he Master (2012 film)

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The Master

Theatrical release poster

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

 JoAnne Sellar
Produced by
 Daniel Lupi
 Paul Thomas Anderson
 Megan Ellison

Written by Paul Thomas Anderson

Starring  Joaquin Phoenix

 Philip Seymour Hoffman
 Amy Adams

Music by Jonny Greenwood

Cinematography Mihai Mălaimare Jr.

Edited by  Leslie Jones

  Peter McNulty

Production  JoAnne Sellar Productions

company
 Ghoulardi Film Company
 Annapurna Pictures

Distributed by The Weinstein Company

Release date  September 1, 2012 (VFF)

 September 14, 2012 (United States)

Running time 137 minutes

Country United States

Language English

Budget US$32 million[1]

Box office US$28.3 million[2]

The Master is a 2012 American psychological drama film written, directed, and co-produced by Paul
Thomas Anderson and starring Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams. It tells
the story of Freddie Quell (Phoenix), a World War II Navy veteran struggling to adjust to a post-war
society, who meets Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman), a leader of a religious movement known as "The
Cause". Dodd sees something in Quell and accepts him into the movement. Freddie takes a liking to
"The Cause", and begins traveling with Dodd's family along the East Coast to spread his teachings.
It was produced by Annapurna Pictures and Ghoulardi Film Company and distributed by The
Weinstein Company. With a budget of $30 million, filming began in June 2011, with cinematography
provided by Mihai Mălaimare Jr., editing by Peter McNulty, and an original music score by Jonny
Greenwood. The film's inspirations were varied: it was partly inspired by Scientology founder L. Ron
Hubbard, as well as by early drafts of Anderson's There Will Be Blood, the novel V. by Thomas
Pynchon, drunken Navy stories that Jason Robards had told to Anderson as he was terminally ill
while filming Magnolia, and the life story of author John Steinbeck. The Master was shot almost
entirely on 65mm film stock, making it the first fiction feature to be shot and released
in 70 mm since Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet in 1996.
Initially, the film was set up with Universal, but fell through due to script and budget problems. It was
first publicly shown on August 3, 2012, at the American Cinematheque in 70 mm and screened
variously in the same way, before officially premiering at the Venice Film Festival on September 1,
where it won the FIPRESCI Award for Best Film. It was released in theaters on September 14, 2012,
in the United States to critical acclaim, with its acting, screenplay, direction, plausibility, and realistic
portrayal of post-World War II Americans praised. It further received three Oscar nominations: Best
Actor for Phoenix, Best Supporting Actor for Hoffman, and Best Supporting Actress for Adams. In
2016, The Master was voted the 24th greatest film of the 21st century by 177 critics from around the
world.[3] Anderson has repeatedly claimed that The Master is his favorite film that he has made to
date.[4]

Contents
 1Plot
 2Cast
 3Production
o 3.1Writing
o 3.2Casting
o 3.3Filming
o 3.4Music
 3.4.1Track listing
 4Release
o 4.1Distribution
o 4.2Marketing
o 4.370mm screenings
 5Reception
o 5.1Box office
o 5.2Critical response
o 5.3Themes and interpretations
o 5.4Comparisons with Scientology
o 5.5Accolades
o 5.6Top ten lists
 6References
 7External links

