A gripping tale of conflict and identity in One Battle After Another

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I will hunt you down and stick a loaded hot piece of dynamite right up your One battle after another is the latest offering from director Paul Thomas Anderson, director of greats like Boogie Knights, Magnolia, and There Will Be Blood, just to name a few. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio as former radical freedom fighter Bob Ferguson, formerly Pat Calhoun, going head-to-head with Shawn Penn's, Colonel Steven Lockjaw, and extremist on the other side of the aisle in a battle of anarchy versus tyranny. So, we're going to recap the film with some commentary and analysis along the way. We'll explain the ending, break down its hidden meaning and deeper themes, and tie up and explain any loose ends that may have had you puzzled when the credits began to roll. Hey, welcome back to Screen Crush. I'm Colton Ogburn and one battle after another was really good. I'm not sure yet if I would put it over sinners, but it's close. So, the film opens with Pat Calhoun, aka Ghetto, joining the French 75, a left-wing revolutionary group determined to stomp out race, gender, and class-based authoritarianism. There we see him meet and fall in love with Perfidia Beverly Hills. Together, they embark on a raid with the French 75 to free detained immigrants from a detention center. During this raid, Perfidia meets Colonel Logjaw, who develops a sexual desire for her after she makes him touch himself before marching him out of his office. And she did this as a way to like embarrass and demean him, mocking his authority and stiff nature. What? Stiff probably not the best word choice there. Uh anyway, Profidia, Block Jaw, they couldn't be more polar opposite. Both are on the extreme fringes of their political ideologies. Profidia being a a fighter for freedom and a combatant of any level of authority imposed upon the people, committing violent acts and taking extreme measures to challenge her opposition. And on the other side of that coin, we have the equally extreme, perhaps even more extreme and definitely more cruel and intolerant Lock Jaw, who too commits violent acts and takes extreme measures to abuse his authority and take the freedoms of those who he is supposed to protect and serve. And as we'll later see, Lock Jaw is a very complicated racist. We'll get into that shortly. Now, after humiliating and locking up Lock Jaw, Perfidia takes his gun and his hat as a trophy, and her, Pat, and the French 75 continue their attacks on banks and politicians offices and the power grid. Any structure that serves as a pillar to what they view as a tyrannical empire that needs a hard reset. Now, on one of their many missions, Lock Jaw tracks down and corners Paridia in a bathroom stall where the two's sexual tension is on full display, playing into the opposites attract theory on a whole another level. These two extremists may be polar opposites, but they are cut from the same cloth in terms of their radical nature. It's almost as if they have both retreated so far into their own corners that the two points meet again, like the head and tail of a snake in an Oraoris. It's like a snake eating its own tail. They both have like a a disdain for the more casual participants of society that exist between them. And this leads to these two extremists having an unlikely attraction because in a weird way they see themselves in each other. They they feel a mutual respect in their shared disdain for the mundane and for the world being the way it is despite them having two very different ideas of how it should be. Now, Lot Jaw is particularly heinous in the fact that his attraction to perfidia and to black women in general. It isn't coming from a place of love, but really of domination, objectification, and appropriation. And this ties into the themes of colonial desire, and how systems of oppression often co-opt and exploit the very people that they subjugate. So, Lock Jaw, he agrees to let Prerfidia go if she agrees to meet him at a motel, return his hat, return his gun, and have sex with him. Now, I'm not going to sit here for a second and pretend that Profidia didn't agree to have sex with him, at least partially as a form of self-defense and worry of what would happen if she said no. After all, he did track her down and he could use his authority to bring her and her entire crew down. But I I think there was also a part of Perfidia that did find Lock Jaw repulsively attractive. And the same is true for Lockjaw who is a racist and holds this opinion that he is superior because he's a white man. And you know, he even wants to be a member of this white supremacy boys club as we learn a little later. But these two, they're so attracted to one another because they both feel like they're doing something wrong, something dirty. And that's what gets them off because they both like to live life dangerously on the edge. So following their sexual encounter, Perfidia becomes pregnant and gives birth to a baby girl, Charlene. Now Pat believes himself to be the father and he tries like hell to get Perfidia to prioritize their new family over the work of French 75 and their resistance movement. But you know, she's been fighting this fight her entire life. One battle after another. He said it. He said it. So, Preridia, she she is unwilling to prioritize her family over her resistance movement, the fight that she's been in her entire life. And on a bank heist mission to collect funds for their militia, Perfidia ends up shooting a security guard. Now, this ends with her being arrested and detained and facing a life behind bars. But, Lock Jaw, who then arrives in her hospital room, uses this situation as a moment of leverage, convincing Paridia to be a rat for him and his task force to take down members of the French 75. Profidia agrees and is placed in witness protection, relocated, given a new name, all in exchange for information on the freedom fighters, which Lock