The Master (2012) class : a commentary

Jeff Bernstein · March 14, 2023

Not a “Vulnerable Male”. Until . . .

THE MASTER (2012) : a commentary

Sadie McKee (1934), 1:24:22

1.

relaxed introduction : on absorbing a narrative

For example : studying a poem : say, a poem in Latin. Say, the first page of Medea by Seneca. We don’t read the words as we are reading these words right now. No, reading the words of poetry involves an active effort.

Let’s pause to reflect on what is meant by the active effort of understanding poetry. We cannot just read a poem and easily absorb it, because, all too often, the language of the poem demands a closer look on purpose, simply to understand what is going on in the poem.

Example. In Medea, when the main character says four words in her opening speech (“voce non fausta precor”, 12), is this phrase a strongly-stressed climax of her furiously-growing speech, a powerful rounding-out of her rhetorical effusion? Or is this phrase a mere quiet aside, something in the manner of a whisper, an idle comment she is remarking to herself, an interruption of the intimate into the grandiose. Which is it? The distinction is important, because any answer we arrive at relates to how we understand the character of Medea. The answer, however, is not the ultimate goal. Why? The answer is not the ultimate goal because there is no one answer.

The “ultimate goal” in this poetic experience, as in any experience with Art, is related to the active effort : of engaging with, in interpreting, in thinking about, in trying to make sense of, in determining a way forward through, in marvelling at the complexity at, in integrating with the phenomenon.

When we watch a movie, generally we yield to the willing suspension of disbelief. We assume the lens is a window through which we see human beings in a world not too different from our own. This way of watching a movie is not an active effort.

A film like The Master forces us to apply an active effort in order to understand it.

Compare how The Master tells its story with one of JP’s subsequent films, Irrational Man (2015). The difference between how the two films tell their stories, both told by master storytellers, is instructive.

(Fun fact : JP’s flask from The Master seems a prominent prop throughout Irrational Man, as if the Freddy from The Master is as a ghost in Irrational Man. Ghosts : Irrational Man is a 1970s movie, a contemporary Taxi Driver (just see the first shot), and this is one reason why it’s shot in Panavision widescreen : it’s an old-school nod to the 1970s. In that decade Paul Schrader was known to indulge in threatening Russian roulette, for example.)

If we want to even try to understand The Master, we must apply an active effort. This active effort is an ordinary part of Art, not a subsequent activity for some, nor a failing on anybody’s part. Art involves the process of “figuring it out”, and always has, from the earliest days to now.

The active process of figuring it out is what Art is about.

This “figuring it out” makes a person who is engaging with the Artwork in an effortful way better for the experience, once the experience is over, if it ever ends : for some works of Art remain with us forever. We keep returning to them as if to a prayer, and every time we return, we learn more : Art is evolvement to Revelation. Art is a perpetual motion machine, an engine that never turns off, eternally operating for our benefit, to sharpen us. Thank you, PTA.

How we steer the engine of Art conditions the nature of our minds. The Master is an Artwork that intends to elevate our Thinking, to make us stronger—if we’re up to the task.

2.

from Magnolia to The Master

a.

A work of art emerges, like anything else, from the unconscious. That is to say, every aspect of the screenplay is touched to some degree by the personality of the artist. A screenplay, so to speak, regardless of its subject matter, is in its nature automatically an autobiography of its author.

First-rate authors know this situation well. So first-rate authors use this knowledge in their working process, in order to raise the game of : (a) artist, (b) the act of creation, (c) the created artwork, and (d) the value this artwork may have on the audience.

A first-rate artist is aware that the artwork is a trace of the artist’s unconscious. The work itself, however much may be understood by the artist, will still be full of the artist’s secrets, as the unconscious works secretively (i.e., the mystery-speak of dreams). Knowing all this, the artist, in the effort of creation, will work with this knowledge and cooperate with this mysterious situation. The first-rate artist will work with this situation in order to learn something about themselves.

The creation of the first-rate artwork, first and foremost, is an investigation into its artist.

b.

As PTA has grown in years, his thematic material has enrichened and complexified to the point that ordinary audiences may have no idea what the artist is “on about”. There may be no ambiguity to the storytelling of Magnolia : the audience knows at all times what is happening, what may be on the characters’ minds, and so on. But when we come to The Master, and especially to the second half of the film, the audience has begun to ask the question : What is going on?

This question signals the colossal advancement in the development of the artist PTA : the colossal advancement in storytelling from Magnolia to The Master : the colossal advancement in the mind of PTA.

