Paul Thomas Anderson denies ‘One Battle After Another’ is rooted in current politics
Paul Thomas Anderson has denied speculation that his latest film, One Battle After Another, is rooted in the current rise of right-wing politics, claiming fascism “doesn’t go out of style.”
The director was speaking as part of a new interview with the Los Angeles Times in the run-up to the film being released, with Leonardo DiCaprio leading the cast in the comedy action thriller, based on the original novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon.
However, since the movie has begun its screenings to critics, a commentary has emerged over the likeness of the plot to certain elements of the contemporary political sphere, which Anderson insisted were entirely coincidental.
“That’s the mistake, isn’t it, to think that anything has changed,” he said. “This story could be told 20 years ago. This story could be told in the Middle Ages. You could take this story and put it in space.”
Reciting the line that the character of Perfidia, played by Teyana Taylor, says in the film, “Sixteen years later, and the world has changed very little”, Anderson then added: “The biggest mistake I could make in a story like this is to put politics up in the front.”
The director explained his thoughts behind this by saying, “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.”
Linking this to specific scenes in the movie, such as when the military turn up at an immigration raid, he then noted: “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.”
One Battle After Another will be released in cinemas on September 26th.
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