Jaw then uses to climb the ranks as he rounds up and in many instances murders Perfidia's former comrades. Now Pat and Charlene, they are also forced into hiding, taking on new names, Bob and Willa Ferguson. But we need to keep in mind they are not uh put into hiding via the government. They are put into hiding via this secret network of freedom fighters. So, Profidia, she later escapes, leaves the country, leaving Lockjaw, Pat, and her daughter behind. Then, 16 years pass, and Bob and Willa, they live in the sanctuary city of Baktung Cross. Bob has become a washed up drug addict, an alcoholic who lives in a constant state of paranoia. Who's this? Oh, they're just my friends, Dad. What is wrong with you? Not allowing Will to have a phone, or so he thinks. And while he hasn't been the best father, he's been a far better parent than either of her biological parents. one of which who abandoned her as a baby and the other who looks at her as a stain on his legacy. At this time, Willa has no idea that Lockjaw is her father or that her mother was a rat. The the story that she knows is that her mother was a hero revolutionary who was killed by Lockjaw. Now, Lock Jaw, all these years later, he has continued to climb the ranks in the US military, and his anti-immigrant efforts stand out to this white supremacist group, the Christmas Adventures Club, a powerful secret cabal of essentially Nazis who have a disdain for all people of color or non-white heritage. Now, when Lock Jaw is recruited, he is asked if he has ever engaged in an interracial relationship. He lies and says no and then embarks on a mission to track down DNA test and if needed murder Will Ferguson who he knows could possibly be his daughter and could spell doom for his ability to join the Christmas club. Axis denied. So Log hires a bounty hunter, Avanti, who captures Howard Somerville, a member of the resistance who worked with Profidia and Bob in the old days and has continued his efforts all these years later. Now, this capture of Howard is reported via distress call, and the entire French 75 and the Freedom Fighter Network leap into action to avoid apprehension. Lock Jaw then prepares a decoy drug raid of the sanctuary city as an excuse to enact the full force of his team to find Willa and kill Bob. Willa is at the school dance and in the bathroom, she is cornered by Deandra, a member of the French 75. And after they exchange some code words and their beacons begin to harmonize, Lila goes with Deandra, but she lies about having a cell phone, which ultimately leads to Lockjaw and his crew being able to track her down. But first, they go for Bob. He escapes through an underground tunnel, and poor Bob, for the life of him, cannot remember the code words needed to get the rendevous point coordinates. I need to find my daughter. Well, then call us back when you have the time. Did you you just did you? So with nowhere else to go, Bob goes to Willis's karate sensei Sergio. Sergio is not only a karate teacher, but a community leader and freedom fighter in his own right, but not part of the French 75. Now, in the midst of helping Bob, Sergio is also helping the many undocumented immigrants who he's been helping hide and stay safe in this sanctuary city. Again, playing into this theme of one battle after another. They're always in the fight, moving from one fight to the next, a never-ending battle of good and evil, which is the entire theme of this movie. So Bob winds up getting captured and arrested after falling off a rooftop, but Sergio intervenes and has nurses who are a part of his own network of freedom fighters. They help Bob escape authorities. Sergio picks him up and they embark on their journey to the nunnery where Willa is being hidden. And there at the nunnery nunnery nunnery of sorts, Willa learns the truth about her mother and how she betrayed them all. Lock Jaw's past also begins to catch up with him when the Whitey gang find out that he had sex with Pervidia and that he likely has a mixed race child. Tim Smith is then sent to kill Log Jaw for his transgressions. Now, before Bob can make it to the convent to rescue Willa, Lock Jaw and his crew arrive and Lojaw DNA tests Willa and it's confirmed that she is in fact his daughter. Lock Jaw is now determined to eliminate Willa and he loads her up in his car. Bob from afar takes a shot at Lock Jaw but misses. Lojaw gets away, takes Willa to his bounty hunter, Avanti. He asks Avanti to dispose of Willa, but Avanti refuses because she's a child. Log Jaw then ultimately convinces him to at least take her to a group of like white nationalist soldiers who will do the job. Avanti reluctantly agrees and takes Willow away, but he can't bring himself to leave her there and he goes back and frees her, kills the soldiers, but he too is shot and killed in the midst of that battle. Now, this was actually a really nice moment of solidarity between Avanti and Willa, both being looked down upon for being mixed race. Vonte, as we learned, is part Native American. So, Bob is in the car that he stole after having to bail from Sergio's ride mid police chase. And he is chasing Lock Jaw's black SUV, thinking that Log Jaw still has Willa. But before Bob can catch him, Tim arrives and blows Log's face off. So once Bob checks the crashed SUV and thinks Lock Jaw is dead and confirms that Willow was not in the car, he turns back and we see this epically shot yet simultaneously nauseating chase through these hills with the tracking shots of the camera like mounted to a car and going down these these hilly roads. a really clever filming technique that comes into play later in the scene when Willis stops in the middle of the road and hides behind a billboard knowing that by the time Tim who is now pursuing her to kill her, he won't be able to stop and will crash into the car. So after that happens, perfect plan, he gets out, he doesn't know the code words, so Willa shoots him dead and then Bob arrives. Now, Bob, he's still unaware. I I think that Willa is not his