By The Master, PTA, however determined he is to create a story accessible to the audience, has still created a narrative not easy to understand. He did this on purpose. This is a very important point. If PTA is indeed a first-rate artist, then the difficulty of The Master is not the result of a failure of storytelling, nor is it a bad decision on the part of the storyteller : the difficulty of The Master is intentional.

The difficulty of The Master is intentional because PTA wants us to think.

How many people on the planet Earth want you to think? An Artist is in the manner of a religious holy man : he is here to inspire you to reach Revelation, to open your eyes to the world and to yourself.

How does PTA intend to do this? By examining himself. The more authentic an examination into his own self in the process of creation, hopefully the more authentic a response the audience will have to the eventual artwork. That is to say, the artwork will be encoded with so much depth that the audience can think about The Master and never reach the bottom of it. The more PTA dedicates his entire person to the work, ideally the more healing efficacy the work may have on the audience—”ideally”, because this “healing” aspect depends on the effort devoted by the audience to exploring The Master.

c.

No matter how much depth PTA encodes into The Master, no matter how much of his unconscious is interwoven with every aspect of the film, the artwork is not going to work on the audience automatically for all that. No. Just watching The Master will leave one scratching one’s head by the end. But if the audience puts the effort into exploring the inner mysteries of The Master, lives can be changed for the better.

And this is the power of authentic art. Art changes both Artist and Spectator—

If you let it.

3.

two characters : one author

a.

Freddy Quell is an antisocial character.

The Master Lancaster Dodd is a social character. (What does this mean? The Master actively attempts to work with the world, as opposed to Freddy, who often simply rejects rules).

We have just noted two apparent opposites.

Freddy = antisocial
The Master = social

What if we said these two characters are two aspects of one phenomenon? The phenomenon of the mind of PTA.

b.

Freddy is inward. He follows his own code. This personality trait is a fundamental component of his antisocial nature.

The Master is as outward-thinking as he is inward-thinking. Obviously so, or Lancaster Dodd would not have successfully gathered around him an arrangement of votaries, readers, volunteers, and others. Dodd interacts deftly with people just as Freddy often acts unthinkingly of them.

Again we have just described two opposites, and yet :

c.

Freddy and Dodd are two aspects of the one person, writer-director PTA.

The screenwriter is the antisocial element. The writer must step away from the world in order to create. The writer hides away, as it were, to bring their art into existence.

The artist is the antisocial element because the artist deals in Truth and Truth is absolutely blacklisted from public and even private discourse. Generally speaking, because Truth Hurts, the ordinary person of the world wants neither to know the truth of the world, nor the truth of oneself. A dreamworld, however stressful it might be (the comic irony!), is deemed to be more compatible with the Self than the Truth. Thank god your author is on the way out, because he cannot take much more of this farce. But the young have the capacity to learn : if they hear a person worth listening to. But how are they to know who is worth listening to, when Evil assails them from every point from the very first moment of life?

Either a young person sees the light, or doesn’t. Call it Destiny.

Art can be the hand that pulls youth up from Death and into Light.

If the young person sees the light, that young person may grow up to be a PTA, and then investigate the process of how the one became the other.

d.

And now this author is sorry to have to say this : virtually no one on earth wants you to succeed, so if you wait for that helping hand, it probably won’t be coming. I am sorry to break this news to you, and I hope I’m wrong in your case. Good luck.

e.

We know by now PTA’s attitude to the people around him. Just think of the most powerful word in There Will Be Blood : “People.” That is PTA speaking.

Consider why Ingmar Bergman gave up filmmaking. Consider why Eugene O’Neill, one of the greatest authors in twentieth-century America, didn’t give a fxck for the last ten years of his life. Consider why Ernest Hemingway, another of America’s greatest authors, blew his head off. You’d think two American authors who had won a Nobel Prize would be, well, a little satisfied? What do you think these geniuses knew about the world that you don’t yet know?

Anyway : If people are a hassle, why is PTA still making films? People are rotten, but some artists have a compulsion to create no matter what, and will endure the greatest mental pains in an attempt to fulfil the call of that compulsion.

If or when the young reader comes to understand the previous paragraph, you will be on the road to becoming a PTA. But beware, for nothing is as you think it is : especially “Success”. Just ask Eugene O’Neill. Ask Hemingway.

e.

Note how Freddy begins to morph into Dodd at some points, and how Dodd morphs into Freddy at some points. Note how they both sense a deep connection with the other.

They sense a deep connection with each other because there is a deep connection there : the deepest.

f.

This author could go on and explain further on this point, but for what purpose? Enough has now been said for any reader to arrive at what may be beneficial to think about, someday.

g.

