Civil War

I think many people have missed the real message of the movie. Could it have been better, of course. However, my rating isn't about the movies political implications, but rather about how it shows the possibility of our country heading in that direction. The film effectively illustrates potential realities we could face. It highlights how extremists on both sides, driven solely by their own beliefs, can overlook the impact on others. One of the early scenes brought me to tears, reflecting on the possibility of such actions happening among us. By the end, I was overwhelmed with a sense of dread. I encourage you to watch this film with an open mind, rather than expecting polarizing content, so you can grasp how quickly our relatively young nation could shift towards such a daunting new normal.

I had high hopes for this movie as Alex Garland rarely disappoints,. But its a very shallow script like a six part mini series where the action scenes have been edited into a movie. There is no explanation of why there is a civil war, who is fighting who, what the outcome is or anything else that might cast some light on the situation. We just follow some unimportant characters through some hairy experiences. The movie should have been a mini series with a credible story line and a lot more characters elucidating the factions and their motivations. A week after watching it I had forgotten it! Don't waste your time.

Nope, sorry, this just didn't work for me. It appears that there is a civil war amongst these United States. California and Texas have seceded from the Union and Florida seems to be having a wobble too. The President (Nick Offerman) makes a speech assuring the rest of his country that they've nothing to worry about, but hardened photo-journalist "Lee" (Kirsten Dunst) and her cohort "Joel" (Wagner Moura) reckon that the conflict is quite likely to come to an altogether different conclusion. They bravely decide to travel the 800-odd miles to Washington DC to try and interview him. Their out-of-shape veteran associate "Sammy" (Stephen McKinley Henderson) thinks they are mad, but also wants in on the trip. Meantime, the enthusiastic young photographer "Jessie" (Cailee Spaeny) has managed to hook up with the team and so, rather implausibly, they agree to take her on this perilous journey. It's that implausibility that carries the whole thing as the completely preposterous scenario unfolds before us. No effort is made to fill us in on the cause of this warfare. Did the President seize power? Was he elected from a party these states didn't vote for? Are they just brutal and well armed revolutionaries? Then we have the ridiculous dialogue - usually from Henderson with his "always take fuel when you can" or "this way only leads to death" type profundities as the group travel through a remarkably stable, well fuelled and provisioned, nation where there's hardly the merest hint of mass migrations, fear or terror. Indeed, their blue "Press" helmets and a little bit of kevlar seem to render them immune to the deadly drama that they are supposed to be experiencing. Jesse Plemons makes a brief appearance - that actually leads to the only vaguely exciting part of this chronology, but otherwise it's all a bit on a non-event. Dunst starts off as a strong and characterful woman but that dwindles away and, well, I was just a bit bored as the denouement hoved into view with all the predicability of the sun coming up. It's bitty, episodic, unrealistic and populated with characters in whom I simply could not believe. Sure, maybe it's supposed to be outlandishly apocalyptic, but it reminded me for the most part of an episode of "Falling Skies" - only without the aliens. Perhaps it might resonate better with an American audience? I'm not one of them and this didn't.

There is a good movie to be made about the polarisation and aggression of US politics leading to civil war. This was not it. Uses a grossly undeveloped political scenario as an excuse to show us routine, gratuitous violence and contrived relationships. Casting an actress who looks 14 as a 23 year old was a big mistake and pushing her from wide eyed innocence through a ridiculous, unbelievable journey to awakening ambition via horror was crudely handled. Taking photos of people while they suffer and die is obscene and the pain and gore of violence was trivialised, not dignified by this sad movie.

On the good side there's some very good cinematography. The acting is competent. As for the rest, it's not terrible. To say it's formulaic doesn't take things much further because what isn't these days. There's no actual plot but that's also allowed lately. It's a bit odd that there's no explanation at all about how the USA has found itself in a civil war or as to why the president is ultimately portrayed as such an unsympathetic character but that is ok too since it's really all about the journey of the central characters. As to those characters, they're somewhat stereotypical. You've got the photo hack who's seen all the horrors of war ( in case we didn't get this we are shown a sequence of her reminiscences) there's the ingenue and, as is normal, the hero's reluctance to take her on board and the usual mix of support. In the end you have the new girl getting on with business and proving that she's the real deal. If the characters are a bit cliche'd, the dialogue hardly helps with lines like (I'm paraphrasing because I can't recall exactly but something like) "I've never felt so scared in my life, but I've never felt more alive". It's a bit like a mixture between Watership Down and Apocalypse Now except it really doesn't match up to either of those.