Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another is perhaps packaged as an motion/comedy thriller with one of many world’s largest stars, nevertheless it additionally has loads to say concerning the state of America and the federal government. The French 75’s revolutionaries try to spark change as politicians and the armed forces are imprisoning immigrants, inciting violence, and extra.
The story largely revolves across the heroes of this revolution, who refuse to let an authoritarian authorities rule with none pushback. Whereas we’re endeared to Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio), Willa (Chase Infiniti), and Sergio (Benicio Del Toro), PTA can also be purposeful in displaying Lockjaw’s (Sean Penn) chase to be accepted by the Christmas Adventurers Membership, which has unmistakable roots in white supremacy.
Taking this method permits the movie’s true themes and what PTA actually wished to say concerning the state of the nation to crystallize by One Battle After Another‘s ending. But, a second a lot earlier within the movie with Lockjaw has a small element that provides much more layers to the model of America featured right here.
We get to see firsthand how he is celebrated by the federal government after he helps catch Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) and coerces her into ratting out a lot of her fellow revolutionaries. Their deaths are celebrated by Lockjaw and his superiors, with the Colonel even receiving an award, the Bedford Forrest Medal of Honor. This medal reshapes numerous One Battle After One other.
Who Is Nathan Bedford Forrest? Why One Battle After One other Names A Medal After Him
The importance of Lockjaw receiving the Bedford Forrest Medal of Honor might go over most viewers’ heads; admittedly, I used to be amongst them. Many would possibly assume that this can be a actual medal handed out by the American authorities or one which PTA invented for the movie that has no deeper that means.
This might not be farther from the reality. The medal is called after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a real-life basic through the Civil Battle who served the Accomplice States for all the 4 years. Earlier than this, he was a slave dealer. However, his post-war profession led him to change into the primary Grand Wizard of the earliest model of the Ku Klux Klan.
The KKK started in 1865, with Forrest reportedly turning into an early member of the hate group in 1866. He was then appointed because the Klan’s chief in 1867, taking the title of Grand Wizard after turning into referred to as “The Wizard of the Saddle” through the Civil Battle.
After two years of hatred, violence, and terrorist acts underneath his management, Forrest dissolved the Klan in 1869. It in the end returned within the 1900s, grew in dimension, and widened the scope of who they need to goal as being non-American.
Attributable to his deplorable actions and affiliation, there isn’t a actual Bedford Forrest Medal of Honor in America. The federal government and army have by no means rewarded somebody with one thing named after the KKK’s first Grand Wizard.
Nevertheless, an award instantly tied to Forrest does exist within the KKK. The very best honor {that a} Klansmember might obtain was the Hero’s Cross, which had the Grand Wizard’s face engraved on it. That is primarily the closest real-life parallel to the medal Lockjaw acquired in One Battle After One other.
The film would not spend any time offering this backstory on Nathan Bedford Forrest, leaving it as much as audiences to select up on this element and have some understanding of his affiliation with the KKK. PTA might have chosen any actual determine to call this award after, however the implications of this determination for One Battle After One other make sense.
What One Battle After One other’s Nathan Bedford Forrest Connection Reveals About The Film
It is no secret {that a} massive a part of One Battle After One other is about combating again towards authoritarianism, with Lockjaw and the Christmas Adventurers Membership being clear representations of white supremacists and the way their hate-driven ideology can form the world. This is not all the time performed severely, with lots of the CAC’s conferences satirically tackling them.
The Bedford Forrest Medal of Honor is a minor element that has no vital bearing on the story. Nonetheless, it’s extremely revealing on the subject of this model of America. As a substitute of white supremacy being stored behind closed doorways and acted upon within the shadows, as is the case with the Christmas Adventurers Membership, this medal suggests America and its leaders are extra overtly aligned with this worldview.
No person can be prepared to reward an “honor” with KKK connections, sometimes, a lot much less have that tie be as blatant as utilizing the identify of the group’s first chief. This might recommend an alternate historical past for America on this world, one the place the Civil Battle performed out otherwise. Or, it would simply be an indication that the KKK’s methods grew to become extra extensively accepted than in actuality, making Forrest a extra recognizable determine in historical past.
Both method, PTA’s movie doesn’t shrink back from depicting the American authorities as primarily a much bigger model of white supremacy. This isn’t a coincidence. It is a response to the rise in hate crimes (through FBI dashboard), hate speech on-line (through PLOS ONE examine), and white supremacist propaganda (through Anti-Defamation League).
One Battle After One other would not take its political view above the army stage, nevertheless it would not have to to make its level. PTA’s movie may be very a lot a commentary on the present state of the nation, regardless of its near-future setting, in addition to a rallying cry to a brand new technology to create a greater tomorrow.
Most of that is clear even with out noticing the Nathan Bedford Forrest connection. However together with that element actually simply drives house what One Battle After One other desires to speak about America.
- Launch Date
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September 26, 2025
- Runtime
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162 minutes
- Producers
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Adam Somner
