The Master
I saw "The Master" yesterday afternoon.
And while it runs parallel to the story of L. Ron Hubbard and what could be seen as teh story of Diantecs/Scientology, I really didn't feel like it was about that at all. That is simply the form the movie is taking and a way they can sell it but I feel like it's more of a meditation on soul and the nature of mankind.
Joaquin Phoenix is brilliant in this movie as is Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I kept thinking of it in terms of a conversation between Yahweh and Enoch or the Christian God and the Soul of Man as with Hoffman as God and the soul of man embodied by Joaquin Phoenix.
Phoenix is all animal impulse addicted to earthly temptations and torn up inside about it. He can feel God calling him asking him to be pure and return to his natural state prior to the fall, to "The Source" and over and over again he tries to return but he keeps getting pulled back to this plane of existence. It tearing him apart. God tests the young man with a series of excercises and rituals and he takes on with passion and gusto until he can take it no more and departs. In a frenzied dream he hears God calling him back once more and he listens but when he arrives back home God acts surprised by his arrival and demands his disciple's utter devotion one last time. What he decides I will leave you to find out.
I am aware that I am imposing a lot of my personal bias on this but these are the things that stood out to me loud and clear. It's how I see this film. The story and images of this film run parallel to the converstations I have had with myself around spirit and source and God and creation all of my life.
A sense of being tossed out into the wilderness with no guidance but somehow having all sorts of expectations thrust upon me that I don't/didn't know about. Expectations around how to live, what to believe, how to relate to and exist in this world. All the while wrestling with my very nature to eradicate the dark stain on my soul that makes me a man. Never able to overcome it and hindered by the inablitly to heed the creator's song of reconciliation.
A phrase I have used to keep myself going from time to time or when I feel conflicted relates to a pact, I made with myself that I have ignored but quite recently been thinking about and that is "I am allowed to say whatever I want about God as long as I learn to forgive him." And it's that second part, I need to work on.
Anyhow, I really enjoyed the film and I will probably see it again just to think about these things once more.
And while it runs parallel to the story of L. Ron Hubbard and what could be seen as teh story of Diantecs/Scientology, I really didn't feel like it was about that at all. That is simply the form the movie is taking and a way they can sell it but I feel like it's more of a meditation on soul and the nature of mankind.
Joaquin Phoenix is brilliant in this movie as is Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I kept thinking of it in terms of a conversation between Yahweh and Enoch or the Christian God and the Soul of Man as with Hoffman as God and the soul of man embodied by Joaquin Phoenix.
Phoenix is all animal impulse addicted to earthly temptations and torn up inside about it. He can feel God calling him asking him to be pure and return to his natural state prior to the fall, to "The Source" and over and over again he tries to return but he keeps getting pulled back to this plane of existence. It tearing him apart. God tests the young man with a series of excercises and rituals and he takes on with passion and gusto until he can take it no more and departs. In a frenzied dream he hears God calling him back once more and he listens but when he arrives back home God acts surprised by his arrival and demands his disciple's utter devotion one last time. What he decides I will leave you to find out.
I am aware that I am imposing a lot of my personal bias on this but these are the things that stood out to me loud and clear. It's how I see this film. The story and images of this film run parallel to the converstations I have had with myself around spirit and source and God and creation all of my life.
A sense of being tossed out into the wilderness with no guidance but somehow having all sorts of expectations thrust upon me that I don't/didn't know about. Expectations around how to live, what to believe, how to relate to and exist in this world. All the while wrestling with my very nature to eradicate the dark stain on my soul that makes me a man. Never able to overcome it and hindered by the inablitly to heed the creator's song of reconciliation.
A phrase I have used to keep myself going from time to time or when I feel conflicted relates to a pact, I made with myself that I have ignored but quite recently been thinking about and that is "I am allowed to say whatever I want about God as long as I learn to forgive him." And it's that second part, I need to work on.
Anyhow, I really enjoyed the film and I will probably see it again just to think about these things once more.