biological daughter, but Willa at this point, you know, her entire life has been turned upside down. She learned her biological dad is a Nazi who wants to kill her. Her mom was a traitor. She's in a state of shock from having just killed a man. And I think that is why she is yelling and asking Bob who he is and demanding code words. She She's just she's traumatized. Her entire life has been turned upside down. She's in shock, but but then she's able to snap out of it and they together get in the car and they leave. I said that Bob doesn't know that Lockjaw is actually her biological father. I I'm I'm unsure if he knows and I'm unsure if Willa ever like shares that information with him. But, you know, I I also think it's possible that Bob just may already have been somewhat aware of at least the possibility that Willa wasn't his biological child, especially after that confrontation he had with Lock Jaw in that grocery store at the beginning of the movie. But what's important is that Bob doesn't care. Bob doesn't care if she's his biological daughter because she is his daughter in every way that actually matters. So, next we see Lock Jaw with his goofy ass walk and blood covered face walking down the road, having survived his shot to the face in car crash. He's brutally scarred from it. And when being interviewed by the White Christmas Nazis, he lies and says that he was reverse raped. And then we get the best line of the movie. Seaman Demon Lock Jaw, you know, he he then thinks that that they've bought his story and that he's been accepted into the group. They lead him to his new office. He sits down at his desk, but then realizes that he's being gassed because they aren't buying his story. And they really don't frankly care how he got a black woman pregnant. They don't care if he was raped. They don't care if he did it consensually. All they care about is the fact that he had sex with a black woman. That that is a big no no according to them. And they want him eliminated and not a part of their group. They don't want any evidence that he was almost part of their group. They they just absolutely despise him for having dared to engage with sex with someone of a different race and for having a child of mixed race. And this shows us again just how extreme and fanatical this Christmas group is. And it reminds us of how this movie really is a story of radicals versus radicals. Were Bob and Profidia a part of what you could really only describe as a domestic terrorist group? I mean, yeah. There's no sugar coating it. that's what they were. But you could at least somewhat argue, if you're being fair, you could argue that they were at least doing it for what they viewed as for the right reasons. Even if you're you're doing your radical stuff for what you perceive as the greater good, even that can reach a state of fight that begins to fall back in on itself and become bad. Like I said, that it's the snake eating its own tail and violence be getting more violence. Whereas the other radicals on the other side, they they're just pure evil. So the title itself, one battle after another, suggests that conflict is not a one-time event, but a perpetual condition. The film seems to argue that the fight for justice, equality, and emancipation, it it never fully ends. And new inequities and oppressions, and you know, permutations of power, they're always going to emerge. So resistance is is always key. It's always important. The second you become complacent is the second things start to get bad again. So you always have to be in that fight. But you know the the film simultaneously it it doesn't abandon hope. Willa I think represents a new generation that yes inherits both the burdens but also the aspirations of her parents and their movement. And I think she is entering yeah yet another battle but a battle that's a a protest not a terrorist attack. So, I think that's meant to give us a slightly more hopeful message that she can fight for the same things, just not in the same way. And perhaps this way that she's going to fight will be more effective. Now, one of the film's more provocative messages is its willingness to complicate this binary between good radicals and bad authorities. The the film depicts extremism on both ends. It's not like this simple redemption of violent radicalism, nor is it a blunt like condemnation of any and all resistance. Leonardo DiCaprio has even spoken of how this film like tries to deal with ideas of extremism without pushing like a single like on-nose agenda. Now, what I appreciated about the lock jaw character is that he is more than just a a caricature of like this, you know, radical racist bad guy. He his rise to power reflects how systems of authority can use fear to manipulate and control people. So, really, I think what the film is asking is when does resistance itself become problematic? How far can one go before losing the moral high ground? Now, many people I've seen talking about this movie are, of course, comparing it to our own modern politics with, you know, themes of extreme polarization, authoritarianism on the rise, systemic corruption, the issue of immigration, racial tensions, and in some cases even violent rebellion. But hey guys, those are just my thoughts and theories on this really great movie. I would love to hear yours down in the comments below. Let me know what you thought about the film. And do you think do you think that maybe best picture? It's only September. We still got a lot of lot of movies to go and we've got, you know, that, you know, end of the year where you start to see more like critically acclaimed films released because they want them released right before the Oscars. So, we'll see what what the studios have up their sleeve. But I think it's safe to say this film totally is at least going to get a nomination. But yeah, and hey, if you enjoy discussions like this, be sure to subscribe, hit the bell so you get notified every time we upload a new video. For Screen Crush, I'm Coltson Agburn. [Music]