Takeaway : The two characters Freddy and Dodd are two aspects of the one PTA : the antisocial screenwriter and the social film director.

4.

two as one : the magic circle

a.

Find it interesting that Freddy’s first line is a teaching? “Do you know how . . .”

This is the first link between the two men Freddy Quell and Lancaster Dodd.

b.

And the last link?

The film’s final scene recapitulates some of Dodd’s words in Freddy’s mouth, including the line :

Dodd : “You are the bravest boy I’ve ever met.” (51:26)

Freddy : “You’re the bravest girl I’ve ever known.” (2:10:31)

c.

Freddy concocts a potion to satisfy the body.
Dodd concocts a teaching to satisfy the mind.

d.

These two characters are two aspects of one phenomenon.

5.

twelve teachings of Dodd (I)

TEACHING 1

Man is not an animal.
We are not a part
of the animal kingdom.
We sit far above that crowd,
perched as spirits, not beasts.
You are not ruled by your emotions.
It is not only possible,
it is easily achievable
that we do away
with all negative
emotional impulses,
and bring man back to his
inherent state of perfect.

Man is not an animal.

But humankind is an animal, so what does Dodd mean here? We must think about the whole of this teaching in order to understand this first pronouncement. If we jump ahead to this line :

You are not ruled by your emotions.

we may be on to something. So let us start here. By using the negative (“not”), and stressing it, evidently Dodd is remarking on the fact that people are ruled by their emotions all the time. (In fact, “confidence”—one’s “self-confidence”—is based on nothing more than the physical sensation of standing upright : a feeling.)

Dodd here seems to be equating “emotions” with “instinct”. Emotions can come out of the blue as it were (e.g., some weird crying jag, or a feeling of happiness for no discernible reason), just as instinct comes out of the blue as it were (how does a bird know how to build a nest, or read the signs of the stars on their way to whatever intentional direction?).

So, Dodd here is attempting to dislodge from our mind the illusion of control that we think we have all the time (even when we think ourselves “out of control”!).

Dodd is attempting to substitute what may be a greater degree of control than emotion : considered thought.

We are not a part
of the animal kingdom.

Here, Dodd, at first glance, is repeating his first line. But he is adding further information to his thesis statement. Here, he emphasizes the word “animal”. This suggests that we are a part of some kingdom. In what follows, Dodd does not here offer any explanation of what this kingdom is, but there is encoded in this Teaching enough for us to posit a theory.

We sit far above that crowd,
perched as spirits, not beasts.

(Btw, recall Dodd later : “We stand far above that crowd.”, 1:04:19)

There is a grandiosity of this line, “sitting far above” : the heroic primacy of the above over the below. (The winner of an Olympic gold medal stands on the highest part of the platform, for example.) The epic quality of this concept is brought out well in Milton’s Paradise Lost (1.19–22) :

Thou from the first
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread
Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss
And mad’st it pregnant

There is a victory-like triumph in sitting “far above” and looking down at “that crowd”.

So far so crushingly obvious. Simply consider the common phrase : “I look down on you.”

We sit far above that crowd,
perched as spirits, not beasts.

“perched” is a poetic word, one that in this context fits just as well in, say, Keats and Shakespeare. For example:

Feelest not a kindred pain,
To see such lovely eyes in swimming search
After some warm delight, that seems to perch
Dovelike in the dim cell lying beyond
Their upper lids? (“Endymion”, 4.62–66)

The world is grown so bad,
that wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch. (Richard III.1.3.70-71)

“perched” suggests a rising up to that point, another note of victory and triumph, another note of strength. A rising up : just as a bird rises up from the sewage of the earth to the fresh air of freedom, perched up on the branch of the highest tree, looking down on us, the beasts, in our cesspool.

(Consider Dodd criticizing Freddy : At those times, do you think Dodd envisions Freddy perched high above the crowd? No. Dodd even excoriates Freddy in the following manner : “A horrible young man, you are. This is acting like an animal, a dirty animal that eats its own faeces when hungry.”, 1:04:10)

“We”, in this context, may very well suggest all those who follow Dodd’s teachings, not just anyone.

You are not ruled by your emotions.

Here, Dodd spells out the message of this first teaching unadorned, directly, clearly.

In this teaching, Dodd does not explain how it is the case that we are not ruled by our emotions. If we are not ruled by our emotions, are we ruled by anything at all inside us? If we are ruled by something inside us, what might it be? Obviously, a good guess in Dodd’s case would be this initial statement : “We can be ruled by our minds.”

