I watched One Battle After Another a while ago & there were...
CritiCold🔻@ColdCriti
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Jan 15, 2026
~3 min read
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I watched One Battle After Another a while ago & there were innumerable aspects of the movie that exposed its shallow to outright propagandistic liberal contempt of revolutionary politics.
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The only respect it seems to have for revolutionaries is the notion of "being a rebel" ultimately framing it as a "part of being young" that you inevitably have to lose when you get older with the final scene of the movie being an almost disney-esque ode to teens "making trouble"
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The French 75 are a "revolutionary" organization whose only activities seem to consist of blowing up infrastructure & robbing banks for thrills while doing copious amounts of drugs and having sex while aura farming.
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The worst scene was the bank robbery where the "revolutionary" showing her face, threatening civilians, prancing on the tables talk about "I am what black power looks like". This doesnt read like anyone that supports "black power" & more like giftwrapped republican propaganda.
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The only concrete references to things they believe in are basic positions every liberal agrees with like when a senator tries to implement an abortion ban or the smart theoretical guy giving the most shallow critique of capitalism that boils down to "ads are annoying".
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Leo's character gives one of the funniest deliveries when he says "WE ARE A POLITICAL ORGANIZATION" & even as he says it he sounds unsure of what kind of group they even are. Then he throws in a "Fuck the police!" & a "Viva la revolution!" to make it sound more authentic or smth.
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A revolutionary urban guerilla formation led by black women obviously invites comparisons to the Black Panther Party & the movie even references Perfidia "hiding in Cuba", a reference to Assata Shakur for a character that is shown as a hypersexual, terroristic adrenaline junkie.
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Keep in mind this movie came out the SAME YEAR Assata passed away, although they couldn't have known that during production, they still kept that line in there, not that the character of Perfidia would be any less tasteless and disrespectful were that not the case.
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Where it gets really insidious is in the conservative subtext with which Perfidia is treated post-pregnancy with Bob being the "voice of reason" trying to domesticate her framing her irrational & irresponsible behavior as synonymous with her "rebellious nature" as a revolutionary
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This goes hand in hand with the fetishization of her by Lockjaw with one fantasy of being sexually dominated by a black woman while the other fantasy being about "wifing up" a rebel, you are meant to feel frustrated with her for not knowing her place as a homemaker like Bob does.
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The actions of the revolutionaries are always contrasted by someone "normal" who takes on the role of the audience who call out the absurdity of it whether it's Bob saying no to Perfidia trying to fuck next to a bomb or getting angry with the "code speak"
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The joke here is that the revolutionaries are so ridiculously convoluted in organizing their clandestine activities that they almost get their own comrade caught by the feds & then this same character is given the most ridiculous caricature of "woke language" after.
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The subtext of this is that Bob is an "old school" revolutionary who *got shit done* but nowadays the people who claim to believe in revolutionary politics are just fragile woke sissies who can't even take a bit of heated verbal exchange over the phone
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What's funny is the culmination of Bob's character growth shows him trying to learn to use a smartphone after denying Willa a phone (cause they would get found & killed by federal agents) but apparently now that's no longer an issue & he can now be a "normal" dad finally (yippee)
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Ultimately the not-so-subtle "message" of the movie is a kind of generic, hollow "Maybe the young people can find a way" while only showing how the older generation "failed" by being completely undisciplined & aimlessly violent & I guess the "right" path is #resist liberalism?
