MYST Post #2: The Master

   

 

 After watching There Will Be Blood (2007), I was eager to watch anything else Paul Thomas Anderson had directed. So when I was looking at his filmography, the first movie that caught my eye was The Master(2012), because of the story and the actors. Its of a man played by Joaquin Phoenix desperate to gain his sanity and goes to great lengths in his attempts. Also involved is a charismatic cult leader played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman and his loyal wife played by Amy Adams. After watching the movie I was pleased with my experience with the movie, but my Dad really disliked all of it. After reading the online reviews, it seemed to be a polarizing movie, either you loved it or hated it. I found myself more in between because I enjoyed the different parts of the movie such as the acting, the editing, and the story, but together as a whole, something was missing. I think that it was a lack of relatability. Though the story is gripping and deep, I don’t think that at any point of the movie can we find ourselves in the same position as these characters, well at least I hope not.

The movie is at its peak when Joaquin Phoenix’s character, Freddie Quell, joins Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character,, cult. He is hoping that Philip seymour Hoffman’s character Dodd holds the key to unlocking his sanity by his method of “processing” his followers memories. The scene where Freddie is going through the processing methods is one of my favorites in the movie. It starts with Dodd asking Freddie if he’d liked to be processed, after Freddie eagerly agrees, we watch Freddie experience the different techniques that Dodd has developed. The first is being asked questions without blinking, and if you blink the process has been ruined and you have to start again. The next is staring into someones eyes and mentally changing the color. Then lastly, the final method is walking between a window and a wall until the area around you has mentally changed. What makes this scene so great for me is that we see the character slowly go from hopeful and optimistic to frustrated and angry and because the it means so much to him, it is extremely personal. Like Freddie we are also experiencing a bit of a revelation because up until this point in the movie, Dodd seemed very credible and we experience the truth unraveling with our character. The performance by Joaquin Phoenix is amazing and is perfectly displayed in this scene. This is an important scene in regards to plot as well because in the scene Freddie goes from loyal follower, to a non believer and a huge risk for the whole cult. It is this scene that really sold me on the movie.

Through the movie we see that Paul Thomas Anderson has developed a style that

has helped push his movies into critical acclaim. The techniques used in this movie were a bit different from There Will Be Blood. In this movie while he still uses a lot of moving camerawork he also uses a lot of long takes for the conversations and processing in the movie. The mix of the two was useful in being able to see into Freddie’s state of mind. Also used in this movie is the use of the same style character, a desperate and flawed character whose flaws interfere with his everyday life tremendously. For his movies, its this character who pushes the story forward. I found it interesting that he switched between a 70mm camera and a 35mm camera. The 70mm camera has a higher resolution but is also used less and not compatible with many movie theatres.  You can really see the difference between cameras when he is on Dodd's boat because the ocean looks amazing but the inside looks dark and barren.   Like the use of the different types of shots, this also helped show the contrast between scenes the gritty scenes become grittier and the pretty scenes become prettier. Paul Thomas Anderson utilizes all of this to make his movie much clearer and deeper for the watcher. 

 

 

 If you are a hardcore movie fan then I’d recommend this movie because it has great camera work and a great story, but if you are looking for a movie to be entertained by, then I would not recommend this movie because like my dad you would probably find it boring and like the movie was trying too hard to say something. Also if you are a fan of acting then I would definitely recommend this movie, the performances given are so powerful that the three main characters were nominated for Oscars. If you are a fan of Paul Thomas Anderson I would also suggest this movie. Personally, seeing him progress from Punch Drunk Love to There Will Be Blood to The Master has been a treat to watch. While I still think think that There Will Be Blood is his best movie, I think The Master shows the best direction in it. If you like movies like Her(2013), Crazy Heart(2009), or Birdman(2014) then I think you will enjoy this movie. I’d rate this movie a solid 3 out of five Devitos

Formal Film Study: The Dollars Trilogy

I remember buying my dad the Dollars Trilogy when I was much younger for his birthday, and at the time, it did not really interest me because Western movies were just a weird genre that my dad would watch.  As I got older though,  I began to enjoy the genre more and more with movies like True Grit and My Name is Nobody.  So when I was given this assignment, the first thought I had was to go back to where the Spaghetti Western started.  The Spaghetti Western start with the three Sergio Leone films,  A Fistful of Dollars(1964),  A Few Dollars More(1965), and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly(1966).  Their influence can be seen through the rest of the Western genre and it is from this that I came to the conclusion that the modern western was born from these three movies. 

