serious fanalysis of The Master so far (CANON ONLY.. no script/spoiler talk)

[HeywoodRFloyd]

I haven't seen the movie, I don't know if this belongs in this spoiler talk thread or fan analysis thread but I'll post it here just in case.

These two comments at Cigarettes and Red Vines are interesting, especially the latter.

admin edit: the following two screen caps contain spoilerish content that is not entirely necessary to appreciate the analysis below, which is still based on the trailers, click at own risk

click here for first comment

click here for second comment

Now what I'm taking from this, is that the film is essentially about memory & memories. The key to this I think is the fact that the first commenter mentioned that:

"Plus for a lot of the scenes that ARE in the movie, they used a lot of alternate takes for the trailers. So the experience of seeing the movie can actually be FRESH"

Why would PTA do that?
I think it is showing how a person remembers a memory or an experience, it's not exactly how it really was, it's not 'The Master of that Memory' (Thanks Pubrick) it's how you comprehended it at that point in time, from a perspective you had at that point in time, how you 'processed' that information.

And I think the 3rd Teaser fits in here beautifully.

LOVE. Love is a key to how this works. Remember from personal experience, when you have been in Love, even if that Love is diminished, that memory that you might have from an experience you processed when you were in love, still holds that emotional value that you attributed to it back then, hence that memory is not like how it really was, but how you remembered it to be.

I might be stretching it here, but I actually have strong faith in this next point, otherwise why would Paul even do it this way?

Okay, now let's look at the teasers and trailers.

I've already seen people mention that the teasers aren't colour corrected... but what if they weren't meant to be? What if the blown out hazy look of the teasers were meant to represent a memory of that scene. Not 'The Master Experience'. What if the reason PTA released these in only 720p was to achieve a fragment, a hazy look, not well defined and beautiful but a flashback. When you remember a memory, you don't really remember details, you remember just the focus of the memory, usually just the conversation etc.

[HeywoodRFloyd]

Weird, I posted this comment into the spoiler talk thread, and now it's here? Can someone tell me if they moved it to here, I was just being careful on where I posted it.

[Pubrick]

It was a tough decision to move it here as it does contain some minor spoilers. But the analytical content is brilliant and should be read by anyone interested in the trailers.

I don't know, I may live to regret it.

[Pubrick]

Further defense of the move:

I might be wrong. I should probably err on the side of caution and move it back to the forbidden zone but i just don't believe it's really a spoiler to know that footage from the trailer is not in the film. That concept in general is quite a common occurrence, it's not necessary to know which shots specifically didn't make it .. the point being made is PTA's use of this device.

[HeywoodRFloyd]

That's cool Pubrick, I would have liked to post it here anyway, but I was too afraid that people would slap me around in the mud for doing so. But I see you've put a spoiler warning on the comments from Cigs&RedVines 

[picolas]

he did the same thing with the scopitones back in pdl times. remember when the plan at one point was to edit an entire alternate version of pdl but he ended up doing 12 minutes (blossoms + blood)?

[max from fearless]

If you get the chance, check out this documentary from Adam Curtis "The Century of Self" --- it provides a really strong context of what happened when American soldiers returned from WW2, anxious, violent and depressed, and how the American government with the help of psychoanalysis reacted to this. It uses footage from the John Huston documentary, and as I was watching it I realized how both PD-L and TWBB and maybe The Master (which I haven't seen) all deal with repression, the irrational self and the desire to control the irrational self and return the individual to the status quo....I'm a newbie here and I'm sure this has been gone into before on these boards, it's just that watching the Adam Curtis doc - really highlighted that for me and touched upon stuff I've seen in The Master trailers....



Episode starts at 0:58:34

[Ulivija]

While waiting patiently to see the movie, I was thinking about the names of characters in "The Master" and got nowhere. And then I thought that the name "Lancaster" might be a homage to Burt Lancaster - the star of "Sweet Smell of Success" and "Elmer Gantry".

PTA's debut was originally named after Tony Curtis' character in "Sweet Smell of Success", so I thought the name "Lancaster" might be a great connection.

I know there are probably more differences than similarities, but still, JJ Hunsecker and "Lancaster" are similarly powerful men, and Sydney Falco and "Freddie" will do almost anything to curry the favor of their "masters".

And, Philip Seymour Hoffman's Lancaster seems more vibrant and charismatic like Elmer Gantry than Paul Dano's Eli in "There Will Be Blood".

[InTylerWeTrust]

Yeah, I briefly mentioned the connection way back in page 4:

Elmer Gantry (Burt LANCASTER plays the lead)

But good looking out.

[Neil]

Here's a bizarre fact.  Two posts in this thread (one of tyler and one of pubrick) are down voted.

weird.

[Pubrick]

it's not so bizarre.

when we first implemented the voting feature it had both down and upvote capabilities.

due to abuse by Tyler, aka Freddie, the down feature was removed and soon due to his abuse of the upvote feature, as well as other psychotic displays, Tyler was banned altogether. this is purely a historical post meant to fill you in on the events behind those solitary downvotes and any others you may find upon your travels.

[Neil]

That makes much more sense. But now, I shall restore order to the universe and bring them back to zero.

[Frederico Fellini]

Haha, the good old days. I cringe every time I read one of those old "InTylerWeTrust" posts. I was such a fucking moron (still am a little bit), just hope all is forgiven. I don't even dislike Pubrick anymore, I mean he's still a major douche, but a douche that posts good shit. Gotta respect that.