The upcoming movie, “One Battle After Another,” unties the tight knots a family and their pasts create. At the heart of the film is a father-daughter relationship. Its blood contains that of revolutionists … and the bodies themselves? Fighters.
A First for Paul Thomas Anderson
VALLEY had the incredible opportunity to join a press conference with the cast of this film. “One Battle After Another” is directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio Del Toro, Sean Penn, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti.
“I might’ve been noodling around with this and writing it for 20 years, but Benicio came in to do his sequence, and we wrote the best sequence in the movie in a day and a night at dinner, really,” says Anderson.
This film is a new direction for Anderson, as it involves much action and large-scale scenes. “I learned that it’s a lot more boring than it looks when you see it on the film. It certainly doesn’t give you the intense satisfaction that it does working hand-to-hand in a scene with actors; that’s the most fun that you can have and the most satisfying,” he shares. But that is not to say the thrill of the movie doesn’t translate onto the big screen.
“[The movie is like] 3D without the glasses. It’s big. It’s present,” Anderson says.
The Story
This film follows Leonard DiCaprio’s character, Bob, a former revolutionist, and his teenage daughter, Willa, played by Chase Infiniti, who now lives off the grid together. When Willa goes missing after Bob’s nemesis reappears, Bob must go back to his previous ways and fight to find his daughter.
“I love this sort of slice of life where you find Bob and Willa at the beginning of this movie. It’s not this utopian happy villager set up. It’s a father disconnecting with his daughter,” says DiCaprio. “She’s of a different generation, and he’s completely disconnected from her. He’s a disaster of a father, and then all of a sudden, he’s put into this wild circumstance to try to save her. And it’s just a beautiful bit of writing.”
“One Battle After Another” is raw, intense and captures the true essence of humanity. Filmed in the remote deserts of Arizona, the movie also ties in real people within their everyday lives.
“There were real shop owners, real soldiers, real correction facility people, corrections officers, nurses, all that stuff. The integration almost felt like doing a documentary simultaneously, because those locations informed the narrative and the culture of what this movie and who our characters were,” DiCaprio says.
Finding A Connection
As with all movies, each individual character in this film has their own faults, their own triumphs, their own understanding of the world. “One Battle After Another” highlights these characters’ stories, and the actors themselves work to understand and portray this on screen.
“I just love the premise of somebody that you think is going to be this hero, that’s able to resurrect and use the tools from his revolutionary past to become the ultimate hero,” says DiCaprio. “But his real heroism is the idea that he just keeps relentlessly moving forward to protect his daughter. And I love the idea that you also expect that this character’s going to use massive espionage skills, but he cannot remember the password. It’s just a brilliant setup for what is ultimately a very flawed hero dynamic that he created.”
The concept of a strained father-daughter relationship is what fuels the movie’s journey. We are introduced to characters from Bob’s past, characters equally as flawed, as he revisits his former way of life to save his daughter — a girl who never fully understood her family’s past.
“I think more than anything, what I wanted to do was hone in on her feeling of not fully knowing a bit of her story,” Infiniti shares about her character, Willa. “And I think regardless, in any relationship that she has with a character, any storyline thing, I think that really helped me drop into her.”
See It Now!
While the film speaks on heavy topics relating to the desire for redemption, the complexities of family relationships and even post-pardon depression, the movie establishes a comedic balance. “When I read the script the first time, I started giggling at about page three and then I didn’t go very many pages where that didn’t happen,” Penn says.
“One Battle After Another” is for the adventure seekers. It’s for the people still creating their story. You might see a part of you in each of the characters, or you might come to understand a new part of you. Regardless, this movie has the ability to resonate with anyone — even if it just entertains you.
Check out “One Battle After Another” in theaters Sept. 26! Make sure to tag @valleymag on all socials when you do!
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