It is not only possible,
it is easily achievable
that we do away
with all negative
emotional impulses,
and bring man back to his
inherent state of perfect.

To begin :

It is not only possible,
it is easily achievable

This phraseology cleverly suggests the aggressive pitter-patter of a salesman at work. That said, the phrase doesn’t have to evoke this; the phrase would work fine within a responsible philosophical work. This point is raised here because of an inherent ambiguity of Dodd’s character, encoded in him by PTA.

It is not only possible,
it is easily achievable
that we do away
with all negative
emotional impulses,
and bring man back to his
inherent state of perfect.

“we do away”—that is to say, we educate ourselves. We educate ourselves to the point of recreating ourselves so that we gain the power of reaching the perch high above the crowd stuck below in the cesspool of life.

we do away
with all negative
emotional impulses

Dodd has no problem with emotion. A good guess is that he knows the philosopher Heidegger well (ἀλήθεια is a vital Heideggerian word), and Heidegger in his Being and Time instructs us : “In every case Dasein (i.e., the “I”) always has some mood.” (1.5) In other words, if you’re alive, you’re in some mood or other : just as you blink and breathe.

But Dodd has a problem with “negative emotional impulses”—just here he doesn’t elaborate, but a good guess from the context is that he means anything that stops our upward movement from “animal” to “perfect”. In other words, the degrees of error and delusion that keep us from rising.

In short : What stops us from becoming Great? Our servitude to our impulsive emotions and mistaken thinking.

So, to rewrite so far :

it is easy
to do away
with all things
that stop our development . . .

and bring man back to his
inherent state of perfect.

(btw : Dodd : “ . . . and correcting it back to its inherent state of perfect.”, 58:25)

inherent state of perfect : What does Dodd mean here? He means what the poet Shelley meant : every new-born baby has the possibility to become Colossally Great.

“back”—we lose this “inherent state” as soon as we are born, because Tyranny automatically destroys our potential for a lifetime, except for the rare few. And for those rare few, life punishes them mercilessly. At any rate, Dodd has arrived on Earth in order to “save” people from imperfection, and turn the rare few into mighty intelligent masses.

Nice dream. As Freddy dreams . . . in the movie theatre . . . “How are we gonna tie this together, Casper?” (An amusing PTA joke, as in : How the hell are we gonna finish this movie?)

Dodd’s teaching 1 :

We are much more than what we think we are. If we use our minds to our fullest potential possible, we can pull ourselves out of everything that is not ourselves and become an Individual, and live far, far away from the crowd of life-to-death suckers and failures called the ordinary human population (the beasts who follow impulses).

Only through the power of the mind can we save ourselves.

Otherwise, you’re already lost, you’re a slave; and you’re already dead : you just haven’t received the telegram yet.

But Dodd is here to help. Educate yourself, and you can achieve the Amazing. You can become much more than you ever thought you could be, and achieve much more than you ever thought possible of yourself.

You must educate yourself. Now what does that mean? Find out, or stay lost till the last.

Good luck.

End of Lesson 1

6.

first two shots of The Master

Freddy looking one way, then the other.

Freddy putting on his helmet : beginning his journey. Looking all around him.

What does he see?

Abyss all round.

This is a symbolic opening.

He puts on fighting gear.

The hostile world is everywhere. No choice but to fight, or slowly die.

Not “war”, Readers. World.

This is a symbolic opening.

Apropos pic one : “That’s a pussy, a lady’s pussy.” (6:29)

7.

Symbol of Men

(5:21) The one doing nothing is the one everyone is paying attention to. Why do you think that is? Is Freddy simply a funny target for the idle soldiers to have a laugh at, to pass the time? What else might be happening here? An initial remark before an answer : Freddy, in more than one early scene, is, in this scene, too, the focal point for the other characters, the other men.

8.

“once” vs. “many times”

The movie meant to be watched many times is aimed, at all times in the narrative, toward different absorption processes in the Spectator than a movie meant to be watched once. In the “ordinary mode” of film narrative, call it the 1930s mode (call it the mode of “the film meant to be watched once”), a 1930s mode such as Irrational Man, the audience knows at all times what is going on and doesn’t need to think for a moment. The look of a film like Irrational Man (meant to be watched once) will use various geometrical conceits (strong diagonals to evoke unsettlement, for a common example) as well as lighting effects and whatnot to evoke excitement and so on in the viewer. Hopefully, the story itself will have encoded in it a momentum that rises the blood in the Spectator.

