By taking only loose inspiration from Pynchon's "Vineland," Paul Thomas Anderson's new film is politically ahistorical, but it packs an emotional punch as a contemporary reverie.
I think you're correct with your spotting of the 1G dialogue (noticeably inserted tech-speak from PTA) that the opening has to be in the past (plus Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden have all built portions of the border wall), but it's a little more slippery than precisely 16 years.
A French 75 is a cocktail named after the French 75mm cannon (because it's supposed to have a kick like the gun). And the name works on both a story level (the radical group has a kick like the cannon) and a meta level (the radical group is a cocktail). Specifically, the group is a deliberate mixture of characteristics, history and dialogue from the three most notorious US far-left groups in the '70s: the Black Liberation Army (BLA), the Weather Underground Organization (WUO), and the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) - and possibly others that I've missed.
As someone with memories of the period, some details were immediately recognizable:
BLA: the Assata Olugbala Shakur/Perfidia Beverly Hills similarities.
WUO: an allusion to their Haymarket Police Memorial bombing ("We planted a bomb at the Haymarket office of your re-election campaign.")
WUO: an allusion to their Marin County Courthouse bombing ("Perfidia and I take the courthouse. Bombs are planted.")
WUO: at least two lines of dialogue, including the film's title ("From here on in, it's one battle after another" / "You got an army growing in your fucking guts and you put it there"), lifted from WUO literature.
SLA: the bank robbery that went awry with the unplanned murder of someone, with PTA using a well-known line from the robbery as dialogue ("Get your noses in the carpet").
SLA: the massive shootout with police that started a fire, killing some group members from smoke inhalation and burns.
... and I suspect there are many others I didn't spot.
But the upshot is that the French 75 is basically repeating history, and the effect is to situate the opening in two temporal periods simultaneously. Narratively (e.g. Willa's age, period details, etc) it's 16 years in an (imaginary) past that is similar to our own, but symbolically, it's 50-55 years in our actual past (i.e. the start of the road to now). In this way, PTA can tell a contemporary story while retaining (and updating) what is arguably Pynchon's main thesis in Vineland.
Viva la revolución!! 🩶🤍 The fact that this movie enrages conservatives is the icing on the cake 🍰
Viva la revolución!! 🩶🤍 The fact that this movie enrages conservatives is the icing on the cake🙏
Excellent movie writing!
I read Owen Gleiberman's overview of the OBAA timeline and its relationship to Vineland in Variety with great interest, and curiosity. https://variety.com/2025/film/columns/no-one-battle-after-another-is-not-a-left-wing-film-1236556461/
I think you're correct with your spotting of the 1G dialogue (noticeably inserted tech-speak from PTA) that the opening has to be in the past (plus Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden have all built portions of the border wall), but it's a little more slippery than precisely 16 years.
A French 75 is a cocktail named after the French 75mm cannon (because it's supposed to have a kick like the gun). And the name works on both a story level (the radical group has a kick like the cannon) and a meta level (the radical group is a cocktail). Specifically, the group is a deliberate mixture of characteristics, history and dialogue from the three most notorious US far-left groups in the '70s: the Black Liberation Army (BLA), the Weather Underground Organization (WUO), and the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) - and possibly others that I've missed.
As someone with memories of the period, some details were immediately recognizable:
BLA: the Assata Olugbala Shakur/Perfidia Beverly Hills similarities.
WUO: an allusion to their Haymarket Police Memorial bombing ("We planted a bomb at the Haymarket office of your re-election campaign.")
WUO: an allusion to their Marin County Courthouse bombing ("Perfidia and I take the courthouse. Bombs are planted.")
WUO: at least two lines of dialogue, including the film's title ("From here on in, it's one battle after another" / "You got an army growing in your fucking guts and you put it there"), lifted from WUO literature.
SLA: the bank robbery that went awry with the unplanned murder of someone, with PTA using a well-known line from the robbery as dialogue ("Get your noses in the carpet").
SLA: the massive shootout with police that started a fire, killing some group members from smoke inhalation and burns.
... and I suspect there are many others I didn't spot.
But the upshot is that the French 75 is basically repeating history, and the effect is to situate the opening in two temporal periods simultaneously. Narratively (e.g. Willa's age, period details, etc) it's 16 years in an (imaginary) past that is similar to our own, but symbolically, it's 50-55 years in our actual past (i.e. the start of the road to now). In this way, PTA can tell a contemporary story while retaining (and updating) what is arguably Pynchon's main thesis in Vineland.