Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” is now available for mass consumption in home viewing form, and now it can be seen by many more people, many of whom will be downright flummoxed by this film, a strange and meandering tale of two men and their friendship forged through some psychotherapy and a shared love of harsh drink. Oh, and one of those guys is starting a weird cult-like group that has more than a thing or two in common with Scientology.

The movie starts with Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix, Walk the Line) in the Navy during World War II, but he isn’t shown doing any war type things. Instead he’s on a beach with a bunch of other naval men, doing different things like cutting up coconuts and wrestling around and making a large naked woman out of sand, and in most of these things, it is already obvious that Freddie is a little off. And when he’s on the ship with everyone, he siphons fuel from torpedoes and drinks it to get hammered and then passes out on a high perch where other sailors can through shit at him. And while we don’t see him in combat, we do get to see his exit interview from a VA hospital ward for soldiers with post-traumatic stress syndrome (though of course back then it was handled much differently than today), so maybe this guy is a little wacky because of what he’s seen and done in the name of war?Continue Reading …