Article /Five Qiao This article was published in the February 2013 issue of "Watching Movies" magazine.
Director/screenwriter Paul Thomas Anderson once said after filming "Magnolia" that he seemed to understand why human beings look to God in suffering. Whether it is the oracle-like rain of frogs in "Magnolia" (the oracle in Chapter 8 of the Old Testament, verse 2 of the Old Testament, the number 82 that appears many times in the film reminds this verse ), or the hypocritical priest in "Blood is Coming" was blamed to death in the embarrassing escape... In Anderson's works in recent years, "faith" is a recurring theme. If Anderson only expressed his understanding and acceptance of religion in "The Magnolia", and Anderson began to have doubts in "The Blood Is Coming", then through "The Master", what we see is the faith that is still nowhere to be placed. As at the end of the film, "Master" Lancaster (played by Oscar actor Philip Seymour Hoffman) said to Freddy (played by Jacques Phoenix) implied: "If you can Find a way without serving the'master' in the world-any'master'-must let the rest of us know, because you will therefore become the first person in history." Still looking for , But still no income, this is the first impression left by this movie without ending.
So it seems that the doctrine that the "master" in the title refers to making a living has become less important, because people always have to serve "some" master, and Lancaster is just one of many masters. But I still can't help but suspect that Lancaster's ideas were born out of Anderson's own value system. Lancaster is an intellectual elite and soul mentor. He claims to be a writer, doctor, nuclear physicist and theoretical philosopher. But first of all, he is a person, and like Freddy, he is a "nothing Curatively curious people". Lancaster leads a pagan group "Causes", propagating a platonic theory of ideas: the soul is eternal and immortal, even before the existence of the universe, and people can recall the "memory" of previous lives. , To uncover the "truth" of the universe. The appearance of the alcoholic Freddy just provided Lancaster with an excellent experimental subject to verify his practical methodology. Lancaster believes that Freddy’s anger towards life and indifference to society are rooted in transcendence. Memories of past lives that have existed for hundreds of millions of years outside the present world.
From the similar fate that repeats itself in the "Magnolia" film, it is not difficult to see that Anderson holds a certain fatalistic view. In the doctrine of the "master" Lancaster, such fatalism is further deepened: it tells Our destiny in this world was decided hundreds of millions of years ago, and even before the beginning of the universe, the destiny of the universe was written. The natural ideological appeal of fatalists is the search for ultimate meaning: since history is just a script written long ago, what kind of ending is arranged at the end of time? What is the significance of the development of the universe? Faced with such problems, Lancaster and Freddie adopted diametrically opposite attitudes. Lancaster tried to explain the meaning of life with his own knowledge, but Freddie refused to define the value of life.
This is the ideological explanation of all Freddy's violence. Similar to the unbelieving oil tycoon in "Blood is Coming", Freddie has no interest in the rest of his fellow human beings. In the first few scenes of the film, we saw Freddy bumping into walls everywhere in social life. Freddy kept clashing with people around him, and then fled in pursuit of others. In addition, the moral constraints of society on individuals are also not considered by Freddy. Freddie is vulgar, inferior, nasty, and primitive like an animal. Behind the appearance of these kinds of behaviors, there is a function of faith that is often quoted by religious believers: only faith can bring awe, and fearlessness can lead to moral corruption. Freddie had "time after time" indiscriminate relationship with his aunt. Isn't this an extreme example of "really broken music"? For atheists, in addition to strengthening the cultivation of a sense of morality and emphasizing the meaning of "being cautious", it is impossible to effectively prevent individuals from violating morality when no one finds it; on the contrary, for those who truly believe in it, there is no real " "Independence" because they believe that God has insight into the words and deeds of mankind all the time.
A further comparison of Lancaster's and Freddy's attitudes towards life shows how faith, as a way of defining the value of life, can help life. The only interest and talent of Freddie in the film is to make alcoholic beverages with a unique taste. We saw that he used fuel from warships, medical alcohol, chemical reagents for development, paint thinner and other dangerous liquids to be blended into wine, and the wine he blended had poisoned an Asian worker. Freddie kept hurting his body through alternative alcohol stimulation, and his rickety body became more and more withered by alcoholism. But for a life without purpose and meaning, what does this have to do? If life is just a meaningless journey, what is the value of prolonging one's life?
