Paul Thomas Anderson's Film Magnolia: Reduction And Realignment

On one random day in the San Fernando Valley, a dying father, a young wife, a male caretaker, a famous lost son, a police officer in love, a boy genius, an ex-boy genius, a game show host and an estranged daughter will each become part of a dazzling multiplicity of plots, but one story. Through a collusion of coincidence, chance, human action, shared media, past history and divine intervention they will weave and warp through each other's lives on a day that builds to an unforgettable climax. Some will seek forgiveness; others escape. Some will mend frayed bonds; others will be exposed.

The following figures reduce, then realign in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia.

Claudia Wilson Gator, living on media saturation and cocaine, just wants to tell someone the truth. Claudia has trouble finding love due to her alienation. She is a drug addict in her twenties, living alone in her own apartment. A possible cause for her addiction was the sexual molestation inflicted upon her by Jimmy Gator, her famous father who is the host of "What Do Kids know?" Not building trust with one’s parents in the early stages of life can lead to severe addiction. Claudia did no

Jimmy’s beginning of his last scene is him alone on the couch where he was last seen, slowly getting up, he looks up, leans against the wall, then walks over to the doorway where he pauses leaning towards the wall, almost as a last confession for his sins, there is a picture of Claudia from when she is younger on the wall where he is leaning towards for stability. The camera then moves on to the drawer where Jimmy is seen rummaging through it. He finds the gun he is looking for. The camera shot is from the counter and slowly moves up to his face.

The last part of Jimmy’s confession scene is where Rose realizes why Claudia is the way she is and it unfolds the past of Jimmy’s relationship with Claudia walking out ten years ago. He still acts like he doesn’t know what he did and Rose gets angry and knows he knows but he just won’t say because he is denial with himself about what he did. She gets up and starts for the door; she gets her coat and the last scene of the two together is of Rose saying to Jimmy, “ You deserve to die alone for what you’ve done!” as she is crying and Jimmy ends the scene with saying, “I don’t know, but I don’t know…” suggesting his ultimate reduction as his wife is leaving him.

The first scene where Claudia and Jim Kurring meet is a very interesting scene to watch. It signifies how Claudia’s life is messed up and depicts her crazy ways. This scene begins with Jim Kurring getting a call of a disturbance from Claudia’s neighbors. It’s raining. There is a long shot as the camera moves with him as he walks from his car to her apartment and up the stairs. The music of Aimee Man is heard “…life is getting shorter” is one lyric, from her apartment signifying how crazy Claudia really is; listening to her music so loud. As Jim knocks on her door with his police bar she is snorting her cocaine as she usually does; not suspecting any trouble. There is another shot from below showing Jim banging at her door again, as she is yelling trying to clean up her coke with out having him see it. She is running around, with loud music in the background, yelling that she needs to get dressed, obviously lying a little. The scene ends with her running into a room and cuts into another scene with another character’s story; which happens through out the whole movie.

One must not forget that Anderson is depicting the lives of people in television industry. Their lives represent the pathologies of fame and success in such an industry: the career pressures, the competitiveness, the stress, the lying, alcoholism, drug addiction, and ultimately, the broken confidence of fallen glories and the defeated spirit of shame. No matter how hard we may attempt to deny it, the fact is that, "We maybe through with the past, but the past isn’t through with us."

The top of the heads of the audience introduces the beginning of Jimmy’s breakdown scene. The camera slowly moves from the heads of the audience up to the cameramen of the quiz show, then up to the small t.v. set where we see Jimmy, then onto the real set of the quiz show. The camera then moves to the three men playing the instruments for the final question of the show. It slowly moves from left to right onto the adults team, then passes across Jimmy, and zooms to Stanley the quiz kid of the show, to end with a close up of him peeing his pants. After the close up, Stanley presses his button to answer the question. He decides to tell Jimmy that he doesn’t know the answer, and Jimmy says that is not the right answer; he tells him the right answer is Ravel, then rambles on about the answer; accidentally says the answer to the final question, he is about to faint and he knows it, he tells the audience he isn’t meaning to give away the answer. The camera zooms to his face; th!

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