
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