The movie meant to be watched many times works differently to this. While the “ordinary mode”, the 1930s mode of, say, Irrational Man, will transfer energy from film to Spectator (any work of art is first and foremost energy that affects the Spectator before being understood as “about something”), still and all, the experience of watching a movie in the 1930s mode (a movie to be seen once) is to See the Story. But in the movie meant to be watched many times, in some sequences at least, the transfer of energy has a priority over the story. The story, however, will not be compromised, not for a moment if the narrative is created by a first-rate storyteller. Even so, a percentage of the energy-transfer between Artwork and Spectator—in other words a percentage of the rejuvenatory aspect of art—will be connected more to the transfer of energy, and less to the story. This is intentional. The energy-transfer acts in the manner of a pharmaceutical drug.

And the Spectator feels all the better for the energy-transfer.

The Master is a movie meant to be watched many times. It is full of secrets, full of depth that communicates with the intuition and the unconscious, and it actively engages with the process of energy-transfer, rather than passively allowing it to happen “naturally” as it does in the 1930s mode of storytelling. Yes, all movies communicate with the Spectator’s intuition and unconscious; all art does. Yet only first-rate artists use this fact in their favor; that is to say, are intelligent enough to do so.

The Master is a movie meant to be watched many times.

Think of Freddy on the motorcycle. What is the motorcycle? Let it be the engine of the narrative. Like a missile moving on unvarying at speed. That can be you.

9.

Freddy Dark

10.

Dodd : “Man is not an animal.”

Does Freddy contradict that remark simply by being himself, a procreative homo sapiens? (34:20)

11.

“You are not ruled by your emotions.”

“Pig fxck!” Freddy in Dodd? (1:00:20)

12.

Two Incredible Transitions

DODD : Would you care for some informal processing? (36:24)

Dodd asks Freddy a series of questions. The experience triggers in Freddy a vision. We, the audience, being gods, see the vision inside Freddy’s head. Freddy is brought out of the vision-space by Dodd, and the two subsequently share a genial drink together. (36:24–52:27)

Theory : This sequence is historic in the work of PTA for its sustained genius of storytelling.

Just here I remark on two transitions in the sequence, “Informal Processing” (36:24–52:27).

TRANSITION 1

(44:39)
DODD : What do you hear?
FREDDY (eyes closed; inside the vision) : Voices inside.

Freddy says “Voices inside” to explain the house he has arrived at. Standing at the front door, he hears voices inside the house. Indeed, the house is not empty of people.

“Voices inside” has a more general signification in the context of this scene : the voices inside Freddy’s head. Heard this way, Freddy’s pronouncement, “Voices inside”, might be a judgment from Lancaster Dodd himself. (In this signification, Freddy’s remark has a scientific vibe, as of psychology or psychoanalysis.)

TRANSITION 2

(50:00)
FREDDY: Back in a minute.

Freddy says this to Doris in the dream, but it overlaps with his transition back to Dodd in the present day of the Situation.

DODD : Release and return to me. Open your eyes. Say your name.
FREDDY : Freddie Quell.

“Back in a minute.”—who is speaking to what?

Two fascinating transitions from a first-rate storyteller.

13.

the Dual Gesture

(36:24)
DODD : Would you care for some informal processing?
FREDDY : Sure. What do I have to do?
DODD : Just answer my questions, we talk.
FREDDY : OK.
DODD : Very good. Have a seat. How are you feeling, Freddie?
FREDDY : Good.
DODD : You rested?
FREDDY : Yes.
DODD : Excited?
FREDDY : Yeah.
DODD : Have you made some friends?
FREDDY : Everyone is very nice here.
DODD : Good. Good. How are you feeling?
FREDDY : Yeah, good.
DODD : I gather myself. You’ll be my guinea pig and protégé. Informal processing. Are you ready?
FREDDY : Yes.
DODD : Say your name.

It’s very possible that Dodd is being entirely a buddy to Freddy, and that’s that. Perhaps it’s also possible that Dodd may have some degree of “bedside manner” (so to speak, like a surgeon preparing his patient for the operation by putting him at ease). Being kind and polite serves two purposes for Dodd here : he is both genuine in his friendship, yet also calculating in his work. (Dodd serves his Master : his Work.)

The takeaway here is the concept of the dual gesture.

14.

Informal Processing as Metaphor

DODD : How are you feeling, Freddie?
FREDDY : Good.
DODD : You rested?
FREDDY : Yes.
DODD : Excited?
FREDDY : Yeah.
DODD : Have you made some friends?
FREDDY : Everyone is very nice here.
DODD : Good. Good. How are you feeling?
FREDDY : Yeah, good.

