SOME SEARCH FOR BATTLE, OTHERS ARE BORN INTO IT…
Leonardo DiCaprio once said that turning down Boogie Nights (1997) was the greatest regret of his career. Paul Thomas Anderson, who was just starting out, had seen DiCaprio in The Basketball Diaries (1995) and thought he would be right for the part of fledgling porn star Dirk Diggler. DiCaprio was intrigued but had already signed on for Titanic, and recommended Mark Wahlberg instead. Things worked out pretty well for both actors; Dirk Diggler really is one of Wahlberg’s signature roles, and Titanic made DiCaprio a global phenomenon.
Still, DiCaprio has always been interested in more than just box office success, and he missed the chance to appear in Anderson’s first great movie. One Battle After Another makes up for it.
Humiliating an officer
The French 75 are a far-left revolutionary group that has set its sights on a California detention center for immigrants. Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor), who’s part of the group, sexually humiliates the center’s commanding officer, Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn), and over time he becomes fascinated with her. As the group continues attacks on banks and offices, Perfidia and Lockjaw meet again, resulting in a motel encounter that has deep consequences. She finds a lover in another French 75 fighter, ”Ghetto” Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio), and soon Perfidia’s having a baby. Turns out family life is not for her, so she abandons Pat and young Charlene for the thrills of a revolutionary life.
16 years later, a lot has changed. Pat has become Bob Ferguson, living in a sanctuary city with Charlene, who’s now Willa. And Lockjaw is a colonel and member of a secretive racist society. Suspecting his motel incident with Perfidia has resulted in a biracial daughter, he sets out to erase tracks that might lead to him…
Struggling with Pynchon
Anderson had been trying to turn Thomas Pynchon’s novel ”Vineland” into a movie for decades. After writing several short stories, he could see a script take shape, one that included elements of ”Vineland”. That novel was set in the 1980s and dealt with the contrast between the 1960s and a more repressive Nixon-Reagan era; what remains of the novel in this movie is some of the politics and the depiction of a father-daughter relationship. DiCaprio is a lot of fun as the revolutionary who’s become your typical teen dad, worrying about who your daughter is dating and failing to keep up with the times; Chase Infiniti is arresting as Willa who’s thrown into her dad’s old life. This is a very strong cast, where also Penn stands out as the tightly wound soldier who’s created a tough shell to protect his weakness: a lack of brains that has made him very insecure and susceptible to racist propaganda camouflaging as ”patriotism”.
Paul Thomas Anderson and his crew are masterful at keeping track of parallel events.
There were times when I was watching the film that reminded me of Anora (2024); it has the same propulsive energy that fuels chases and action scenes, that generates tension and laughs, with a young woman at the center of it. Anderson and his crew are masterful at keeping track of parallel events, making sure we are invested in all of it, leading up to that thrilling chase on a desert road where a blind summit becomes useful.
One Battle After Another was critically lauded, but there was discontent among conservative writers, who thought the film celebrated left-wing violence and fed into the idea that the U.S. is a fascist dictatorship. However, the film makes it clear that fighting fascism the way the French 75 do it has severe consequences. Also, the filmmakers correctly identify some of the dangers in American society – the main threat will likely always continue to be far-right violence.
One Battle After Another 2025-U.S. 162 min. Color. Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Novel: Thomas Pynchon (”Vineland”). Cinematography: Michael Bauman. Editing: Andy Jurgensen. Music: Jonny Greenwood. Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio (Bob Ferguson), Sean Penn (Steven J. Lockjaw), Benicio del Toro (Sergio St. Carlos), Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti, Tony Goldwyn. Voice of Jena Malone.
Trivia: Co-produced by Anderson. Viggo Mortensen and Joaquin Phoenix were reportedly considered for roles.
Golden Globes: Best Motion Picture (Comedy/Musical), Director, Supporting Actress (Taylor), Screenplay. BAFTA: Best Film, Director, Supporting Actor (Penn), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing.
Last word: “The biggest mistake I could make in a story like this is to put politics up in the front. That has a short shelf life. To sustain a story over two hours and 40 minutes, you have to care about the characters and take those big swings in terms of the emotional arcs of people and their pursuits and why you love that person and why you hate this person. That’s not a thing that ever goes out of fashion. But neither does fascism and neither does people doing bad shit to other people. Unfortunately, that doesn’t go out of style, either. That’s just how we humans are.” (Anderson, The Los Angeles Times)