Magnolia Paul Thomas Anderson\'s 1999 Film Magnolia

Magnolia

Paul Thomas Anderson's 1999 film Magnolia depicts a complex web of interlocking events, people, and relationships. The three-hour masterpiece proves that long cinematic journeys need not be tedious, tiresome, products of an overly ambitious producer. The movie is a delightful, rambling, and decidedly human production. The cast combines an array of famous and not-so-famous actors who all deliver star performances. However, its scriptural and cinematographic elements: strong character development, mood, and symbolism, are what makes Magnolia stand out. The movie depicts nearly a dozen different characters whose lives either already are or will become intertwined by chance or coincidence. Chance and coincidence are focal points of Magnolia, as are family ties and especially the father-child relationship. Many of the characters eventually heal troubled ties with dad by the end, thereby reaching another level of self-fulfillment and self-realization as well. Forgiveness and coming to terms with the truths of the past become some of the most important lessons learned by the film's central characters. P.T. Anderson deftly employs lighting, skillful camera angles, and sweeping shots to maintain a surreal mood throughout Magnolia, which is as much dark comedy as magical realism. Symbolism, although not absolute rendering of cosmic concepts and ideas, nevertheless operates at a subliminal level: the frogs falling from the sky is the most poignant example of how Anderson uses symbolism in Magnolia. Frogs, quiz shows, songs, and spotlights become unifying elements that tie together the lives of all human beings.

Characters develop organically in Magnolia, in response to personal or global crises. The film contains a colorful array of people: Frank TJ Mackey (Tom Cruise) is an egotistical self-help guru's whose main platform is "Seduce and Destroy," a plan for male sexual conquest. Mackey is estranged from his father, Earl Partridge (Jason Robards), who lies dying in his bed with tubes down his nose throughout the entire picture. Their strained father-child relationship parallels with that of at least two other tales in Magnolia. Jimmy Gator (Philip Baker Hall) is an old-time television show host who has been recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. With only a few months left to live, he tries to mend ties with his estranged daughter Claudia (Melora Walters). Claudia is a lonely cocaine addict, and shuns her dad in spite of his admission of illness. While theirs are the central father-child conflicts in the film, the theme is echoed in the relationship between Stanley Spector (Jeremy Blackman) and his dad. Stanely is the latest eight-year-old whiz kid who stars on the television quiz show hosted by none other than Jimmy Gator. The show's title, "What Do Kids Know?" drives home the point that parents might not listen to their children as much as they should. At the end of the film, Stanley pees in his pants on the set because the producers won't let him go to the washroom. In a selfishly driven rage, Stanley's father freaks out, but the incident sparks perhaps the first signs of independence and self-respect by the young boy. He finally tells his father, "Dad, you need to treat me better." Finally, Stanley represents the younger generation of whiz kids: his story mirrors almost exactly that of Donnie Smith (William H. Macy) who was the whiz kid in the 1960s. His parents ran off with his earnings from the show, and Donnie is forced to peddle furniture for an unfulfilling living.

Through interpersonal and intergenerational conflicts, each of the characters transforms their attitudes and outlooks. One of the reasons Magnolia needs to be three hous long is because such deep changes do not happen overnight in human beings. Rather, change occurs through a series of painful realizations and in some cases, weird coincidences. Frank Mackey seems the least likely of all the characters in Magnolia that will change. Yet by the end of the film, he too breaks down in genuine tears for his dying father. His pent-up feelings, a complex mixture of love, hatred, rage, and sadness, finally come to the surface in the last moments of Earl Partridge's life. Similarly, Claudia breaks through from her self-imposed depression and addiction, but not without the help of a cop who falls in love with her. Both Claudia and Frank Mackey are affected by their father's illnesses, and each changes of their own accord. Their liberation is noticeable also in the changes in young Stanley, who finally sticks up to his overbearing father.

P.T. Anderson creates a soulful and surreal, yet ironic and darkly comedic mood throughout Magnolia. Music and sound are some of the key cinematic elements the writer/director uses to impart mood. For example, the parent-child conflict is reflected in subtle cues such as a voice-over repeating the Catholic adage about the sins of the father, being reenacted in the children. Songs pierce through and punctuate the film, culminating in a song that is sung simultaneously by all the main characters. Such unifying elements occur throughout Magnolia, and are the key to showing how in spite of separate lives, all human beings are interconnected. Weather is one of the most inescapable and cosmic realities that no human being can escape. Anderson capitalizes on this by punctuating the film with weather reports, as the weather links all people within any given locale. Cosmic events as well as chance encounters tie together otherwise distant individuals. For example, Jim the cop happened to be driving down the street off-duty, and notices Donnie climbing up a building pipe. Their lives intersected through chance and coincidence. Jim lost his gun under similar circumstances: driving home off-duty, he stopped to investigate a suspicious person and lost his gun. When Jim and Donnie meet during the frog downfall, the gun, too, falls from the sky.