Notice the repetition here. Repetition is a fundamental structural element of the questioning procedure of Informal Processing. But this repetition comes before the Informal Processing has begun. We might explain this as a further example of the Dual Gesture. Instead, just now, let’s say that all human interaction is as Informal Processing. The successful degree of manipulation in each interaction depends on the powers of persuasory hypnotism of the principals involved.

The process of Informal Processing is a metaphor for all human interaction.

15.

The Ladder

16.

Colossal Character Fundamental

(38:42)
DODD : Are you often consumed by envy?
FREDDY : No, about what?
DODD : Are you often consumed by envy?
FREDDY : I don’t unders. . . You mean like jealousy?
DODD : Like jealousy.
FREDDY : Oh, well, yeah. I don’t like someone else’s hands on my girls. I don’t like to think about it. It makes me sick.

This is a colossally important moment, which the first-rate storyteller makes light of at the end—a deft technique of the best.

A colossally important moment, because it reveals an Essential about Freddy.

DODD : Are you often consumed by envy?
FREDDY : No, about what?

That “envy” is alien to Freddy’s way of thinking reveals in the strongest possible way how independent he is—Freddy is a true Individual, someone set apart, an outsider.

A first-rate storyteller often uses the technique of “making light” of a fundamental, or just after the revelation of a fundamental, and here, too, it is :

FREDDY : I don’t unders. . . You mean like jealousy?
DODD : Like jealousy.
FREDDY : Oh, well, yeah. I don’t like someone else’s hands on my girls. I don’t like to think about it. It makes me sick.

A joke. The enormity of the revelation of a character fundamental—Freddy’s indomitable individualism (“God’s lonely man”) —is reduced to a joke.

17.

How are you feeling?

(36:38)
DODD : How are you feeling, Freddie?
FREDDY : Good.
DODD : You rested?
FREDDY : Yes.
DODD : Excited?
FREDDY : Yeah.
DODD : Have you made some friends?
FREDDY : Everyone is very nice here.
DODD : Good. Good. How are you feeling?
FREDDY : Yeah, good.

First of all :

(26:59)
- Big day indeed, sir.
- How are you feeling?

(31:58)
- How are you feeling?
- Back beyond.

Moving on :

Is Dodd making happen the affirmative responses in Freddy?

DODD : How are you feeling, Freddie?
FREDDY : Good.
DODD : You rested?
FREDDY : Yes.
DODD : Excited?
FREDDY : Yeah.
DODD : Have you made some friends?
FREDDY : Everyone is very nice here.
DODD : Good. Good. How are you feeling?
FREDDY : Yeah, good.

We can imagine how in another context Freddy might respond in an resistant manner to every question. Dodd has soothed him. Dodd’s speculations—”You rested?”, “Excited?”—are correct. Their correctness contributes to Freddy’s calm. Freddy is sober, yet calm; because he is in the domain of the Master. He is meant to be here, if in fact the two complete a whole : the one mind of PTA, for example. Doesn’t Dodd spend the film wondering how and when he and Freddy first met? Since their relationship has a “meant to be” quality about it—both characters sense it—it thereby makes sense that Dodd, too, would automatically understand Freddy, regardless of Dodd’s genius at reading people and his psychoanalytic eye, though those elements are suggested here. Dodd knows how Freddy is feeling because Freddy is a part of Dodd. Each feels an essential element in the other (though preponderances of secrets remain).

DODD : Good. Good. How are you feeling?
FREDDY : Yeah, good.

Note how Freddy parrots the “good”. But Dodd is doing this, too :

DODD : How are you feeling, Freddie?
FREDDY : Good.

Each is looking into a mirror and seeing the other.

18.

Where is the Vision?

Dodd puts Freddy in a state of self-hypnosis. Freddy becomes suspended in a Vision which reduces him to a stasis of closed-eyed inwardness for a duration of time.

Because these Visions may not simply be defined as “memories” (more on this nowhere), what else is going on here? (One always says, “what else?”, because in the Dream-Logic, nothing ever means only one thing.)

Freddy arrives at a well-ordered homestead. A Mother-figure embraces him. An innocent sixteen-year-old girl kisses him on the cheek.

(45:40) Nature (think of mushrooms). Freddy’s personality has stamped this image (so to speak) : nature contending with concrete.

