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mcmurray777
Feb 06, 2016mcmurray777 rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
Not easy to view, The Master is over two hours long. Difficult to sit through and understand, but if you watch the "extras" after you watch the movie, you'll have a better understanding. So, prepare to spend more than four hours on this. Even better, watch the documentary Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief before you see The Master to fully comprehend what is happening. Lots of things were cut to get the movie down to 138 minutes. Joaquin Phoenix plays a sex-obsessed, alcoholic WWII vet suffering from what we now call PTSD who somehow begins an association with Philip Seymore Hoffman's character, a leader of a movement called The Cause. This is obviously based on L. Ron Hubbard and his Dianetics phase. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, son of Ernie Anderson of Ghoulardi fame. An extra (at least on the Blu-ray copy) worth watching is a 1946 documentary on the treatment of soldiers returning from WWII suffering from "shell shock."