I didn't know much of L. Ron Hubbard or Scientology coming into this movie but I knew a few things.
As the film progressed and the strangeness and lack of plot/hook continued apace I started to piece together in my mind what was going on, and what I came up with is this:
Freddie Quell, the Joaquin Phoenix drifter in this film, is the Id-driven alter ego component of Lancaster Dodd/Hubbard (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Quell's life is, in fact, the same as Dodd's as they inhabit the same persona.
Dodd is wrestling with his demons and his ambitions and Quell represents the Id persona Dodd/Hubbard had to leave behind in order to fulfill his self-fulfilling prophecy of purity apart from animal instincts.
This explains the closeness of the two characters, the frequent twin-ism on screen (one example: the two of them wrestling when Quell returns) and the strangeness of the plot: the plot IS Hubbard/Dodd's quest to purify himself. Quell pacing back and forth between wall and window is part of that process.
Going back and looking at the movie and researching L. Ron Hubbard it also makes sense for Anderson to split the Master character's duality into two separate characters as Hubbard seems very clearly to have been a split personality character himself.
When Hubbard/Dodd goes off to sea the metaphor is that he has to leave the Id and animal instincts on shore. This explains the (spoiler alert) ending: Quell on the shore, no longer hung up on sex, but stuck in his animal instincts nonetheless, repeating lines from Hubbard/Dodd and finally left behind on the sand with a female nipple sand sculpture: the Id is abandoned and Dodd's Ego and Superego (Amy Adams, his wife) are on the sea.
Quell's name is chosen carefully, just as carefully as this film is constructed.
As the film progressed and the strangeness and lack of plot/hook continued apace I started to piece together in my mind what was going on, and what I came up with is this:
Freddie Quell, the Joaquin Phoenix drifter in this film, is the Id-driven alter ego component of Lancaster Dodd/Hubbard (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Quell's life is, in fact, the same as Dodd's as they inhabit the same persona.
Dodd is wrestling with his demons and his ambitions and Quell represents the Id persona Dodd/Hubbard had to leave behind in order to fulfill his self-fulfilling prophecy of purity apart from animal instincts.
This explains the closeness of the two characters, the frequent twin-ism on screen (one example: the two of them wrestling when Quell returns) and the strangeness of the plot: the plot IS Hubbard/Dodd's quest to purify himself. Quell pacing back and forth between wall and window is part of that process.
Going back and looking at the movie and researching L. Ron Hubbard it also makes sense for Anderson to split the Master character's duality into two separate characters as Hubbard seems very clearly to have been a split personality character himself.
When Hubbard/Dodd goes off to sea the metaphor is that he has to leave the Id and animal instincts on shore. This explains the (spoiler alert) ending: Quell on the shore, no longer hung up on sex, but stuck in his animal instincts nonetheless, repeating lines from Hubbard/Dodd and finally left behind on the sand with a female nipple sand sculpture: the Id is abandoned and Dodd's Ego and Superego (Amy Adams, his wife) are on the sea.
Quell's name is chosen carefully, just as carefully as this film is constructed.