Review Detail
9.4 5 10
(Updated: July 09, 2021)
Overall rating
9.2
Audio/Video Quality
6.0
Audio Editing
10.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Narrative
10.0
Enjoyment
10.0
I have been aware of this edit since its release a few years back and finally watched it this evening after a second visit to the original. Maybe my spirit was in a different vessel in 2012 as I wasn’t crazy about the film but something was telling me to watch the film again. A neoteric fascination I have with cults and the power of brainwashing was probably the kickstarter - that alongside research and exploration into world of Scientology. A flask of Freddie's potion shouldn’t becloud the fact that there is a real masterclass in acting from the leads. The parallels between Phoenix’s Quell and his Oscar winning Joker performance are uncanny. As for Hoffman – it’s just gut wrenching we will never see him on celluloid again.
I wholeheartedly agree with DominicCobb’s decision to truncate the opening act, this is done skilfully through a series of voiceovers and montages that lead us to Quell stowing away on the Alethia. The rearranging of scenes as flashbacks and added deleted footage really opened my mind to Freddie’s post war struggle with PTSD. I no longer thought of him as just an inebriated arsehole.
The new ending is wonderful –it is certainly not a case of sailing off into the sunset fully redeemed but at one point as I watched the credits I certainly felt it was. The conclusion would have been more impactful if we knew Freddie hadn’t sailed off to China previously when he left Doris but if we look at it from a different angle, is another trip to China just Freddie repeating himself – is he leaving the man he loved when previously it was the girl –never having learned anything never fully reprocessed. He is a paradigm until the moonshine gets the better of him. DominicCobb you have certainly re-processed me into thinking the Master is a modern gem.
I would love to get my hands on a higher quality version. I viewed the DVD on my computer monitor but feel that if i watched this on my TV the picture quality would diminish.
I wholeheartedly agree with DominicCobb’s decision to truncate the opening act, this is done skilfully through a series of voiceovers and montages that lead us to Quell stowing away on the Alethia. The rearranging of scenes as flashbacks and added deleted footage really opened my mind to Freddie’s post war struggle with PTSD. I no longer thought of him as just an inebriated arsehole.
The new ending is wonderful –it is certainly not a case of sailing off into the sunset fully redeemed but at one point as I watched the credits I certainly felt it was. The conclusion would have been more impactful if we knew Freddie hadn’t sailed off to China previously when he left Doris but if we look at it from a different angle, is another trip to China just Freddie repeating himself – is he leaving the man he loved when previously it was the girl –never having learned anything never fully reprocessed. He is a paradigm until the moonshine gets the better of him. DominicCobb you have certainly re-processed me into thinking the Master is a modern gem.
I would love to get my hands on a higher quality version. I viewed the DVD on my computer monitor but feel that if i watched this on my TV the picture quality would diminish.
L