Plot[edit]
Freddie Quell is a traumatized World War II veteran struggling to adjust to post-war society and
prone to violent and erratic behavior. While working on a farm in California, an elderly colleague
collapses after drinking a batch of Freddie's homemade moonshine. Freddie flees after he is
accused of poisoning him.
One night, Freddie finds himself in San Francisco, and stows away on the yacht of a follower of
Lancaster Dodd, the leader of a nascent philosophical movement known as "The Cause." When he
is discovered, Dodd describes Freddie as "aberrated" and claims he has met him in the past but
cannot remember where. He invites Freddie to stay and attend the marriage of his daughter,
Elizabeth, as long as he will make more moonshine, which Dodd has developed a taste for. Dodd
begins an exercise with Freddie called "Processing," in which he asks Freddie a flurry of disturbing
psychological questions. During the exercise, Freddie reveals details of his past, including his
father's death, his mother's incarceration in a mental asylum, and his incestuous sexual encounters
with his aunt. He also has a flashback to a past relationship with Doris, a young woman from his
hometown whom Freddie promised he would one day return to.
Freddie travels with Dodd's family as they spread the teachings of "The Cause" along the East
Coast. At a dinner party in New York, a man questions Dodd's methods and statements and accuses
the movement of being a cult. Dodd loses his temper, calling the man "pig fuck," and asks him to
leave. Freddie pursues the man to his apartment and assaults him that night.
Other members of "The Cause" begin to worry about Freddie's behavior. Freddie criticizes Dodd's
son Val for disregarding his father's teachings, but Val tells Freddie that Dodd is making things up as
he goes along. Dodd is arrested for practicing medicine without proper qualifications after one of his
former hostesses has a change of heart; Freddie attacks the police officers and is also arrested. In
jail, Freddie erupts in an angry tirade, questioning everything that Dodd has taught him and accusing
him of being a fake. Dodd calls Freddie lazy and worthless and claims nobody likes him except for
Dodd. They reconcile upon their release, but members of "The Cause" have become more
suspicious and fearful of Freddie, believing him to be deranged or an undercover agent or simply
beyond their help. Dodd insists that Freddie's behavior can be corrected with more rigorous and
repetitive conditioning, which Freddie finds difficult to internalize.
Freddie accompanies Dodd to Phoenix, Arizona, to celebrate the release of Dodd's latest book.
When Dodd's publisher criticizes the quality of the book and its teachings, Freddie assaults him.
Helen Sullivan, a previously acquiescent acolyte, causes Dodd to lose his temper after she
questions some details of the book. Dodd takes Freddie to a salt flat with his motorcycle, telling him
to pick a point in the distance and drive towards it as fast as he can; Freddie drives off and
disappears.
Freddie returns home to Lynn, Massachusetts, to rekindle his relationship with Doris, but learns from
Doris' mother that she has married and started a family since he last saw her. He tells her mother he
is glad she is happy. While sleeping in a movie theater, Freddie receives a phone call from Dodd,
who is now residing in England and begging Freddie to visit. An intercut reveals that the phone call
was a dream but Freddie travels to England nevertheless. Upon arriving, Freddie finds "The Cause"
to have grown ever larger, and Dodd seemingly bent to the will of his wife. Not expecting Freddie to
stay with him, Dodd requests that if Freddie can find a way to live without a master, any master, to
"let the rest of us know" because he'll be the first person in history to do so. Still seeking closure,
Freddie refers to the Dodd from his dream, who had claimed to finally remember where they'd met.
Dodd then recounts that, in a past life, they had worked in Paris to send balloons across a blockade
created by Prussian forces. Dodd gives him an ultimatum: stay with "The Cause" and devote himself
to it for the rest of his life, or leave and never return. As Freddie offers that they may meet again in
the next life, Dodd claims that if they do, it will be as sworn enemies. Dodd begins singing "Slow
Boat to China" as Freddie begins to cry. Freddie leaves and picks up a woman at a local pub, then
repeats questions from his first Processing session with Dodd as he is having sex with her.
On a beach, Freddie curls up next to a crude sand sculpture of a woman he and his wartime
comrades had sculpted during the war.

Cast[edit]
 Joaquin Phoenix as Freddie Quell
 Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lancaster Dodd
 Amy Adams as Peggy Dodd
 Laura Dern as Helen Sullivan
 Ambyr Childers as Elizabeth Dodd
 Rami Malek as Clark
 Jesse Plemons as Val Dodd
 Kevin J. O'Connor as Bill William
 Christopher Evan Welch as John More
 Madisen Beaty as Doris Solstad
 Lena Endre as Mrs. Solstad
 Amy Ferguson as Martha the Salesgirl
 Patty McCormack as Mildred Drummond
 Jillian Bell as Susan Gregory
 Joshua Close as Wayne Gregory
 Fiona Dourif as Dancer[5]
 David Warshofsky as Philadelphia Police[6]
 Steven Wiig as Philadelphia Follower
 W. Earl Brown as Fighting Businessman
Production[edit]
Writing[edit]
It was first reported in December 2009 that Anderson had been working on a script about the
founder of a new religious organization (described as being similar to Scientology) played by Philip
Seymour Hoffman.[7][8] An associate of Anderson stated that the idea for the film had been in
Anderson's head for about twelve years.[9] The idea for the film came to him after reading a quote
that periods after wars are productive times for spiritual movements to start.[10]
Unsure of the direction the script would take, Anderson began writing The Master as a collection of
disparate scenes, rather than one coherent outline.[10] He combined unused scenes from early drafts
of There Will Be Blood, elements from the life stories of John Steinbeck and L. Ron Hubbard and
from the novel V. by Thomas Pynchon, and stories Jason Robards had told him on the set
of Magnolia about his drinking days in the U.S. Navy during World War II (including the draining
of ethanol from a torpedo).[10] Anderson conducted research about Dianetics and its early
followers.[11] While writing, Anderson sought Hoffman's feedback on the script, with Hoffman
suggesting the film focus more on Freddie's story than Lancaster's.[10] After the film was dropped by
Universal and failed to pick up a distributor, Anderson did several months of rewrites.[12]
Casting[edit]

