This article contains spoilers for “Next Battle” at the theaters now.
Since “A Battle One after another,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film has been rumoured to be based on Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel “Vinesland.” The director, a fan of postmodern writers and previously adopted the 2009 novel “Insternent Vice” in a 2014 film of the same name, has long been interested in creating the “Vineland” film. The film’s setting is during Q&A, after screenings of “Fighting after Battles as follows,” Anderson reports that “I’ve had years of struggle to adapt it.” Conceptualizing “A Battle” as an appropriate “Vinland” adaptation declined over time as film details emerged. With this film on sale, anyone bold enough to read Pynchon’s crazy, complicated work can ultimately provide a diagnosis.
In particular, the credits for “One Battle” were explicitly read, “inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s novel “Vineland.” That seems crucial, but “inspiration” is truly an appropriate word. As Anderson stated in the same Q&A, “I loved the book. I loved it. I loved it so much that I thought about adapting him. So, this film holds certain elements of the novel, but omits or changes the others.
character
The main retention of the film is the characters. Their names have been changed, but Leonardo DiCaprio’s Bob Ferguson is the clear ringer of “Vineland” protagonist Zoid Wheeler. The film also includes Willa Ferguson (Chase Infinity), Bob’s passive daughter, who is comparable to Zoid’s daughter, Prairie Wheeler. Puffdia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) stands up for Willa’s estranged mother and former revolutionary leader, Frenesi Gates, the book. Antagonist Stephen J. Lockjoe (Shawn Penn) imitates the book’s federal prosecutor Brock Fondo. Other characters have similarities, but these are the most identifiable overall.
Characters from these major films share similar dynamics to the book dynamics. Bob and Zoids are paranoid after a rebellious past. Each of them, they miss deep dias and Frenesi, fearing Willa and Prairie. Meanwhile, Willa and Praly are both skeptical of their father’s fears, but come to understand them as a re-emergence of his past. The film and book establish a triangle of love between Bob, Perfidia, Lockjaw, Zoyd, Frenesi and Vond, respectively. However, the romance between Frenesi and Vond is much more sincere in “Vineland” than in “Vineland”, and Lockjaw’s is in “the next battle.”
This leads to differences between characters. This illustrates the pivotal division between Anderson and Pynchon as a storyteller. As with most of Pynchon’s novels, the “Vineland’s” character is pretty typical. Inhabitants of the Pynchong world often help to personify and expose subtle messages about society and humanity. We cannot easily identify with them, but instead look at ideas and ideologies questioned and reflected through them.
In contrast, Anderson gives his character a lot of depth. Bob, fefidia, Willa, Rock Joe and everyone while introducing the identifiable emotions and growth of the film as a whole. Part of this dichotomy may be due to book-to-screen translations, as it is easier to process the on-screen actor’s emotions and reactions than the text’s name. Nevertheless, Pynchon’s character resembles the mysterious figure of avant-garde films. They rarely feel like real people.
plot
These avant-garde postmodern “Vinesland” elements may be what distinguishes them most from the “next battle.” The plot is similar, but after the daughter is lured by her former nemesis, the former revolutionary is returned to action. This lands as a much simpler action film, following the relatively traditional story beat.
“Fighting one after another” is a story of rescue. As Willa learns about his parents’ history, we follow Bob in an attempt to save Willa. “Vineland” has the same premise, but when the prairie is taken away, Zoids actually disappear from the story. What can be thought of as a second act in “Vineland” is primarily composed of flashbacks. Prairie learns who her mother is, what her revolution existed for, and how she developed a controversial relationship with Vond.
Then, when Zoyd finally returns, there is little proper solution. Neither Zoid nor Bob are the real saviors of his daughter, but in the film Willa fights at least in her way and reunites with Bob as a transformed person. In comparison, “Vinesland” ends vaguely. On the final page, the government suddenly cuts down his funds as Vond pursues the prairie in a helicopter. When Vond attempts to control the vehicle to maintain his pursuit, he crashes and Prairie is free, but is left behind in the California wilderness. The accidental turn of the event provides an ending, but is barely closed. It’s a classic Pynchon.
world
The conclusion of “Vineland’s” shows much of the novel. Like many of Pynchon’s works, “Vineland” takes place in a strange alternative reality. This reality was the departure of Southern California from the United States in the 1960s, with revolutionaries as a film group exposing fascism on celluloid, and the federal government literally robbing drugs.
The book, held in 1984, is a satirical commentary on the American shift from the ’60s to the ’80s. It reflects the failure of the hippie revolution to bring about change and to encourage regression to conservatism in the same generation of Reagan era. Zoids were the hippie archetype of the 1960s 20 years later, ideologically castrated and relied on the government he fought. Meanwhile, the rise of technology and television, both play a major role in the book, have institutionalized things like cinema.
In contrast, “Fighting after battle” is not all-talented. The film’s first acts have a 16-year chronological leap, but there are no dichotomous statements about each decade in each timeline. The film’s settings are relatively compatible, both of which look modern, if not modern, if not 15 minutes. Given that the film was devised several years ago, Anderson’s depiction of federal attacks, his aggressive approach to deportation and reckless law enforcement all feel unsettlingly friendly for modern America.
The horrifying representation of American politics in the film may be an unintended departure from the novel’s more whimsical energy. “Another Battle” certainly has a sense of humor, but the central conflict taken from “Vineland” feels less ridiculous than it is today than in 1990. Even the eccentricity of the film, which is not felt in Pynchong’s novels, is read as flexible in current Prorikay Metmate, especially in Rockjaw’s desire to join a secret white supremacist society called the Christmas Adventures Club.
Perhaps 35 years after the “Vinesland” publications, reality is catching up to postmodern fiction, and we actually live in the world of Thomas Pynchon.
That world is a world that is not easily useful for adapting films. It is a world that combines blasphemy and low cultures, and poetry is distorted into one. This is the world of encyclopedia where readers enter his debut novel, “V.” In 1963, ten years later he reached Zenith with the publication of “Gravity’s Rainbow.” It’s a world that continues to expand to this day, as the elusive 88-year-old author released his ninth novel, “Shadow Ticket,” later this year. Despite its extreme density, nothing is explained in Pynchong’s world, making it a story experience that is difficult to emulate in a cinematic medium.
Anderson’s world becomes postmodern and surreal, as featured in films such as Magnolia, Master, and in fact “Indigenous Evil,” but his filmography includes works from intense periods like “I Have Blood” and “Phantom Thread” standing alongside offbeat Doramy like “Punched Run Club” and “Raikoris Pizza.” In “A Battle,” Anderson draws and bases on some of the elements of Pynchon’s world: characters, premises, and a wide range of themes. As he stated in the press, “Vinelands will be difficult to adapt.” Instead, I stole the parts that really resonated and started putting together all these ideas. “The results are still thought, but it is a more appealing, modern and ultimately entertaining experience than the labor of reading Pynchon.
