Civil War: Film Review
Alex Garland‘s directorial efforts have been very hit-and-miss with me – I loved Ex Machina but I strongly disliked Men – so I wasn’t sure where Civil War would land. I appreciated a lot about this film but also felt quite underwhelmed by it.
Set in a near future dystopian America during another Civil War, the film follows a team of military-embedded photojournalists – Lee (Kirsten Dunst), Joel (Wagner Moura), Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) and Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) – as they travel from New York to Washington D.C. to reach the White House before rebel forces.
In the film, California and Texas have seceded from the union and are now the Western Forces, determined to take down the President (Nick Offerman). That is all you get in terms of context and explanation; it is covered too quickly at the start and never mentioned again. Some people could argue that this is the whole point – that by staying ambiguous it can be more universal and applicable to other situations – but it took me out of the film because I had so many questions. I didn’t need Garland to take a firm political stance but giving the story barely any context made it feel insubstantial and hollow.
Even though I needed more from it intellectually, I still appreciated the spectacle. Garland presents the horrors of war in a bleak, unflinching and anxiety-inducing manner. There are plenty of very intense, scary scenes that immerse you in the war, through the visuals and sound design. In particular, the climactic sequence in DC is a show-stopper. As a viewer, I felt surrounded by gunfire and explosions just like our protagonists.
This film shines the light on the importance and bravery of photojournalists, who risk their lives to depict what’s happening on the frontline. They have to witness horrific violence, brutality and war crimes and somehow remain detached and unemotional about it. You can see how the job has impacted them. Newcomer Jessie, the audience’s eyes into this world, is too emotional at the start while Lee is a sour-faced war-hardened photographer who has clearly seen some s**t and is now totally desensitised.
In addition to the DC sequence, the best scene features Dunst’s real-life husband Jesse Plemons as a terrifying soldier who threatens to kill them all. He is unhinged and ready to shoot; I swear I didn’t breathe until he left my screen. What a short but memorable performance! Everyone is great but he’s the one that stands out.
While it’s not perfect, Civil War feels eerily realistic and serves as a warning that this could easily happen in the future.
In cinemas from Friday 12th April