Director Alex Garland’s “Civil War” hit theatres on April 12 and transports audiences into a modern American doomsday scenario.
Despite the heavily political subject matter, “Civil War” takes an apolitical stance throughout avoiding reference or opinion on any Red versus Blue issues. While this could potentially sway or disinterest certain audiences, the film intends to focus less on the nation’s politics and more on the individuals caught up in its conflict.
The film’s version of the second “Civil War” sees states seceding from the Union and forming their independent fighting forces. States like California and Texas form the “Western Forces” due to a fascist “Three-term” president, depicted by Nick Offerman, whose exact wrongdoings are made ambiguous by design.
Driving the film’s story are its journalist protagonists played by Kirsten Dunst (Lee), Wager Moura (Joel), Cailee Spaeny (Jesse) and Stephen McKinley Henderson (Sammy).
These four band together to make it across the front lines to be the first to interview the President of the United States. Through these characters, the audience experiences a beautifully terrifying love letter to journalism and the journalists who risk their lives for the world to see and hear the truth.
Dunst’s depiction of Lee, a veteran journalist who has covered wars in Africa and the Middle East, especially stands out. From her vehement caution to the scenarios the cast endures, she expertly portrays her character’s traumatized and war-torn past.
Like his films prior, Alex Garland’s “Civil War” is filled to the brim with fantastic cinematography.
The film contrasts the horrors of war around the protagonists with the beauty of America. Throughout the film, the protagonists take pictures of battles or the aftermath and the film shows these photos as they are taken, providing moments of calm horror at what audiences just witnessed.
A notable standout of the film is the special effects. The gunfire of “Civil War” is incredibly loud and visceral, forgoing the typical dampened sounds other films stray towards. Accompanying it is expert makeup, showing the brutality of the wounds the fighters endure and the ash and dirt that adorn their bodies.
Towards the film’s end, a blend of practical and computer-generated effects is combined seamlessly to depict the final hours of the war. The sound of automatic gunfire, scenes of American landmarks ablaze and bodies littering the streets, distill a great unease in the audience throughout.
It is the intense violent visuals and sounds of “Civil War” that illustrate an anti-war message in a way only a film of its kind could. While many of Hollywood’s standout war films take place in an ambiguous foreign country, fighting militant caricatures with flawless heroes, this is not the reality of warfare.
Innocent people die, people kill without reason and those “ambiguous foreign countries” house communities much like those in America. “Civil War” gives a glimpse into these propagandized war films, from the perspective of their occupants.
It is this subversion of the Hollywood war blockbuster, that makes Alex Garland’s “Civil War”, a harrowing and important feature film.
