"The Master" is not the final word on L. Ron Hubbard

As a former member of the Church of Scientology (I resigned in 2010), I'm entitled to dislike the church, the subject of Scientology itself and the founder, L. Ron Hubbard. But my ire is directed only to the church.

I am a staunch believer in religious and artistic freedom, and I have no qualms with someone making a negative movie about Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard. But when people walk out of the movie theater I hope that at least some ask the question, "Could this guy have been so thoroughly bad from start to finish? Didn't he maybe once in his life pet a dog, or give some spare change to a bum?"

Since leaving the church, I have done a tremendous amount of research myself about L. Ron Hubbard that I was not allowed to do while a member, and that included talking to several other former church members who worked with him directly. What stands out in all of those conversations is L. Ron Hubbard's tireless efforts to find ways to help other people improve their lives.

There is NO question that he had his faults, but honestly, if you want to go back through history and judge a man's work according to a man's personal faults only, many luminaries would have to be removed from the textbooks.

For those who go to see "The Master": get curious about L. Ron Hubbard, look for yourself, think for yourself. This is actually good advice for any subject!

- Ron Matlock, Independent Scientologist

ACOLADES ROLLING IN FOR "THE MASTER": The film came out 9/14/12 and already set records for "single day record for an art house" and "...setting the record for highest average live-action film.." The rave reviews coming in the first week even mention the film as a good contender for an Academy Award nomination and over th past few months, prior to release, the movie has already won the Silver Lion for best director (Paul THoms Anderson) and the Volpi Cup for best actor, (both Joachim Phoenix and Phillip Seymour Hoffman)at the 69th International Venice Film Festival. The film was originally awarded Golden Lion prize for Best Film but removed due to new rules against winning both best film acting & directing as well.

Superb characters as portrayed by Hoffman and Phoenix. Perfectly boring movie with a unimaginative script. Blatant bits and pieces of Scientology, albeit sometimes horribly altered pieces, thrown about helter-skelter. My wife, a retired RN who knows very little about Scientology, left before the movie was finished. If you desire to see the movie, wait for the DVD. Howard Dickman