One Battle After Another editor Andy Jurgensen quickly learned that editing a Paul Thomas Anderson film isn’t just about piecing together footage. It’s learning how to breathe inside someone else’s rhythm, particularly when that tempo changes from scene to scene.
“You start developing shorthand with somebody,” says Jurgensen, who earned his first Oscar nomination for One Battle After Another. “You get in tune to his sensibilities, what he likes, what he’s going to gravitate towards and the soundscape that he likes.”
That shorthand was essential on One Battle After Another, Anderson’s sprawling dark comedy that balances political satire, thrilling action sequences and intimate family drama, sometimes all at once.
Andy Jurgensen on the One Battle After Another Roller Coaster
From the beginning, Jurgensen understood his assignment was more about emotional instinct than technical precision, despite Anderson using VistaVision (a high resolution widescreen 35mm film format) to capture all of the action.
“You have to lean into the moments that are supposed to be kind of satirical and funny,” he says. “And then you have to know when to pivot and help guide the audience to go on this roller coaster.”
To capture the tone, Jurgensen reviewed all of the highlights during daily communal screenings with the crew and incorporated test audience feedback. He worked with composer Jonny Greenwood on pivotal moments and searched hard for human moments and reactions. Sometimes, he instinctively found them in the moments between takes.
“Nothing is off the table,” he says. “You just always have to watch the entire take. That’s the lesson. There’s no cheating. You have to literally watch everything.”
That immersion was critical when it came to creating the film’s widely discussed car chase scene, in which three characters floor it through a desert River of Hills near Borrego Springs, California. Jurgensen reveals the scene wasn’t storyboarded and was stitched together in the edit from various locations.
The team initially worked with Greenwood to create a soundscape tied to a longer version, with each car emitting a unique sound, then pared it down into the best bits.
“It evolved to be what the final thing was, and we were still adding elements in the final mix,” Jurgensen says. “We went through many edits, but in the test screenings, it was always people’s favorite part.”
The chase scene wasn’t the only challenging part to create, particularly with all of the action sequences and changing sets. Jurgensen’s favorite sequence to put together was one in apartment building with stars Leonardo DiCarpio and Benicio Del Toro, which filmed in El Paso.
“It wasn’t like we’re just shooting on stages and you have to piece it together through the blocking, the movement,” he says. “We still had to move stuff around with the soldiers coming in and out and the students being interrogated, but there was just such good energy.”
Despite the intentionally chaotic feeling of the film, Anderson built quiet moments into the script so audiences could breathe. From an editing standpoint, that involved characters sitting still, close ups and absurd humor, especially when it came to conversations within the Christmas Adventurers Club, the fictional white-supremacist group Sean Penn’s character becomes involved with.
“Even toward the end there’s a camp where Willa [Chase Infiniti] is held captive, and there’s a big, long stretch of no dialogue as she sees what’s going on,” Jurgensen says. “We’re kind of suspended, like everyone is holding their breath before the chase scene.”
Then there’s the prologue, a 30-ish minute dive into the past events that bring Bob (DiCaprio) and Willa to their current living situation. Jurgensen explains it had to be long enough to set up the fictional French 75 resistance group and give Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) enough of a presence to last through the rest of the film, but it couldn’t drag on too long. That’s where test audiences really came into play, as they reacted to the through lines and emotional beats.
“There was a lot to juggle and we needed it to have weight,” says Jurgensen.
The result is a movie that uses high-stakes scenes to keep the narrative moving while disarming viewers with comedy when it’s least expected. It’s a purposeful ebb and flow, with tonal changes that require instinct and trial and error to perfect.
“If One Battle After Another was purely serious the entire time, I don’t think it would have been as effective,” he says. “Poking fun at the weird things that are happening or character traits that the audience is thinking anyway makes it more humane. Otherwise it’s just too intense.”
One Battle After Another is now streaming on HBO Max.
Main image: Chase Infiniti in One Battle After Another. Warner Bros.