This would be Anderson's last film with Hoffman, who appeared in five out of the six films that Anderson had
made before Hoffman's death in 2014. He received his fourth Academy Award nomination for his performance.

Anderson has stated that he wanted Hoffman to play Lancaster Dodd from the film's inception, and
that he also had Joaquin Phoenix in mind for the part of Freddie Quell.[10] Jeremy Renner and James
Franco were each rumored to play Freddie before Phoenix was officially attached.[1][13][14] This was
Phoenix's first screen appearance since the 2010 film I'm Still Here, a multi-year performance
art mockumentary project that Phoenix attributed as a factor in limiting the roles he was
subsequently offered.[15][16] Reese Witherspoon was reportedly offered the role of Peggy Dodd,
but Amy Adams was later cast.[17][18] For the role of Dodd's daughter, Amanda Seyfried, Emma Stone,
and Deborah Ann Woll were all considered, with the role eventually going to Ambyr Childers.[19]
Filming[edit]
Filming was to begin in August 2010, with Renner starring opposite Hoffman, but was postponed
indefinitely in September 2010.[20][21] In May 2011, after securing financing, the film was given
the green light and filming began in early June 2011 in Vallejo and Sacramento.[1][5][22] Shooting took
place on Mare Island for a month using the wing of an old hospital and an empty admiral's mansion
for some scenes.[9] Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidential yacht, the USS Potomac, was used for
shooting shipboard scenes.[23] In late June 2011 filming took place at Hillside Elementary
School in Berkeley.[24]
The film was shot on 65 mm film[25] using the Panavision System 65 camera.[26] It was the first fiction
film to be shot in 65mm since Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet in 1996.[27] Mihai Mălaimare Jr. served as
cinematographer, making The Master Anderson's first film without cinematographer Robert
Elswit.[28] The film crew used three 65mm Panavision cameras throughout filming, and at times had
an assistant from Panavision on set to help with the cameras' technical issues.[29] Originally,
Anderson and Mălaimare planned to shoot mainly portraits in 65mm, which constituted 20 percent of
the film, but ultimately 85 percent of the film was shot in 65mm.[26] The remainder of the film was shot
on 35mm using Panavision Millennium XL2s cameras, often used for scenes that required a "dirtier"
look.[26] In order to maintain a consistent aspect ratio, the 65mm footage was cropped from 2.20:1 to
1.85:1 to match the 35mm footage, at the sacrifice of some image area.[26] Most of the film
stocks used were Kodak Vision3 50D Color Negative Film 5203 and Kodak Vision3 200T Color
Negative Film 5213 with a few scenes also done with Kodak Vision3 250D Color Negative Film 5207
and Kodak Vision3 500T 5219.[26] Because Anderson prefers working with film, he bypassed the use
of a digital intermediate, instead color grading with the use of a photochemical timer.[29]
During filming, Phoenix was allowed to improvise on set.[15] Phoenix lost significant weight for the role
and came up with Freddie's awkward gait.[15] Anderson compared Phoenix's commitment to that
of Daniel Day-Lewis for his level of concentration, saying that Phoenix got into character and stayed
there for three months.[10][16] Anderson considered the dynamic between Hoffman and Phoenix to be
central to the film, likening it to the rivalry and differences in style and temperament between tennis
players John McEnroe and Björn Borg or Ivan Lendl, with Hoffman playing the more controlled and
driven approach of Borg or Lendl.[30] Adams stated that Anderson would have her appear on set for
scenes she was not scheduled to appear in to make her presence felt and at times she didn't know
whether the camera was on her.[31]
Music[edit]

The Master: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Soundtrack album by

Jonny Greenwood

Released September 11, 2012[32]