Ironically, it also serves as a reminder of the plot. Freddy's last name "Quell" means "to calm down anger" in English. When Freddy secretly boarded the Lancaster cruise ship, he began the "master" tame the beast of this "rageous for hundreds of millions of years" (after the wedding on the cruise ship, Lancaster once published a Fan's speech on how to train dragons to illustrate his propositions about actively controlling life). The relationship between Lancaster and Freddie is multi-faceted: they are first and foremost a master and servant, but also a doctor and a patient; Lancaster fills in Freddie’s missing father image, and at the same time gives Freddie a kind of Faith; on the other hand, Lancaster found an important resonance attribute in Freddy: loneliness. Although Lancaster is a leading opinion leader, his wife and son privately, but no one really believes in his beliefs. "Masters" who are immersed in self-belief and not understood by others, have the same sense of loneliness as Freddie who is outside the isolation belief. The friendship they later developed was based on this sense of loneliness.
Not surprisingly, in the development of the relationship between the master and servant, they both experienced the regaining of faith and then loss. The appearance of Freddie gave the "master" the enthusiasm to prove his doctrine. However, in the end, Lancaster had to abandon the concept of "past life memories" and attribute all the so-called "memories" to the imagination of the brain. Ideas are precisely the foundation of all his methodology, and the doctrine of the "master" will be overwhelming. On the other hand, Freddie had desperately maintained his belief in Lancaster, and even fought with the police to prevent the police from arresting Lancaster, and was imprisoned for this. Until his own transformation became the best proof of this belief. The best way to implement a certain doctrine is to let the audience see the changes in the behavior of believers, which is quite similar to the method that Christianity began to spread widely in the early days. At the launch of Lancaster's new book, Freddie enthusiastically shook hands and embraced the people around him, seeming to have changed his face and returned to rationality. However, the skin does not exist, and the hair is attached. While the "master" on the stage botched new arguments, Freddie's suspicious beliefs that existed in the illusion were also annihilated. Until Freddie once again fought because of his uncontrollable wildness, and personally tore the mask of faith that had just been established. This is the irreconcilable outcome of fatalism and free will. The "master" not only failed to save Freddy's lonely soul, but destroyed his faith.
There is another characteristic that distinguishes Freddie from the "master", which is the highest form of pure love, another internal source of Freddie's violence. In the film, only Freddy’s love for the girl Doris can be called true love. In contrast, other people’s love is much more casual: Lancaster has not only been married many times, but his current wife (by Amy Adams) is also a sophisticated woman who looks sweet but has a strong desire for control; Lancaster's newly married daughter even openly teased Freddy at the party. Refer to the Bible New Testament "Luke" 14:26 verse "If a man comes to me, if he does not love me more than love (love me more than love: the original is hate) his parents, wives, children, brothers , Sister, and your own life, you can’t be my disciple.” What makes Freddie’s love higher than pure sensuality or pure sensibility is precisely the object of worship for his lover. Freddie's missing faith found a substitute in love, and he himself was trapped in such pure love and couldn't get rid of it. There is a very moving performance, that is, when Freddie finally reappears in front of the lover's door, only to learn that she is married as a wife, love as a substitute for faith no longer exists. Here Phoenix offers perhaps the best performance of the year. The film obviously has no intention of criticizing or praising such pure love, but the shots at this time (more because of Phoenix's moving performance) express sympathy for Freddy's situation without losing sight.
At the end of the film, the deep dark blue waves that appear again echo the beginning of the film. Whether it's Freddie leaving the battlefield and returning to China, or going to sea with the "master", or going to London for the last time in Lancaster, This shot accompanies Freddy every journey. As Lancaster pointed out in their last meeting, Freddie is such a non-stop sailor, a lonely soul who never looks back on a motorcycle in the wilderness, just like Cui Jian’s singing The ascetic monks in this world can't find the direction they should go. And all we can offer is sympathy and compassion, because we also have no answers to the problems that bother him.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s films have never been counted as "popular" films, and compared to the previous work, the "return to the original" of "The Master" will reject more audiences: the narrative of the image is closer to the style of stream-of-consciousness novels , The setting of the plot did not deliberately highlight the contradiction and conflict transition; technically, there are few Anderson’s iconic non-stop shots in the film, and it is more of a calm observation style; the film has been used for more than ten years and no one has used it. The 65mm film, and the use of pure hand editing (cut out with a single cut with scissors), contributed to the exquisite and delicate picture that digital movies cannot replace. Although many factors limit the audience of the film itself, I believe it can still impress those who are alone or exploring.
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