Civil War Movie Review - Scariest Road Trip Ever
Bear with me, I haven’t seen any of Alex Garland’s filmography other than Annihilation and I saw it back in 2018. I don’t have an ultimate opinion of the director as a whole, but what I can say from the films that I have seen — including the film we’re reviewing — he is visually talented and one who’s definitely willing to make projects that not one would ever consider filming. One of these concepts being the premise in which you ask the hypothetical question: if the United States were to do go into a second Civil War, what would it look like? After watching Civil War, I was ultimately surprised by how good and misunderstood this picture truly was given the reactions towards it.
Civil War isn’t the partisan deconstructionist social commentary of Trump/Biden-era America that you’ve been hearing ad nauseam from the mainstream media. This isn’t a film that chooses what side to satirize or ridicule nor does it elect to paint one party as evil and the other virtuous much like the pretentious “The Purge” franchise. Instead, it presents itself as a disturbing cautionary tale of how another civil war would bring such devastation to society and the human condition, while exploring the risks of being a journalist.
Set in a modern dystopian America, the United States is under the rule of a dictatorial president (Nick Offerman) abusing his power during his third term spreading propaganda, abolishing the FBI and attacking his own citizens. Going up against the president are the states separated into four factions; one of whom is the Western Forces, an alliance between California and Texas (which sounds ridiculous when applying it to the real world, but since it isn’t trying to reflect our current political climate, I’ll let it slide). Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst) is a veteran war photographer from the Magnum Photos Cooperative, who attempts with her colleague from Reuters, Joel (Wagner Moura), and her New York Times mentor, Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), to travel to Washington D.C. to interview the president before the Western Forces arrive. Accompanying the gang is an aspiring young war photographer named Jessie (Caliee Spaeny) who tags along for the adventure after meeting Lee during a riot in New York. As the crew drive their way towards Charlottesville, Virginia, they would encounter some of the most surprising and terrifying events of this Orwellian future in the United States.
One of Garland's smartest decisions is that his premise is never one to tread into any biased territory; all of it is left to the viewer’s imagination. How the civil war began and what everyone’s political affiliation is, is all hidden ambiguously and the film steers very carefully away from being too obvious of being analogous to modern American politics.
The story itself is structured the same way as a rollercoaster. What happens during a rollercoaster? Well, it follows the basic pattern of going up, then down, up, then down, and every now and then you go through a helix and a loop, and then down you go, then the ride is over and you get off. That, in summation, is what the plot of Civil War is like. You have a moment of downtime with characters, then we get thrust into a military-rebel skirmish, then we’re back to some more downtime, then we get to a stand-off between two snipers, and then so on and so forth until you hit the credits and you go home. While it is repetitive, the film not only has the capability to establish effective character development —especially between the two stars Dunst and Spaeny — but the sequences themselves aren’t undersold whatsoever. Ferocious set-pieces like the D.C. siege in the last act of the movie are performed excellently and incredibly shot by Rob Hardy, and the best part of the entire picture is a point where our journalists are held at gunpoint by a trio of nationalist soldiers led by an intimidating Jesse Plemons. His performance alongside the terrific writing that transpires makes Civil War worth the price of admission alone. Seriously, you don’t want to miss out on one of the most nail-biting scenes of the entire year.
In addition to Plemons, the other actors are also sensational. Kirsten Dunst’s Lee Smith is simply remarkable and pristinely encapsulates the role of a veteran war photographer desensitized from the violence she’s been exposed to and nonchalant over the inevitable decline of her country. Moura and Henderson are both exceptional and Spaeny will be a rising star in the foreseeable future.
One of the reasons “Civil War” strays away from being truly fantastic aside from the repetitive story structure, is two fold. Firstly, the musical choices for the soundtrack are pretty tone deaf. There are plenty of times in the story where after something traumatic happens to our lead characters or when guerrilla warfare is finished, there are indie rock tunes that compromise your emotions and yank you out of that dire scene. You don’t know if it is trying to convey moments of dark humor or if it’s trying to be tonally consistent with the scene before. Lastly, you wanna talk about an ending rushed at the last minute. Even if the silver lining of the conclusion makes you think about the ambiguous implications going forward and whether or not America will get better, it comes at the sacrifice of an ending that felt like the studio didn’t have enough of a budget to finish the movie, so they condensed it all into a half-assed ending.
Civil War isn’t politically-charged propaganda, nor is it trying to be a pretentious societal deconstruction reminiscent of the Purge series. It’s a very solid, gripping piece of entertainment that displays a powerful message of what the nation might come to if it doesn’t find common ground soon. I hope in years time, when the culture war and political tug-of-war has died down, that mainstream outlets and film enthusiasts will give this a second chance and appreciate it for the nonpartisan dystopian thriller it truly is.
Rating: 4/5
