The Archetypal film “One Battle After Another” by Paul Thomas Anderson. SPOILERS BELOW!
One Battle After Another is the rare film – a thrill-ride that also deeply explores our current political/historical moment. It also feels mythic in its ongoing battles between power and rebellion. Anderson’s script and direction manage to create heart-rending characters living in a world that alternates between earnest realism and bludgeoning satire. It is a powerful film. It is not a subtle one.
Archetypically, we begin with the villain of Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw, (Sean Pean) a ramrod straight military zealot, the epitome of power-hungry racism, homophobia, and violence. He clashes with Perfidia (Teyana Taylor – the name means “treachery”). In an opening scene we see the two face to face in an extreme close up — an image of the struggle between two perennial foes – in this case a young, black, revolutionary – and this white supremacist destroyer. We side with Perfidia but she isn’t perfect. In fact, she seems to revel in an erotic power-dance with Lockjaw, playing with his attraction to her. Their sex act is filled with gun play.
While the film sides with the rebels, they are, like Perfidia, far from perfect. And both the political right and left are swallowed by their own violence in the film.
Thankfully, Anderson protects us from the most brutal scenes – he spares us from scenes of torture, but they are implied, as the military thugs get what they want. They always get what they want. And our hero, the bedraggled Bob, (Leonardo Di Caprio) fights “one battle after another” in his pajamas.
The military machine is relentless and I was breathless through much of this film. But this isn’t just a film with incredible chase scenes. This is a mythic story. After Perfidia is defeated, her beautiful and courageous daughter (Willa – Chase Infiniti) rises up to fight her father, Lockjaw. Anderson repeats the close-up image but this time, Willa takes the place of her mother, suggesting that the fight continues. We all must fight the old systems of oppression and violence. Anderson offers us hope that, even though it is one battle after another, heroes like Willa can take us toward a better world.
Anderson doesn’t flinch when showing us the horror of the police state but he ultimately offers the mythic view of renewal through a series of ordinary heroes who make up an invisible underground non-violent resistance. A destroying savagery of unconsciousness and evil continues – but this story, like all the greatest stories, tells us that Spring will come again
Why is OBAA considered a great film? Writing, acting, directing, and cinematography are all exceptional. But OBAA goes beyond most films because Anderson’s story moves us into a timeless realm, the eternal drama, the evolution toward consciousness.
Children of Men has similar themes and is also highly recommended.
As Professor Arnold J. Toynbee indicates… schism in the soul, schism in the body social, will not be resolved by any scheme of return to the good old days (archaism), or by programs guaranteed to render an ideal projected future (futurism), or even by the most realistic, hardheaded work to weld together the deteriorating elements. Only birth can conquer death – the birth, not of the old thing again, but of something new. Within the soul, within the body social, there must be – if we are to experience long survival – a continuous “recurrence of birth” (palingenesia) to nullify the unremitting recurrences of death. For it is by means of our own victories, if we are not regenerated, that the work of Nemesis is wrought: doom breaks from the shell of our very virtue. Peace is then a snare; war is a snare; change is a snare; permanence is a snare. When our day is come for the victory of death, death closes in; there is nothing we can do, except be crucified – and resurrected; dismembered totally, and then reborn. – Joseph Campbell, “The Hero With A Thousand Faces”
For more blog posts on films visit
The Archetypal film “One Battle After Another”