I have not yet attended The Master, but have listened to this interview on CBC Radio and was intrigued by it.
The line that most made an impression with me during this interview was “The sceptics and the believers are all great.” This is well-worth a listen. While my own beliefs don’t align with the apparent concepts of this film, I am always interested in listening to the views of others. Roles and relationships such as that of a master and his/her dog, the father and the son, the teacher and the student are included in those associations that interest me. Notions of control and co-dependency are also intriguing.
Another thought-provoking segment in this interview is where Paul Thomas Anderson discusses how desperation causes the human heart to rely on the divine in more cases than not. Is there a deep well of fear in people when they are faced with their mortality?
Sceptics of faith and religion typically profess their views with confidence …just as faithful and religious people profess their views with confidence. It’s all very interesting. He mentions that it has to be a difficult thing when people naysay ones views regarding faith because it is so personal…but, I disagree. I think our views do not need to be divisive. I think it’s important to have respect for both sceptics and believers.
I grew up in the world of post WW2 England – my parents were not religious but were affected by the war in so many ways, how could that not be. Everything they did and said – everything about their lives was connected to the war. An entire generation was warped by war and this was passed on to their children. I have struggled to lose this but it is so ingrained in me that I cannot say that I have alleviated the trauma. This struggle continues in all war destroyed countries and cultures and the children of these countries are affected as much or more as I was. This film emphasizes how this trauma can lead to a following of utopian promises which seem absurd to those who haven’t lived through the horror. I thank the ‘pagan’ beliefs of my parents who gave me the strength to make my own moral and spiritual decisions…
Just this morning, I completed a two-sitting read…The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway. Your comment seems surreal as I feel as though I’ve just stepped out of the pages of a book…a horrific war…and everything you write makes perfect sense.