Master, The

Released by: Anchor Bay Entertainment
Released on: February 26, 2013.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams
Year: 2012
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The Movie:

The latest film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson is 2012's The Master, which introduces us to a man named Freddie Queel (Joaquin Phoenix). When the film begins, it wasn't that long ago that Freddie returned home to the United States after serving in the navy over in the South Pacific during the Second World War. To those around him, it's obvious that he's come back a changed man. He not only drinks far too much, often of his own homemade booze, but he's prone to outbursts and anger management issues, most of which seem to stem back to the fact that he's got post traumatic stress disorder. In short, he's an angry, shellshocked alcoholic and as such he isn't the most pleasant man to be around and while his time at war isn't completely to blame for his problems, it certainly hasn't helped him any.

Freddie takes a job working as a farmhand but one night he gets into an argument with some coworkers. It gets tense and he flees, eventually heading to the waterfront where he winds up on a yacht inhabited by a man named Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman). While most might be upset by the presence of a complete stranger on their boat, not Dodd, he and Freddie hit it off in a strange sort of way and before you know it they're heading on the boat together to New York City. Dodd is a bit of a spiritualist type, however, espousing the benefits of 'The Cause' - that being his own belief system and one which he's only too happy to share with anyone he can. As Freddie and Dodd travel about together, things get tense when they start hitting the bottle. Dodd's wife, Peggy (Amy Adams), also picks up on the fact that Freddie's twisted obsession with sex is starting to have an effect on her husband as well. As the two continue to connect with one another, Freddie half asses his way into Dodd's world but doesn't seem to need or want to take any of it too seriously, he just wants the fringe benefits that come with it. Dodd, on the other hand, appreciates the protection that Freddie can offer him - until they both wind up in jail.

Like a lot of Anderson's movies, the story here comes second to the humanity of the characters in the film. Yes, there's a start and a finish to the tale but to expect a clean resolution or even drastic character transitions here can only lead to disappointment. It's a movie less about plot development than it is about presenting some fascinatingly flawed characters and letting us watch them do what humans do, and that's make mistakes. That's not to say that both Freddie and Dodd aren't capable of good; as they are and we know this but to err is human and they err a lot. The movie also makes us wonder how much of Freddie's current state of mind has been shaped by his experiences in the war compared to how many of them are due to his lifestyle choices. Are they intrinsically linked or is he just naturally self destructive and difficult to deal with? Likewise, how much of Dodd's philosophy is legitimate and how much of it a means for him to manipulate those around him? When he comes up against Freddie is his concern for him out of the kindness of his heart or is it not concern at all but a fascination for a man who he knows he can't quite process the way he has the other members of his organization? At one point in the movie Dodd's wife tells him 'He's not interested in getting better' and we know this to be true.

All of this is presented without a clear sense of good and evil or right and wrong, instead it's all presented as just part of life, part of the human experience. It's all very well acted with Phoenix and Hoffman deserving of all of the praise that's been lauded them since the film debuted and it's all beautifully shot taking full advantage of the widescreen format. The framing, the camera movements and the editing all have a nice, natural flow to them that compliments the story and the performances in exactly the right way.

Video/Audio/Extras:

The AVC encoded 1.85.1 widescreen transfer is presented in 1080p high definition and it looks very impressive indeed. Anderson shot most of the film on 65mm stock with 35mm used here and there for the handheld shots and there was no digital equipment used in post. As you'd imagine, the transfer here is beautiful. Detail is exceptional but never comes at the cost of the film like look and feel that a lot of cinephiles know and love. Texture is outstanding, especially in close ups but even in medium and long distance shots you'll notice it on suit coats, the awning in front of a house or the lawn to the side, or even the leather upholstery inside a car. It all looks like you could reach out and feel it while colors remain nice and lifelike from start to finish. Black levels are excellent and there are no problems with compression artifacts, edge enhancement or noise reduction of any kind. Grain is there, as it should be, but it's amazingly subtle and there isn't a speck of obvious print damage anywhere to be seen. This is reference quality stuff, the movie looks pretty much perfect here.

The only audio option on the disc is an English language DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track with optional subtitles offered up in English SDH and Spanish. This isn't the sort of bombastic mix you'd get with an action movie but it is beautifully done and very effective in the context of the movie that it represents. Johnny Greenwood's score is spread out perfectly between the different channels in the surround mix and has a nice, strong bass line when it needs to while dialogue sounds natural throughout. There are no issues with hiss or distortion and certain scenes that have a lot more going on in them - the scene by the ocean shore, for example - are able to fill the front and rear channels alike with sound rather well.

The main extra on the disc is John Huston's film, Let There Be Light, made in 1946 and presented here fullframe and in Dolby Digital Mono in standard definition. This film was obviously an influence on Anderson's movie so its inclusion here is an important one, as it deals with the returning soldiers at the end of the Second World War and with post traumatic stress disorder. It tackles some of the supposed cures for PTSD, mainly hypnotherapy, and it does a nice job of sort of setting the stage for the story that Anderson tells in the feature.

Aside from that, we get an eight minute collage of behind the scenes footage in standard definition, twenty minutes of high definition outtakes, and nine different teasers and trailers for The Master, also in high definition. As this is a combo pack release we also get a standard DVD disc as well as a digital copy of the movie included along with the Blu-ray disc.

The Final Word:

An excellent film with some fairly flawless performances and production values and cinematography to match, The Master receives a very impressive Blu-ray release from Anchor Bay Entertainment - highly recommended!

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!