Civil War (2024): What Kind of Americans Are We?

The film sensation, Civil War, has been in theaters for about three weeks now, but I just got to see it last week. As you probably have heard, it’s about a second American civil war, taking place in the not-too-distant future. We are told little about who is fighting, and virtually nothing about how the war started or what they are fighting about, a storytelling strategy by British writer-director Alex Garland that’s become one of the most the controversial aspects of the picture. 

We quickly do learn that a few states known as the Western Forces, headed by Texas and California, have broken away from the US and that their armies are currently in central Virginia, advancing toward Washington. It is suggested without any specifics that the war is a reaction to an authoritarian president, now in his third term, and that’s about it.   This lack of specificity did not dim my appreciation of the film, and I doubt it will shade yours.  What does matter is that we become witnesses to an all-out war, Americans fighting and killing other Americans - in a conflict as ugly and horrifying as the war between the Union and the Confederacy in the 1860s.

By the end of the film, I was emotionally drained and could not move from my seat for several minutes - overwhelmed with awe, dismay, and an overload of other feelings. So, I sat and watched the end credits, accompanied by Suicide’s 1979 song Dream Baby Dream, appropriately smirking, or so it seemed, at the idea of an American dream. When I got out onto the street, I texted my wife “Movie just ended. OMG!” Then I pulled up the NY Times, just to make sure that the world was still in one piece.  Pretty melodramatic, but true.  It took a few more moments to shake off the thrall of Civil War.  

Garland knows how to develop a story and keep us interested. The stories that seem to attract him are rarely what one would call ordinary. Among other accomplishments in a varied career, he wrote the screenplay for Never Let Me Go (2010), adapting Nobel prize winner Kazuo MIshiguro’s novel. He wrote and directed the fabulous 2015 film Ex Machina, and more recently the quirky, queasy drama Men (2022), starring Jessie Buckley and Rory Kinnear.  Civil War starts out interesting and soon becomes compelling. 

As the movie begins, the war has been ongoing for some time already. The President [Nick Offerman - Parks and Recreation (2009-15); Dumb Money (2023)], is rehearsing a critical line for a speech he is about to broadcast – declaring a major battlefield victory and reiterating that once the secessionist leaders are deposed, the citizenry of Western Forces will be welcomed back into the bosom of the American family. But his nervousness belies the confidence of his words.  

Next, we are in Manhattan where two experienced war photographers, Lee [Kirsten Dunst - The Virgin Suicides (1999); Spider Man 1, 2 and 3 (2002 – 2007)] and Joel [Wagner Moura - Narcos (2015-16)] are making plans to get back into the action. They want to make their way to Washington, DC hoping for an interview with the beleaguered President. A revered elder journalist, Sammy [Stephen McKinley Henderson - Fences (2016); Lady Bird (2017)] warns that this is far too dangerous – “a suicide mission”. When Lee and Joel reject his advice, he asks to join them; he does not want to miss out on history. Along the way, the group also picks up a rookie photographer, Jessie, who idolizes Lee and hopes to learn from her while kick-starting her own career. Jessie is played by a sympathetic Cailee Spaeny - On the Basis of Sex (2018); Priscilla (2023). These four – representing different generations, genders and worldly experience – are our protagonists on a road trip through an America unlike any we’ve seen before.

 

Along the way we see beautiful countryside and a seemingly idyllic small town. We also witness bloody firefights, wearily determined soldiers, refugee camps, dangerous brigands, rocket attacks on unnamed US cities and devastated urban landscapes eerily resembling current-day Gaza City. Capping this off there’s the incredible, tense, awe-full finale in DC – including shockers at the Lincoln Memorial and the White House. 

Like any road trip movie, their journey offers the opportunity for the characters to reveal something of
themselves and to form bonds of friendship. Hanging out with these guys also offers us a riveting close-up look at the gritty environments in which war-zone photographers and reporters work and a bit of insight into what impels them to do such a patently dangerous job. Garland obviously admires the dedication of the fourth estate. Yet Civil War also questions whether we’ve crossed some sort of line, and whether unbiased reportage actually matters any more. As Garland recently noted in an interview with the New York Times, if the function of a free press is to act as a check on the power of a democratic government, the press needs to be trusted. But in recent times, the public trust has been undermined by external forces like social media and internal forces - specifically including big, heavily biased news organizations.  

Lee, Joel, Sammy and Jessie in Civil War are old school: they aim to record and publish the unvarnished facts of what’s happening. These four heroes (for that’s what they are, each in their own way) serve as our guides and proxies; through them we experience the world they are travelling in, the world of America’s second civil war, seeing what they see, hearing what they hear, and – because we are in the hands of excellent actors - feeling what they feel. When Jessie notes at one point, “I’ve never been so scared in my life. And I’ve never felt so alive,” we know exactly what she’s talking about.

 

In one gripping scene, our protagonists are held up at gunpoint by a band of soldiers disposing of a truckload of dead bodies. They’ve clearly been on a killing spree, and our team is justifiably terrified. Joel pleads with the warriors’ leader, a menacingly nonchalant Jesse Plemons [uncredited], explaining that they are American journalists, not combatants. “OK...”, he responds after a pause, without lowering his automatic weapon. “But what kind of American are you?”

One of the reasons the film works so well and left me so numb is that, while it is about many things, at its heart Civil War is a not-so-subtle warning about where our escalating political rhetoric – positing an existential war between your America (bunch of traitors) and my America (patriots) - may be leading us. Even without explicitly referencing our current polarizing national issues or personalities, the warning seems clear enough. And timely. 

As noted, Civil War does not take sides in the current red-state/blue-state, woke/anti-woke, MAGA/Never-
Trump divides; and while that decision has been derided by some (including Kyle Smith in the WSJ), I think it’s a strength. Were it to be otherwise, roughly half the country would shun the movie as a propaganda piece without seeing it. The fact that it’s a dystopian action-thriller, not a documentary, makes it more, not less potent. People will and should see it because it is entertaining and provocative, not because it is a pep rally for their “side”. But Garland’s hope, and mine, is that the message of the picture will not be lost, but rather will resonate with most – or at least some - viewers, irrespective of their politics.   

Civil War is dramatic, emotionally stirring, exciting and thought provoking. The acting is topnotch, as is the cinematography. As a war movie it is of course violent, but the wartime killing and barbarity are essential to the film’s themes, neither gratuitous nor prurient. Although not always an easy watch, the picture is very watchable. More than that, it is essential viewing IMHO. For those willing to see it on the big screen, that would be the format I recommend. 

1 hour 49 minutes Rated R

Grade: A

In wide theatrical release

Streaming date and availability have not yet been announced.