One Battle After Another, the latest Paul Thomas Anderson masterpiece, has finally arrived on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Ultra-HD, allowing audiences to experience its vivid storytelling and intense action from home. The film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Bob, a former revolutionary fighting to protect his teenage daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti) from a menacing adversary (Sean Penn), earned 13 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, solidifying its status as a major cinematic achievement.
This release offers fans a chance to revisit Anderson’s gripping narrative, especially in the 4K UHD format, which delivers stunning picture quality and sound comparable to the original VistaVision experience. To mark this occasion, we spoke with Academy Award-nominated editor Andy Jurgensen to uncover behind-the-scenes insights about the film’s production challenges and creative decisions.
Production Pauses for Key Actor’s Availability
The production of One Battle After Another faced a notable interruption early on, pausing for three months after six weeks of initial shooting in Sacramento to accommodate Benicio del Toro’s schedule. Del Toro was completing his work on Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, another highly regarded film by a certain Anderson. This hiatus provided Paul Thomas Anderson and editor Andy Jurgensen time to review the footage shot thus far and identify areas needing improvement before resuming filming.
“We had about two months where Paul and I could work on everything that had been shot up to that point. We had a good cut at that point,”
Jurgensen said.
“We knew the little holes in the movie and that was really helpful to kind of inform the rest of production.”
During this period, the filmmakers realized major reshoots were necessary to clarify key story elements, such as the early scenes involving the revolutionary group known as the French 75 and the assault on an immigration camp. According to Jurgensen, the original footage left the setting ambiguous.
“We shot at some other location and it was a little unclear that it was an immigration camp,”
he explained.
Additional reshoots included a pivotal encounter between Teyana Taylor’s character and Sean Penn’s villain inside a trailer, which was relocated for better visual storytelling.
“It was at a completely different location. We didn’t go back to it. We needed it to be clear that there were immigrants in cages,”
Jurgensen said.
“It didn’t set up the French 75 well enough. And the first meeting between Sean and Teyana could have been better. This is something that is so great – Paul will just say, ‘Okay, we’re going to pivot.’ Luckily, we were able to get the few extra days and it was just part of the second half of the shoot.”
Jurgensen also highlighted Anderson’s habit of filming alternate takes or variations on scenes.
“Paul will shoot alt versions of scenes or different ways of doing stuff, in case something just needs to be a couple of lines or silent, we have the option,”
he described. This approach ensures flexibility during editing, allowing the team to reconstruct scenes or build montages if necessary—much like preparing for unforeseen hurdles in the narrative, a tactic fitting for the French 75 storyline.
Minimal Studio Interference Throughout Post-Production
Despite Warner Bros.’ involvement in the post-production phase, Andy Jurgensen affirmed that the studio did not impose drastic revisions on Anderson’s vision for the film. The editing process included routine trimming to enhance pacing but avoided extensive or commercial-driven overhauls.
“We trimmed it down and that was just our normal process,”
Jurgensen shared.
While Anderson typically resists test screenings, Warner Bros. encouraged some audience tests to gauge the film’s reception, especially considering its delicate themes dealing with race and politics. Anderson consented, partly to verify that the comedic elements landed as intended.
“There are some sensitive things in the movie, both racial things and political things. It was going to be interesting for us to test it in different parts of the country,”
Jurgensen noted.
The results showed the humor was effective and even sparked considerations on how to enhance specific sequences.
“The tests confirmed that the humor was working. And luckily, it did confirm, when you’re kind of trying to figure out, How can we push it a little further? How can we do things?”
he said.
Importantly, the studio maintained a supportive stance without exerting pressure to alter or remove content, allowing Anderson artistic control.
“They were supportive. I think the test screenings helped us because they were reacting so well to it,”
Jurgensen reflected.
Deleted Scene Reveals Additional Character Depth
During a special screening, Teyana Taylor referenced a deleted scene involving her character, which was confirmed by Andy Jurgensen to have originally appeared in the prologue. In this scene, Taylor’s character makes a covert phone call to Regina Hall’s character, who is another member of the French 75 revolutionary group, as the villain Lockjaw looms nearby.
“She is on the phone, calling Regina’s character and Lockjaw is in the background. And basically she’s talking in code speak, being like, ‘You have to take the socks out,’ basically the code word for Willa,”
Jurgensen described.
This scene was ultimately removed to maintain the film’s relentless momentum. Jurgensen explained the delicate balance the filmmakers sought in establishing Taylor’s character throughout the story despite her limited screen time.
“That scene with Regina and Teyana had to go because you don’t really need it. It’s tough, because that prologue is setting up so much and setting up Teyana, that she only really appears in that and at the very end. It needs to be substantial enough. You need to feel her throughout the entire movie. So you really have to set her up properly,”
he said.
He further elaborated on the filmmakers’ effort to layer themes of postpartum depression and emotional complexity within the film’s structure, while keeping the narrative’s momentum unbroken.
“It was a balancing act of figuring out, how can we be lyrical with the when she gives birth and the postpartum depression and how things get layered to keep moving forward. And then after the first sort of camp sequence too, there’s a passage of time where we’re showing the explosions and things like that. That went through different versions,”
Jurgensen noted.
The final version effectively sets the tone for the rest of the story, firmly grounding characters and their world in a way that resonates emotionally.
Iconic Musical Choice Enhanced the Film’s Impact
One of the most memorable cinematic moments in One Battle After Another occurs during the time jump from infant Willa to her teenage years. This transition is accompanied by Teyana Taylor’s brief narration—
“16 years later, the world had changed very little”
—and a standout musical cue: Steely Dan’s 1972 classic “Dirty Work.” The pairing of narration and music enriches the emotional weight of the scene and enhances the storytelling impact.
Andy Jurgensen confirmed that the song choice was deliberate from early in the editing process.
“Yes, in fact, we, even when we were watching dailies, he played it like during even that, like when we watched him smoking in the car with the teacher. We played that to get the feeling of how it would be,”
he said.
While earlier versions of the film included additional narration, the team ultimately streamlined it, preserving only Taylor’s narration at the pivotal time jump.
Asked if he expected this moment to emerge as a highlight within a film so dense with remarkable scenes, Jurgensen responded,
“What we were trying to do, to be honest, was to make sure that it worked as best as possible, especially with the music.”
He detailed the careful crafting of this part:
“It’s the end of the prologue and we’re showing her leaving through to Mexico and Lockjaw the note and it was trying to figure out the sequence of all those shots in order to build it to be the best, then with Jonny’s score and how we would just drop it out for that shot of Willa.”
No Omitted Scene Before Climactic Chase
Fans speculating about a missing scene preceding the adrenaline-fueled final chase through the hills can now rest assured: the sequence was never filmed. The scene in question involved a white supremacist character, played by John Hoogenakker, discovering the aftermath at a campsite belonging to the 1776 group and realizing Willa had escaped in a stolen car.
Andy Jurgensen clarified that although the idea was discussed, the filmmakers decided against shooting it.
“We talked about it but I think the idea was that they’re all-powerful. They’re all knowing. They know. He knows Avanti [the tracker initially tasked with finding Willa], he would know the car potentially. You could make the argument that he did go to the camp and saw what had happened or had maybe gotten a call from one of the guys or something,”
Jurgensen said.
“That’s what we were okay with.”
This deliberate choice preserved the story’s intensity and pacing, allowing viewers to experience the chase sequence without an explanatory lead-in.
One Battle After Another is now available for viewing on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K UHD, delivering Paul Thomas Anderson’s vision with precision and power for audiences everywhere.
