Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another clocks in at a hefty 162-minutes, but honestly, it kinda flies by. But there was an earlier cut that was closer to three hours, and Anderson worked with Warner Bros. to trim it down. So does that mean there’s a director’s cut out there that we might see some day? Well, don’t bet on it.
Speaking with French outlet Konbini, Anderson said that he’s more than happy with the version of One Battle After Another that hit theaters…
“No, no. I mean, there were things that were cut. There are always things that were cut, but nothing significant or nothing that we would be proud of, I think. Probably things that, you know.”
Leonardo DiCaprio chimed in, as well, and agreed that the best version is what audiences are seeing now…
“I saw the early cuts, and there was great stuff in it, but look, the film is… how long is the film? Two hours and something? Something, yeah. And there’s not a moment in that film that, you know, doesn’t galvanize you and have the tension of moving forward with supremely high stakes. I think a longer version of it wouldn’t give you that adrenaline rush. You know, it wouldn’t have that same feeling of a chase and this impending doom coming towards these characters, you know, especially Willa — it wouldn’t be the same.”
Anderson has never released a director’s cut of any of his movies. I know that his cut of Sydney, later renamed Hard Eight, was re-edited by the studio and that’s the only version available. We’ll definitely never see the original cut of that one. And I’m okay with that because I love Hard Eight, even if it’s the studio mandated version.
