One Battle After Another Gives A Legendary SNL Comedian A Sinister Supporting Role

If you're just a casual fan of the long-running late night sketch comedy of "Saturday Night Live," you may not be familiar with the name James Downey. But as many great comedic minds will tell you, he's one of the most revered comedy writers of all time. "SNL" creator Lorne Michaels once called Downey "best political humorist alive," and Conan O'Brien described him as "the best comedy writer that we all revere." Even Dennis Miller called Downey the second most important in "SNL" history, behind only Lorne Michaels himself.

Throughout the history of "SNL," Downey wrote for 27 seasons out of the show's first 32, giving him one of the longest tenures on the series. When he left for a little bit in the early 1980s, he became the head writer for "Late Night with David Letterman" where he is credited with creating the beloved Top Ten List bit. Later in his "SNL" career, he became known for working closely with Norm Macdonald on Weekend Update jokes, and he was fired right along with Norm after NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer got sick of all their incredible O.J. Simpson jokes. During one of the peaks in "SNL" political satire history, Downey was the one who put "strategery" into the mouth of Will Ferrell as President George W. Bush. And these are just a few of the bullet points of Downey's greatness.

Therefore, those familiar with Downey might be surprised to hear that Paul Thomas Anderson's electric, intense, darkly comedic action thriller "One Battle After Another" brings in the comedian for a rare big screen appearance. Even if you're unfamiliar with Downey's accomplishments, you've likely seen him elsewhere before. For example, Downey played a homeless man in "Dirty Work" and the principal of Billy Madison's school, the man who goes on to deliver this famous quote during the academic decathlon:

So how and why is James Downey in "One Battle After Another," especially when he's only appeared in nine movies and roughly half a dozen TV shows outside of "SNL" over the years? Well, Paul Thomas Anderson has a long and intimate history with some of the most revered comedians of the 21st century, not only because he's a fan, but because of who he is married to.

Beware, there are spoilers for "One Battle After Another" from here on out!

In "One Battle After Another," James Downey (seen above in a recent "SNL" documentary) plays Sandy Irvine, one of the controlling members of the Christmas Adventurers' Club, a white supremacist organization comprised of rich white men in a key part of the film's story that has been pretty much entirely left out of the marketing. The Christmas Adventurers' Club — which also includes Virgil Throckmorton (Tony Goldwyn), Roy More (Kevin Tighe), and Bill Desmond (D.W. Moffett) — tries to recruit Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn), a military man who has been spending his time keeping immigrants out of America and seems to have a clear-cut perspective on white supremacy. 

However, like many real-life men of his ilk, his hate is actually masking an intense passion, because after an encounter with French 75 revolutionary Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor), a Black woman who leads the rebel charge freeing detained immigrants and bombing banks, Col. Lockjaw becomes obsessed with tracking her down and engages in a submissive sexual relationship with her. 

Flash forward 16 years, and Perfidia Beverly Hills has disappeared after ratting out some of her fellow revolutionaries, abandoning the witness protection program, and leaving Col. Lockjaw high and dry. Sadly, she's also left behind her husband Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio), formerly "Ghetto Pat" of the French 75, and their daughter Charlene (Chase Infiniti), who both now live under new identities provided by their revolutionary allies in order to keep them off the radar of Col. Lockjaw.

Unfortunately for Bob and Charlene (or Willa, as she's known now), since Col. Lockjaw has been invited into the Christmas Adventurers' Club, he now needs to take care of any loose ends that might keep him from getting into a group that wants nothing to do with any race that isn't white, such as the possibility of an illegitimate daughter that might have been conceived from his sexual encounter with Perfidia. And thus the chase of "One Battle After Another" begins, and it's relentless in its intensity, suspense and speed.

However, the movie does have a couple calm moments, though they also end up being the most chilling, and this is where James Downey comes into play. 

James Downey's role as Sandy Irvine makes perfect use of the comedian's persona. He's a soft-spoken man, as you can see in his few appearances in movies and TV shows. It's his delivery that makes the aforementioned "Billy Madison" quote so hilarious and memorable. So when you hear Downey calmly and gently talking about the extremely secretive Christmas Adventurers' Club, it makes it sound unsettlingly innocent, even though we know there's something darker bubbling beneath the surface of their initial recruitment meeting with Col. Lockjaw. 

However, it's the second meeting of the Christmas Adventurers' Club where Downey becomes even more unnerving. This is when the four senior members of the club convene to discuss the existence of Col. Lockjaw's prospective illegitimate daughter, and they quickly, chillingly, and casually talk about white supremacy and hire a hitman (John Hoogenakker, seen above) to take care of the situation as swiftly and cleanly as possible. Again, Downey's voice, and the innocuous way in which he talks about such heinous beliefs and actions, is distressing, especially if you take a moment to think that there are probably organizations just like this around the world.

While Downey has been called "an equal opportunity slasher" in political comedy by Tom Shales, the co-author of "Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live," the comedian has described himself as a conservative Democrat. However, fellow "SNL" veterans see Downey a bit differently, with "Step Brothers" and "Vice" filmmaker Adam McKay referring to him as right-wing and even an "Ann Coulter pal" and former writer and politician Al Franken labeling him as a "thoughtful conservative." Perhaps that cloudy perspective is another element that made Downey so appealing to Paul Thomas Anderson for a role like this, a man who could easily appear to be on one side of the aisle or another in public but has clearly defined political beliefs behind closed doors.

Previously, Downey had a small role in Anderson's phenomenal "There Will Be Blood" (seen above), where he played Al Rose, Little Boston's real estate broker. Plus, let us recall that Anderson is married to former "SNL" star Maya Rudolph, and frequently hung around the halls of Studio 8H when episodes of "SNL" were being put together, including times when Downey was around. He's been tapped into the Los Angeles comedy scene for a long time too, which is how Patton Oswalt ended up in a bit part in "Magnolia" before he was truly famous. So it seems Anderson just knows how and when to utilize someone like James Downey, even if it's not how we might expect.

"One Battle After Another" is now playing in theaters everywhere.