#5) The Master, by Paul Thomas Anderson (2012)
About two weeks ago, I was walking around Walt Disney World, staring at people on lines and wondering about evolution ; how we got to this point, venturing through such severe constructs of imagination, the various bloodlines associated with face types, commonality and a shared human experience of seeking meaning through the grandiosity of myth. I wanted to write a piece about evolution when I got home, and I was fortunate to run into the YouTube page Must See Films, who theorize that the #5 film on my list, The Master , is about evolution. They break it down in three parts: Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) the id, apeman; Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman) the ego, superhuman; and Peggy Dodd (Amy Adams), the superego, the master. Freddie is a drifter at sea, returning from World War II in the Navy without any direction in life, driven purely by animal instincts such as sex, violence, and alcohol. On a beach with fellow Navy men, we see him climb a tree like a monkey, choppin...