(47.50) A churchly vibe is sustained by the pure marble and Doris’s purity; yet the painting behind them looks like a secular eighteenth-century situation, arguably unsuitable for a church; and then there’s the chandelier to consider. Note the framing : the icy streams are visual depictions of his Vision streaming from his head. This is a dream-place in the manner of the end-room of 2001: A Space Odyssey. This particular space is a dream-amalgamation of different places and imagery : marble from a church, the chandelier from someplace else, the painting from a museum, or seen in a book, the finely-carven swags behind them, at first glance reminiscent of deep-sea creatures, could be imagery dredged up from Freddy's own personal Faculty of Creation. The provenance of all these items is immaterial : the theory here is that this shot is a Dream-Vision, an amalgamation of elements joined together to make a location in the mind, rather than a memory of a specific location.

19.

“who you are”

(37:38)
“just to make sure you know who you are.”

The Dual Gesture. Is this simply a joke, to continue to put Freddy at ease, as he slips into a Vision state? Is this also, from where Dodd is sitting, somewhat of a quiet jibe, considering, from Dodd’s POV, Freddy has zero idea of himself? A quiet aggression. At any rate, a component of a successful manipulation. Slot this moment into the Ambiguity of Dodd.

20.

The Ladder of the Mind

Gustave Courbet

21.

BONUS : Kane and The Master

The Master : “New York City, through the canal.” (22:42)

Citizen Kane : Do you think if it hadn’t been for that war of Mr. Kane’s we’d have the Panama Canal?” (48:49)

22.

Darkness, Sympathy, Freedom

Darkness

Note the encroachment of dark on Freddy while immersed in the Vision-State.

The dark cloud of Freddy’s memories.

Sympathy

The Master regards Freddy with sympathy. We might theorize this sympathy is founded in a genuine sorrow for Freddy’s waywardness and lostness. Yet these two negative attributes are at the same time connected to the symbolic value of Freddy as : freedom. Recall that Freddy and Dodd are two aspects of one character (PTA’s mind). So when Dodd regards Freddy sympathetically, consider (a) the Dual Gesture, and (b) each man looking into the Mirror of the other. Dodd regarding Freddy sympathetically is Dodd regarding himself sympathetically : because the hyper-responsible Dodd has himself lost the ability (apparently) to embark on flights of such Visionary Freedom (because the stressful exigencies of life has distracted the Master off the purest path). (Mourning the loss of his visionary powers may be connected with his taste for Freddy’s potions of “secrets”.) So when Dodd watches Freddy tunnel into a Vision-State, there may be a sense in Dodd’s mind of the “what might have been” for himself.

Similarly, if Freddy hadn’t been cursed with negative genetics, he might have reached a height of achievement and responsibility equivalent at least to the Master.

But such is life, for both of them.

Elevator

While Freddy is Freedom, this shot captures the general life-mood of Lancaster Dodd

Slow Boat to China

Why does Dodd sing this song at the end? One reason which fits in here, thus expressed here : the dream of escaping into the dream. To flee the “pig fxcks” of people, and to live “all to myself alone” : the blessed dreamstate of the artist.

The state Freddy slips into during Informal Processing.

23.

One Shot of The Master

Notice the three doors in this shot from Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Madeleine has four colors associated with her; three are here in the color of the doors : green, grave-brown, and purple. The one color missing is red.

Now notice a similar three-sectioned film frame. This shot from The Master is a spree of symbolism.

Step-By-Step

Recall the ladder in the previous shot, when Freddy awakens (consider that symbolism). Now notice the staircase visible through the doorway. A staircase is often a symbol of spiritual travel, just as a doorway is a symbol of significant passage. Here we have both together! (And after a shot with a ladder!) Visible here is an intense stargate-like vibe of journeying and progression.

Color

The white staircase and ambience it occupies suggest an antiseptic medical vibe. This vibe corresponds with the scientific aspects of Dodd. The color white also evokes the purity of religion; while the staircase is an emblem of the spiritual Upward Reach (e.g., Jacob’s Ladder; any virtuous effort). The antiseptic ambience and the staircase’s spare geometric design evoke inhumanness, nihilism. The futural feel recalls 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The vibe beyond the door is of a medical church.

On the left of the screen is the color red. If we speak of the church, then in that context one Red Entity is the Devil : a threat to the sanctity of the self.

With this red and white is the black, the abyssal black. We can assign this black to Freddy; to the ambiguity of Dodd; to nihilism; and so on. We can conclude what we like from the contrast between light and dark. We can think about things forever.

Note the blurry shimmering element in the frame. This foregrounded blur contrasts with the severe-clear lines of the staircase, and the rivets in the door-frame.

Also notice a similarity in visual quality between the red shimmering and the blackness it opposes. . . .

Meanwhile, within this spree of symbolism, is a visible human being, and all that means.

24.

