One Battle After Another: A Cinematic Manifesto from Master Filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson

 

Master filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson's new film, One Battle After Another, which can be described as the construction of a manifesto on mind and reality, emerges as a masterpiece adapted from the novel Vineland by American author Thomas Pynchon. With a production budget of $130 million, this film is one of the most expensive projects of Anderson's career, and its global box office opening of $48.5 million is interpreted as a sign of Warner Bros.'s faith in the director. The film premiered in Los Angeles on September 8, 2025, and was released in theaters by Warner Bros. Pictures on September 26.

The story follows a former revolutionary who, while escaping the shadows of the past, enters a struggle with a corrupt state official for his daughter. This personal battle evolves into a deep journey where he confronts his past traumas, hopes for the future, and his own destiny.

The works of American author Thomas Pynchon are built on paranoia, bureaucracy, power structures, and the multi-layered nature of reality. This film, too, is about the main character's (Leonardo DiCaprio) journey to save his daughter, where he confronts his past as a former revolutionary and a corrupt military official (Sean Penn). This situation allows us to draw strong parallels, especially with the critique of power and surveillance mechanisms in the work of French philosopher Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish. Anderson combines the hidden and visible mechanisms of power's oppression on the individual with elements of suspense, dragging the audience into a philosophical labyrinth.

 

Inside a Chaotic Labyrinth

One Battle After Another is not just a film that feeds on suspense; it also offers a powerful critique of the complex structure of the modern world and the depths of human psychology. While dealing with a father's struggle to save his daughter, it draws the audience into the 'rhizome' thinking of the French philosopher and psychoanalyst Gilles Deleuze and the philosopher Félix Guattari. This concept, like a plant spreading new roots randomly underground, has a disorganized and interconnected structure. The film also bravely tackles the effects of capitalism, as well as the modern state and political ideologies, on the individual. The main character, a former revolutionary, becoming somewhat 'fossilized' and isolated in present-day America leads us to reconsider the concept of 'Dasein' (being-there) by one of the twentieth century's most influential philosophers, Martin Heidegger. The character's struggle to escape is not just a physical chase, but also an attempt to escape an existential labyrinth created by the political system.

Anderson's Cinematic Signature

This depth is combined with Anderson's masterful cinematography. The film's use of the VistaVision format once again proves the director's visual perfectionism. Long and slow tracking shots, wide-angle frames, and the use of light draw the audience into the story. Anderson's long, slow tracking shots reflect the labyrinthine existential state the character is trapped in, while his wide-angle frames convey the pressure of the modern surveillance society on the individual. The film's locations are not just a backdrop; they act as labyrinths that reflect the character's state of mind. The characters are generally flawed, obsessive, and full of internal conflicts. The music in his films is not just a background score but a crucial element that forms the emotional skeleton of the story. In One Battle After Another, we find all these elements that are the signature of the director.

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References

Pynchon, Thomas. Vineland. Little, Brown and Company, 1990.

Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Pantheon Books, 1977.

Deleuze, Gilles & Guattari, Félix. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. University of Minnesota Press, 1987.

Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Blackwell Publishing, 1962.

Greenwood, Jonny. (Composing Works).

Anderson, Paul Thomas. (Filmography and Cinematographic Approaches).

For Cinema Industry and Box Office Data: IMDbPro, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Box Office Mojo.