Recorded 2012

Genre Film music[32]

Length 46:41

Label Nonesuch

Producer Jonny Greenwood, Graeme Stewart[32]

Jonny Greenwood chronology

 We Need to Talk The Master: Inherent Vice
About Kevin Original Motion (2014)
(2011) Picture
Soundtrack
(2012)

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores

Source Rating

Metacritic 74/100[33]

Review scores

Source Rating

AllMusic [34]

Consequence of Sound C+[35]

Drowned in Sound 8/10[36]

musicOMH [37]

Movie Music UK [38]

Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead composed the score for the film.[39][40] This was the second time
Greenwood scored an Anderson film, the first being 2007's There Will Be Blood.[39]
The official soundtrack was released through Nonesuch Records, and comprises eleven
compositions by Greenwood along with four recordings from the film's era. Performers include
the London Contemporary Orchestra and Ella Fitzgerald, among others.[41] The track "Don't Sit Under
the Apple Tree (with Anyone Else But Me)" is presented as performed in the film by actress Madisen
Beaty. The Weinstein Company also released a more comprehensive score on their website as part
of the film's promotion, featuring alternate versions of the tracks.[42]
Track listing[edit]
All music is composed by Jonny Greenwood except as noted below.

No. Title Performer Length

1. "Overtones" 2:20
2. "Time Hole" 1:42
3. "Back Beyond" 3:42
4. "Get Thee Behind Me Satan" Ella Fitzgerald 3:47
 5. "Alethia" 4:06
6. "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree (with Anyone Else Madisen Beaty 1:36
But Me)"
7. "Atomic Healer" 1:24
8. "Able-Bodied Seamen" 3:54
9. "The Split Saber" 3:41
10. "Baton Sparks" 2:20
11. "No Other Love" Jo Stafford 3:00
12. "His Master's Voice" 3:34
13. "Application 45 Version 1" 5:40
14. "Changing Partners" Helen Forrest 2:42
15. "Sweetness of Freddie" 3:25
Total length: 46:41

Release[edit]
Distribution[edit]
The Master was initially set up with Universal, but, like The Weinstein Company, they eventually
passed on the project because of problems with the script.[7][8] The main issue that Universal had with
the project was that the budget was too big at about $35 million.[9] It was later reported that River
Road was in serious talks to fully finance the film.[43] In February 2011, it was reported that Megan
Ellison, daughter of billionaire Larry Ellison, would finance The Master and Anderson's adaptation of
the novel Inherent Vice under her new production company Annapurna Pictures.[9][44] Harvey
Weinstein later picked up the worldwide rights to the film in May 2011.[1][7][9]
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 26, 2013 in the US, and March 11 in the UK.
The release features "Back Beyond", a twenty-minute montage of deleted footage edited by Paul
Thomas Anderson and set to Jonny Greenwood's original score. It also includes the 1946 John
Huston documentary Let There Be Light, a source which Anderson reportedly found very influential
in his creation of the film.[45][46]
Marketing[edit]
The first teaser poster for the film appeared in May 2011 at the Cannes Film Festival with the
title Untitled Paul Thomas Anderson Project.[47] A second promo poster for the film appeared in
November 2011 at the American Film Market with the same title.[48] On May 21, 2012 a teaser
trailer featuring Joaquin Phoenix was released online and several minutes of footage from the film
were shown at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.[49][50] A second teaser trailer was released on June 19,
2012 which featured Phoenix as well as Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams.[51][52] On July 19,
2012, a theatrical trailer was released online by The Weinstein Company.[53] The film was given an R
rating in the United States by the Motion Picture Association of America.[54]
70mm screenings[edit]
The film was the first in 16 years to be predominantly shot in 65mm (using Panavision System 65
cameras), a camera negative format that is subsequently projected in 70mm (the extra 5mm are
added to the projection prints to accommodate the audio tracks). On August 3, 2012, more than a
month before its first official screening at the Venice Film Festival, The Master was shown in a
"surprise screening" at the American Cinematheque in 70 mm.[55][56][57] It was announced that there
would be a special screening just after a screening of a new remastered version of Stanley
Kubrick's The Shining.[55][56] Following the credits of The Shining, it was announced that the special
screening was The Master.[55][56] The film was shown with no opening titles (except for the title of the
movie) or closing credits.[55][56] The Weinstein Company continued advance screenings of the film in
70 mm in New York City, Los Angeles, London, Chicago, San
Francisco, Seattle, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Austin.[57] Although this was done because there
was strong consideration that The Master was unlikely to be shown in the format during its
commercial run, the film was eventually displayed during its run in 70 mm in most cinemas that
carried the film and could still project that format.[12]

Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
The Master grossed $242,127 at five theaters during its opening day on September 14, 2012, setting
a single-day record for an art house film.[58] Overall the film made $736,311 from five theaters for a
per-theater average of $147,262, setting a record for the highest average for a live-action film.
Despite these achievements, the film was not a box office success, and did not recover its $30
million budget.[59] During its first week nationwide, the film grossed $4.4 million in 788 theaters.[60]
Critical response[edit]
Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 84% based on 243
reviews, with an average rating of 8.09/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Smart,
powerfully acted, beautifully filmed, and solidly engrossing, The Master extends writer/director Paul
Thomas Anderson's winning streak of challenging films for serious audiences."[61] At Metacritic, which
assigns a weighted average rating to reviews, the film has a score of 86 out of 100, based on 43
critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[62]
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times, in praising Anderson's directing and Phoenix's
performance, wrote: "Phoenix, known for immersing himself in Oscar-nominated roles
in Gladiator and Walk the Line, makes Quell frighteningly believable." About the film itself, he stated:
"The Master takes some getting used to. This is a superbly crafted film that's at times intentionally
opaque, as if its creator didn't want us to see all the way into its heart of darkness."[63] Lisa
Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a perfect "A" grade, stating: "It's also one of
the great movies of the year - an ambitious, challenging, and creatively hot-blooded, but cool-toned,
project that picks seriously at knotty ideas about American personality, success, rootlessness,
master-disciple dynamics, and father-son mutually assured destruction."[64]

Adams received her fourth Academy Award nomination for her performance

Peter Rainer of The Christian Science Monitor wrote that "the performances by Phoenix and
Hoffman are studies in contrast. Phoenix carries himself with a jagged, lurching, simian-like grace,
while Hoffman gives Dodd a calm deliberateness. Both actors have rarely been better in the movies.
The real Master class here is about acting – and that includes just about everybody else in the film,
especially Adams, whose twinkly girl-next-door quality is used here to fine subversive effect."[65] A. O.
Scott of The New York Times wrote: "It is a movie about the lure and folly of greatness that comes
as close as anything I've seen recently to being a great movie. There will be skeptics, but the cult is
already forming. Count me in."[66] Scott Tobias of The A.V. Club, giving the film an "A" grade, wrote:
"It's a feisty, contentious, deliberately misshapen film, designed to challenge and frustrate audiences
looking for a clean resolution. Just because it's over doesn't mean it's settled."[67] Peter
Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film four stars out of four, praising Anderson's directing: "The
Master, the sixth film from the 42-year-old writer-director, affirms his position as the foremost
filmmaking talent of his generation. Anderson is a rock star, the artist who knows no limits." About
the film itself, he wrote: "Written, directed, acted, shot, edited, and scored with a bracing vibrancy
that restores your faith in film as an art form, The Master is nirvana for movie lovers. Anderson mixes
sounds and images into a dark, dazzling music that is all his own." He would later call the film the
Best Film of 2012.[68]
Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter praised the score composed by Jonny Greenwood,
stating: "In a film overflowing with qualities, but also brimming with puzzlements, two things stand
out: the extraordinary command of cinematic technique, which alone is nearly enough to keep a
connoisseur on the edge of his seat the entire time, and the tremendous portrayals by Joaquin
Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman of two entirely antithetical men, one an unlettered drifter
without a clue, the other an intellectual charlatan who claims to have all the answers. They become
greatly important to each other and yet, in the end, have an oddly negligible mutual effect. The
magisterial style, eerie mood and forbidding central characters echo Anderson's previous film, There
Will Be Blood, a kinship furthered by another bold and discordant score by Jonny
Greenwood."[69] Justin Chang of Variety magazine wrote: "The writer-director's typically eccentric
sixth feature is a sustained immersion in a series of hypnotic moods and longueurs, an imposing
picture that thrillingly and sometimes maddeningly refuses to conform to expectations."[70] James
Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film three stars out of four and praised Phoenix's performance,
stating: "Gaunt, sick-looking, with stooped shoulders and a shambling gait, Phoenix buries himself in
Freddie's persona and there's never a moment when we disbelieve him." He added: "Yet, for all
of The Master's laudable elements, it falls short of greatness for one simple reason: the storytelling is
unspectacular."[71]
Numerous reviewers commented on the homoerotic subtext of the film. Film Comment noted the
bonding and repelling between the two men, "two edges of the split saber, play out in public and in
private, in "audits" and intimate exchanges over Freddie's alcoholic concoctions".[72] The
Guardian saw "Quell's chaos and Dodd's charlatanism" locked "in a dance of death – erotic and
homoerotic".[73] Reviewers from The Daily Beast were struck by the way the film "deals with the not-
so-latent homosexuality in Dodd", adding that, "Dodd seems to be sexually attracted to Quell's
animalistic nature, e. g., that scene where they're wrestling with each other on the front lawn after
Quell is released from prison, or the scene where Dodd's wife, played by Amy Adams, gives him a
handjob, along with a spiel about 'cumming for her' and eradicating himself of negative (read:
homosexual) thoughts."[74] Salon commented that the film contains a "not-too-veiled suggestion that
Dodd's paternal yearnings for Freddie are complicated by other desires".[75]
Phoenix received his third Academy Award nomination for his performance