The trilogy was shot with a distinct style in mind from the beginning.  Sergio Leone wanted to do something new with the Western genre because he felt that they began to fall short of what a
Western should be.  He has stated that he felt that, "the American westerns of the mid to late fifties had become stagnant, overly-preachy and not believable"(Leone).  With this in mind we can begin to look at the techniques and styles he used to make a different more believable Western.  With these techniques he reinvented the western genre.  Starting with the characters in the movie, the line between hero and villain is a lot less clear.  Leone uses an anti-hero in all three films where the protagonist is greedy and ruthless just like the villains but also lives and acts by a set of morals that keep the audiences favor with the lead.  For example in The Good, The Bad , and The Ugly we get introduced to the three title characters with their titles next to their still after a character defining action.  For Clint Eastwood who plays The Good, his action is that after he teams up with one of his bounties to collect the money he helps them escape so that they can do the plan again in another town.  After Eastwood cheats his partner and leaves him tied the movie pauses and we are introduced to him as The Good.

This is a drastic change in not only Western movies but the industry as a whole, because even though the noire style anti-hero was now a popular character, they had to yet to go as far as Leone's characters.  Also, the majority of movies were still Frank Capra style family friendly movies with a happy ending and message at the end.  Eastwood confirms this by saying on his end that,"In Rawhide I did get awfully tired of playing the conventional white hat. The hero who kisses old ladies and dogs and was kind to everybody. I decided it was time to be an anti-hero"(Eastwood).  Through the Dollars trilogy the good guys can only be seen as relatively good. 

Leone uses through his directing, techniques that at the time were unthought of.  This is shown within the movies and is used repeatedly for common effect.  For example the use of spacing between characters and buildings were used to give a deeper more paced feel to the movie.  This allowed the director to also use a deep space composition to show more action and depth at once giving the movie a more realistic town feel.  Lastly, now a trademark in the genre, Leone implemented closeup and extreme closeups, not as reaction shots or for dramatic lines which was popular during the time, but for increasing the tension between connected characters. This popularized the Eastwood scowl that was imitated by movies eversince.  Also this allowed the score to become as important as the dialogue and to give its own flavor to the movie.   

Also, common in the Man With No Name trilogy is the story and plot.  In all three movies the main character, Clint Eastwood puts himself in situations where there is a conflict between two  parties and he controls the parties through manipulation to push the movie forward and to gain as much through the two as possible.  He is then caught by one of the two parties and is beaten but not broken, he then escapes his captors and returns for the climax fight scene.  Through the movie there is a lot that pushes the boundaries of American cinema and with the gained popularity of the first movie the second and third take much more risks then the first.  For example in the first movie there is still a lot of killing and shooting but the actors fall certain ways to cover the shots and prevent showing the injuries, but in For a Few Dollars More,  the opening scene shows a man being shot in the head falling back into the camera only to reveal the bleeding bullet hole in his head.  Also, in A Fistful of Dollars, the main character saves a family that is about to separated and killed, but in For a Few Dollars more before the main character enters the city, the villain orders a wife and her 18 month year old baby to be killed off screen.  Lastly, one of the characters in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, breaks into a hotel to find a woman bathing.  These important plot points pushed the envelope as far as American cinema code went and made for a more realistic grittier movie. 

This change of direction for such a popular genre had huge effects on culture.  The main influence on culture is the change in protagonist because for decades after these movies,  Clint Eastwood was the image of a tough guy.  He was a man that other men would strive to be.  This is a change of culture compared to the self described white hat protagonist that ruled before the Dollars Trilogy.  This gave a message that a tough guy or a real man takes what he wants, but not from the innocent bystanders, only the bad that were guilty of exploiting their power.  This message was powerful considering the size of audience. 

In conclusion the Man With No Name trilogy had an impactful influence on not only the Western genre or the movie industry, but on society as a whole.  This can seen through the movies that they influenced and the audience that they reached.  Without the Dollars Trilogy perhaps the Western as we know it may have never came to be.