GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★★
Rated: MA15+
Directed by: Alex Garland
Written by: Alex Garland
Produced by: Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich, Gregory Goodman
Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Nick Offerman, Wagner Moura, Jefferson White, Nelson Lee, Evan Lai, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Greg Hill, Edmund Donovan.
‘Mines ahead.’
In a word, Civil War is unflinching.
Set in the near future, the fourth film directed by Alex Garland, follows war photographer, Lee (Kirsten Dunst), along with fellow journalist Joel (Wagner Moura) and veteran journalist Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) as they document a civil war in America.
The Western Forces, an armed alliance of states rebel against the federal government as the film opens out of focus, to a closeup of the president (Nick Offerman) prepping himself to tell lies to the nation, rehearsing in between flashes of war on the streets.
A crowd waits while soldiers hold machine guns. The press take photos. The soundtrack builds. A young girl, Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) with a camera gets in close to the action as pressure builds, as the violence builds with the music.
Jessie gets smacked in the face; unprotected, she puts herself in the face of violence until Lee shepherds her away.
Then a bomb explodes.
Then silence as Lee takes photos of the carnage.
Jessie wants to be just like Lee.
So when Lee and Joel decide to go to DC, to photograph and interview the president before the The Western Forces take over the capitol, forcing surrender, Jessie talks her way into coming along.
After decades of being a journalist, Sammy wants a lift a Charlottesville, not DC. Not where journalists are views as combatants. He doesn’t want in on their suicide pact. And Lee doesn’t want to be burdened by a journalist who’s too old to run away.
It’s 857 miles to DC.
The countdown a timeline of the film as the four determined documenters of war make their way into an ever-increasing crisis of violence.
It gets brutal.
There’s a callous tone to this film. The violence has that element of senselessness that comes with war movies, Garland making a point not to sensationalise the violence, “‘It is exceptionally difficult’, Garland says, ‘to make a war movie that is, in fact, anti-war.’”
The perspective of the film is watching the journalists document the war, adding another dimension of psychological callousness, or how the callous mindset develops – Lee has a duty to record, wanting to capture that perfect shot. The questions about what is happening is for other people to ask.
Joel is addicted to the adrenaline of being on the front line, ‘What a fucking rush.’
Jessie has never felt more alive as when she thought she was going to die.
It’s senseless and brutal. But I couldn’t look away.
Civil War is a film that finds that edge, to walk that fine line to understand the need to document; the journalist not only risking life but also harnessing the ability to close the door on feeling empathy, even morality.
To only be the observer, a lens.
It’s disturbing.
The balance of that loss of humanity is the toll the job takes on Lee.
The superstar photographer, losing her belief in journalism.
Difficult themes to unpack and like Garland’s previous films (Men (2022), Annihilation (2018), Ex Machina (2014)) Civil War feels unique but not in a fantastical way; this time he’s grabbed the truth by the throat and has not held back shining a bright light on what people are capable of closing their eyes to – the journalists taking photos to show the world while closing their eyes to what they’re documenting.
And the point is made because this is a very well-made film: the camera work, the cast and performances, Kirsten Dunst of course, but Jesse Plemons as an unknown soldier asking the question, ‘What kind of American are you?’ is unforgettable.
Some of the images stain the mind and remain long after the credits roll.
I really don’t like war movies because of that senseless violence, but Civil War is worth seeing because there’s something different here, the unpacking of the complex psychology of the characters adds a thought-provoking darkness that is uniquely Alex Garland.