Even less enthusiastic was Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, who gave the film two-and-a-half
stars out of a possible four. He wrote that it was "fabulously well-acted and crafted, but when I reach
for it, my hand closes on air. It has rich material and isn't clear what it thinks about it. It has two
performances of Oscar caliber, but do they connect?"[76] Calum Marsh of Slant Magazine gave the
film two stars out of four, stating: "The Master is Paul Thomas Anderson with the edges sanded off,
the best bits shorn down to nubs."[77] Rex Reed of the New York Observer gave the film a negative
review, writing: "Call The Master whatever you want, but lobotomized catatonia from what I call the
New Hacks can never take the place of well-made narrative films about real people that tell profound
stories for a broader and more sophisticated audience. Fads come and go, but, as Walter Kerr used
to say, 'I'll yell tripe whenever tripe is served.'" Reed also made mention of how Phoenix's
performance and the supporting characters' lack of development further hurt the film.[78]
On Phoenix's performance, Kent Jones of Film Comment noted, "Freddie is not so much played as
nuzzled, and jerked into being by Joaquin Phoenix. I'm Still Here aside, Phoenix's Freddie seems
like genuinely damaged goods. He and his director feel their way into this man-in-a-bind from the
inside out, and they establish his estrangement from others in those opening scenes through
awkward smiles and out-of-sync body language alone".[72] "As always with Anderson", Jones
continued, "the character opposition borders on the schematic, and the structure threatens to come
apart at the seams. But the courting of danger is exactly what makes his films so exciting, this new
film most of all. I don't think he has ever done a better job of resolving his story, perhaps because he
has come to terms with the irresolution within and between his characters."[72] Scott, of The New York
Times, pointed out that Phoenix used "sly, manic ferocity" to portray Freddie as "an alcoholic
wreck".[66]
Emma Dibdin of Total Film gave The Master 5 stars out of 5, concluding that it "is a breath-taking,
singular, technically audacious film, white-hot with emotion, and boasting a few scenes so
individually powerful that they'll stay with you like a physical presence for days".[79]
The Master was placed #1 in both the critics poll of the best films of 2012 by Sight and Sound,[80] and
by The Village Voice on its annual film poll.[81] The film also ranked second by both Film
Comment[82] and Indiewire[83] on their year-end film critics polls, following Holy Motors.
The Master was later placed #1 on The A.V. Club's list of the best films of the 2010s up until April
2015,[84] and was named as one of the top 50 films of the decade so far by The Guardian.[85]
Anderson considers it his favorite of the films he has made; in an interview with the Los Angeles
Times, he said:
For sure. I think that won't change. The amount of emotion I put into it and they put into it—they
being Phil [Seymour Hoffman], Joaquin [Phoenix], and Amy [Adams]. I'm not sure it's entirely
successful. But that's fine with me. It feels right. It feels unique to me. I really hope it will be
something people can revisit and enjoy in a way that equals my pride in it. And pride can be a
dangerous thing, and I'm not being very quiet about my pride in saying all this. But I just feel really
proud of it. And of course, there's a particular sentimentality attached to it for a number of personal
reasons. It's all wrapped up.[86]