Civil War

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Victoria's Statewide Mornings program on April 18, 2024.

(MA15+) ★★★★

Director: Alex Garland.

Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Nelson Lee, Nick Offerman.

Close Encounters: The Remake.

If this movie had come out 10 or 20 years ago, I would have told you its premise was preposterous. A new civil war in America? Ridiculous!

But now... not so much. The idea of the United States becoming not-so-united is painfully possible. Which gives Garland's new film an uneasy edge to it.

That's not the point of Civil War though. Yes, it's about a war tearing America apart, but it's less about the specifics of that war, and more about war journalism, and the role it plays in our world, and the effect it has on those who see this reporting and those who do the reporting. It's about the importance of truth and journalism, the battle between media and propaganda, and the cost of it all.

Civil War follows a group of reporters on their way through the war zone that lies between New York and Washington DC. They aim to reach the President himself and score a rare interview with him before the war ends, in the hopes of getting answers and holding him to account for his actions, which have torn America apart and caused untold damage.

It's easy to complain about the lack of pure politics in Civil War. No, this isn't an anti-Trump polemic (though you can draw your own inferences) or a dissertation on the state of America today (again, do your own reading between the lines) or a foreboding warning (though it does feel disturbingly prescient). 

That's not the story the film is trying to tell. Instead, this is Apocalypse Now from the journalists' point of view. Like Willard's journey up river to find Kurtz, their cross-country trip is a descent into the madness of man, or America (but without too many specifics), with their Kurtz-like figure happening to be the President of the USA.

More interesting is the ways the four main characters deal with and process the horror and violence around them. Dunst's veteran war photographer Lee is hollowed out and emotionally dead, Moura's Joel uses booze, weed and adrenalin to get him through the days and nights, Henderson's old-timer Sammy has seen some shit, but maintains a level and understanding head about it somehow, and Spaeny's Jessie is the newcomer/audience surrogate who's about to be shredded and re-sculpted by what lays ahead. Each performance is distinct, defined, powerful and true.

Then there's Offerman's president, wisely hidden away by Garland so that he only appears in two scenes. But his distinctive voice resounds throughout, spewing propaganda via the airwaves, making the president loom over proceedings like a blood-spattered Star Spangled banner.

Garland's direction regularly thrusts us into the action, either by charging headlong into shootouts or by ramping up the tension to uncomfortable levels. The quiet moments, in between where the journalists get to breath and exist, are occasionally blunt, but usually their full of character and nuance.

There are many great films about journalism - Spotlight and All The President's Men are top of the heap. This isn't too far behind.