Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” is a powerful film that highlights the value of constant struggle with delicate feelings and impactful direction. The film is an American action-thriller that follows Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio), an ex-revolutionist, who deals with internal and external conflicts such as the abuse of alcohol and drugs, meanwhile also battling the abandonment of his wife and the kidnapping of his daughter. Bob is pulled into a life of rebellion when his wife and company make him fight against a corrupt military.
The movie kicks off with a violent scene as Bob and his wife are on a mission to release undocumented immigrants from a immigration facility. While on the mission, Perfidia Beverly Hills, Bob’s wife, encounters the villain of the story Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw. The movie takes a dramatic twist when Bob’s wife encounters Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn).
This leads Bob to not only start battling against Colonel’s excessive force from his corrupt system, but also start dealing with his inner problems of drug and alcohol abuse. Say what you thought about these action scenes were intense and meaningful, and felt more personal and emotional.
The highest point of action is when Bob’s daughter is kidnapped by the Colonel, and he goes to her rescue and is faced with all types of adversity, and gets increasingly tense throughout his journey.
An impressive job is also shown when showcasing one of the most important and recent problems this country has been facing, which is immigration. In the development of the movie a large number of Latin/x people protested giving it life to current life issues. The scene shows how many Latinos protest and at the same time are being stripped of their own businesses and jobs.
The film does a good job at catching not only people’s attention, but empathy as it kicks off at a immigration facility making the audience feel the desperation and fear of the characters in each scene, empathy grows even more when Bob’s internal problems begin to return as he falls back into alcoholism and drug abuse.
An intense film from start to finish, “One Battle After Another” showcases relentless, heartfelt action through the well rounded protagonist in Bob who was able to defeat his inner and external problems with the recapture of his daughter.
