Defying logic amplifies this American nightmare in Alex Gardland and A24’s latest dystopian thriller.
As America braces for another Biden-Trump election later this year, the British writer and director Alex Garland, backed by the powerhouse production of A24, brings a provocative end-of-democracy as we know it feature to our screens.
The loud and relentless 109-minute film depicts a brutal version of a near-future contemporary America torn by civil war, inciting the literary work of Sinclair Lewis’ 1935 novel It Can’t Happen Here. Much like Lewis’ creative imagination of what might happen if fascism were to take over American politics, Civil War gives us a front-row seat to civil strife generated by a dictatorial president (played by Nick Offerman) who’s continued for a third term. Since the besieging of the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021, many Americans may reassure themselves of their country’s stability but Garland clearly thinks It Could Happen Here.
Garland, whose previous works include Ex-Machina and the sci-fi zombie uprising that wiped out all of London 28 Days Later, brazenly defies expectations and logic. The picture is not about a clash between Make America Great Again (MAGA) and far-left anti-fascist/antifa supporters, instead, a confused coalition of secessionist forces (the unlikely alliance between Texas and California) take up arms against the president in a brutal series of juxtaposing scenes. Mass graves, point-blank executions and tortured prisoners contrast with eery shots of familiar American iconography: far stretching shopping malls, the iconic columns of the White House, and car washes. It’s a film where we’re not supposed to question the events that led to this point, just ponder over how easily the insanity could happen.
Civil War follows four war correspondents who decide to embark on the treacherous journey from New York to Washington D.C. to force a quote from the president before the White House inevitably falls. Our hero photojournalist Lee Smith is played masterfully by Kirsten Dunst, teamed with Joel (Wagner Moura), a reporter at Reuters; veteran journalist Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) who writes for “what’s left of the New York Times;” and rising photographer Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) who joins despite Smith protesting she’s too young.
A blissful scene set amidst sequences of continual violence whimsically sketches a small town that has avoided the violence.
Their trip encounters nerve-wracking atrocities that are not for the faint-hearted. We witness burnt-out cars piled up on the highway, bodies strung up on a highway overpass, and factions needlessly killing each other without knowing which side they are on. It is chaos and signifies the true end of American society.
As for the depicted president, we are told he’s in his third term and he’s dissolved the FBI, as well as ordered airstrikes on his own citizens. He is compared to Muammar al-Qaddafi Nicolae Ceausescu and Benito Mussolini, fated to fall, but reluctant to admit it. Little else becomes known about the president, but the ‘why’ and ‘who’ is not the film's focus.
Garland’s dystopian thriller is unpredictable. A blissful scene set amidst sequences of continual violence whimsically sketches a small town that has avoided the violence. It’s a peaceful few moments as the group remembers the simple pleasures of life before war, until the camera angles up to reveal heavily armed snipers on the top of buildings all along the street.
This is followed by a disturbing account where Jesse Plemons (who acts expertly alongside Dunst just like in Season 2 of Fargo) holds the group at gunpoint. Disappointingly, his bloodthirsty character is unusually cliché within a film so unpredictable in nature as he resembles the typical xenophobic villain battling for the “real America” to rise again.
Garland scales his craftsmanship to another level here, deserving recognition alongside modern war movies such as Black Hawk Down and Full Metal Jacket for the intense combat filmmaking. As for whether the film is intended as a wake-up call, the unexplanatory politics of the film are unlikely to prevent people from thinking it’s about Trump. Yet the extent to which Garland and A24 are adding fuel to the fire this election year could certainly be up for debate.
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