The film is Freddie's journey through the pain of his life. He's pressed it down with alcohol and his own special cocktails he created while on board his Navy vessel during WWII. Anderson shows us Quell's obsessive desire for sex and to be medicated with any form of booze. These are his way of not having to deal with the pain. When Dodd enters the story, Anderson then shows us how the charismatic leader of the Cause is able to genuinely help Freddie make a breakthrough, to feel once more. But, this emotionally charged interview or processing session between the two simply creates a bond between the pair. Their lives begin to unravel from this point on.
Symbolically, Freddie and Dodd are on a ship, then make their way to dry land. On the open water, Dodd and his ideas are truth, but as the characters progress further inland they come into opposition of Dodd's so called truth. With every step forward we watch as Dodd is unraveled to be a fraud, while Freddie is unraveled to have true emotional experiences. By the end of the film, Dodd is wound up tight again while Freddie is left far more open. With the choice to stay with Dodd or leave forever, Freddie leaves for better or worse. It is the beginning of his truth beginning to be lived out in his life, rather than the truth of another man as he had fought fiercely for Dodd. The picture's end reveals that perhaps, just maybe, Freddie will begin to fight for himself.
