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P.S. Hoffman & Joaquin Phoenix: The Master

My infatuation with the movies is well known but my involvement with the actors and their characters is even more heartwarming. There are innumerable movies that I saw simply because they featured my favorite actors, however they themselves were not great. Examples could be infinite, however for the sake of this article I'll have to produce something here. Anger Management for Jack Nicholson (boy, isn't he a legend?), Swing Vote for Kevin Costner, Snatch for Brad Pitt, Legends of the Fall (Brad Pitt), Leon: The Professional, Immortal Beloved, Bram Stroker's Dracula, State of Grace & Prick up your ears; all for Gary Oldman (mind you, he is a chameleon). Meanwhile, I started accumulating some of the finest performances by some of the legendary actors of all time. Very recently, as anyone who follows me regularly knows, I grew very much fond of the craft and artistry of Daniel Day-Lewis. He is a fine, fine actor whose study and impersonation of a character is often picture-perfect. Such was the impact he had on me with his performance in "Lincoln" that I started wondering whether I could ever find his equivalent in Hollywood.

As anyone familiar with the old noble ways of 'Hollywood' knows that Hollywood personifies commercialism and prefers materialism over the presenatation of emotions in its motion pictures and thus churns out actors which suits the indignation of these films. Though there are a number of fine actors in Hollywood like Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, Tom Hanks & Leonardo De Caprio and many more but they never match the emotional depth very often portrayed by their contemporary English counterparts such as Peter O' Toole, Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins, Ralph Fienns, Sir Laurence Olivier, Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, and Daniel Day-Lewis. In this way, I was sitting not dejected but unfulfilled in my verandah in my search of a suitable competitor for Mr. Daniel Day-Lewis.

Like always, I found my solace in the D-Drive of my laptop where I've manged to compile a collection of classic movies. I found my eyes staggering at a film named 'The Master' by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring  Phillip Seymour Hoffman & Joaquin Phoenix. Phillip Seymour Hoffman needs no introduction as he is an actor that never compromised with his craft of acting, never complied with Hollywood norms and yet delivered performances so awesome to neglect in films like 'Capote', 'Moneyball', 'Almost Famous' & 'Mullholland Dr.' However, it was the the actor of this film that managed to amaze me in this film and he was Joaquin Phenix, the same actor who has portrayed Commodus in Russel Crowe's Gladiator, Johnny Cash in 'Walk the Line'. With a twisted upper lip, he has impersonated a world war-2 vet Freddie Quell who meets a spiritual master, played by P.S. Hoffmam, who guides him to redemption. Phoenix brings so much raw emotion, feelings and pain to this role that it becomes almost impossible for you to get an eye off him and these emotions and artistry is the same which was showcased to us by Mr. Lewis in films like 'My Left Foot', 'In the name of the father' and ' There will be blood'.

Now I was in peace. I finally found out a suitable 'counterpart' of Mr. Lewis in 'Hollywood' in 'Mr. Joaquin Phoenix'.    

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