Amalgamation of the previous

1. CHARACTER : Freddy is freedom, the freedom of the artist living in their interior world in the process of creation. In that time, the artist is set apart, an outsider, a rebel—since Truth has been rebellious since at least the year 1AD, to pluck a date at random. The Master Lancaster Dodd, however, must interact responsibly with the assembly of people around him if his life-plans are to become a reality, because Dodd requires the technical assistance of the outside world. For this reason, he has ceased to have the time to follow his own teaching, having become, instead, exclusively a militant teacher of his already established views. Dodd has to argue for his Views in the same way that a film-star used to publicize a film a year after production : some amount of enthusiasm has been lost from the effort. Consider, Reader : Dodd himself never undergoes his Teaching; he never has a Revelation of his own.

1b. Since we’re just sitting here calmly by the fire as at the end of The Thing (1982), and time hasn’t any point anymore, since nothing does, your calm author at these last of times may as well contribute an addendum to number one, though usually, up to now, the posts here under the name of Scrooby have been as efficient as one might hope when administering medicine to oneself. So, with that rambling preamble behind us, here goes for the sharply efficient thought : Why does it take Lancaster Dodd the duration of the film to determine the nature of his past relationship with Freddy, when one dose of his own treatment might have dredged up the knowledge in the twinkling of an eye?

2. PTA : At the moment screenwriter PTA prepares to translate his Vision to the screen, time for embellishment or change to the details has narrowed to a great degree; because PTA hasn’t the resources that Kubrick had. PTA has only a limited amount of money and must produce his goods at significant speed. So when PTA-as-Dodd has assumed his responsibility on the production, his ability to act like a Freddy is extremely limited : He simply has no time for confrontations. PTA-the-director is stuck in the work, like the Master.

*

An artwork is a memorial for lost freedom. Good news : the memorial inspires the next to scale the ladder.

25.

“I believe I suffered what, in your profession, you call nostalgia.” (7:54)

(1:37:10)

26.

one shot : five rack focus

(19:06-20:27 ἀλήθεια) Are we watching Fassbinder?

27.

the End Situation

Here’s the thing. We’re not skipping to the Emerald City. The Wizard revealed there leads to no spreeful emotional uplift. By “there” your author means the End. PTA is a Freddy freewheeling with the Truth to the extent that the Master is successfully exposed willy-nilly by Freddy’s presence : one Truth at the end of The Master is that there is only militancy. The film itself decides on a sober and melancholiac conclusion to our hero of Freedom, Freddy Quell. (Before your free-as-a-bird author just here elaborates, recall how PTA humiliates Woodcock’s sister by not allowing her a summing-up scene at the end of PT, but discards this character as if she had never commanded any focus of the film.) Return now to The Master. At the end, the film decides to reduce Freddy to a tearful sludge in the manner of the weak and moronic Dr. Bill at the end of EWS. How is it that Freddy, who is so full of crazy vitality throughout the film, is reduced to a weeping weaking, after all those years interacting with Dodd the Inspiring Master?

Freddy pays attention to the neatness of Dodd’s wardrobe when they get close (2:00:49), just as Freddy says “mm-hm” upon completing the successful potion of secrets at (39:38). This “mm-hm” is a very important minor utterance just there, because usually Freddy is quite the antisocial character, but, just there, this “mm-hm” sounds as if Freddy is somewhat pleased and excited about the outcome, suggesting he is eager to interact with Dodd. Freddy is eager once again to interact with society. But . . .

2:00:49 recalls the militant Kane assisting with Thatcher’s coat in Kane, but let’s move on.

In short : The Master eventually humiliates Freddy. The film abandons him at a position not much different from what we saw of him at the first. The whole Dodd episode in his life has left him with a handful of language to deploy, sure; and this language haunting his conversation at the end is evidence that the experience with Dodd has impressed itself on Freddy to some significant degree—yet we see no difference in Freddy’s behavior at the end of the film. This stasis in the character of Freddy suggests that his experience with the Master is nothing more than a Historical event in Freddy’s life, a Nostalgia in Freddy’s mind. That’s the sum total of the years of the Master in Freddy’s mind. Dodd’s teachings didn’t transform Freddy into a better man.

Meanwhile, out in the world, Dodd and family and others continue to fight to grow their failed teaching into all-encompassing reality. Freddy’s been abandoned. If he cannot conform—if the results of the Master’s teaching won’t pay off in him—than it’s easier to pretend he doesn’t exist, and that the failure that eventuated was all on his part.

By the end of the film, Dodd and Peggy have chosen Power.

Freddy, being human, has nothing to do with Power. So he is brushed aside and left to live out the rest of his life, which the film has decided is of no interest to communicate. Freddy’s gone.