In Civil War, writer/director Alex Garland offers a near-future vision of a United States unraveling in the grasp of conflict. Texas and California have seceded. This newly christened “Western Front” is closing in on Washington D.C. Chaos and carnage abound.
It presents this story by way of following a team of journalists’ journey from New York City to Washington D.C. as they race to capture the falling capital. The group is lead by Lee (Kirsten Dunst), a veteran war photojournalist who is visibly buckling under the conflict’s weight. Contrastingly, we have Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), a young optimist who tags along eagerly despite Lee’s opposition. Adrenaline-seeking reporter Joel (Wagner Moura) drives the press van, and Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), an aging professional, offers the crew balance and wisdom from the back seat.
Along their journey, the audience experiences all the best (and worst) of what a road story action flick has to offer. I personally love this type of narrative. It creates plenty of opportunity for suspense and dread. But it’s a suspenseful dread that’s streaked with the bliss of freedom and possibility. The film’s striking visuals and sound design convey all of this while packing a big, satisfying punch.
Despite some basic plot points and hair-raising action sequences, Civil War is not a story told through fine detail. Garland is not particularly concerned with why these groups are destroying each other’s lives and their country’s fabric to fight one another. At most we get glimpses: a president serving a third term, a disbanded FBI, state sanctioned violence against civilians.
While some critics seem to take the omission of this detail as evidence of a half-baked message, I don’t think that Garland wants to provide us with commentary on exactly what caused this disaster to transpire. Is it nuanced and/or logical enough to warrant civil war? Can he tell us something new about the divisions of our particular moment in time might play out? Could the worst-case-scenario be more or less morally excusable depending on the politics of it all?
Instead of getting caught up in all this, I believe Garland’s statement concerns a much larger topic: war as a whole. The film’s brutality and violence feel senseless and unjustified without knowing their cause. But is that not the point?
Early on in their journey Lee says to Sammy something to the effect of, “I thought my photos made it clear: don’t do this. But here we are.” Lee, we understand, knows wartime intimately. And she is fundamentally opposed to all that it comes along with. Her remarks, flashbacks, and constant instance that Jessie quit while she is ahead, tell us that her experience capturing the frontlines’ indiscriminating brutality has convinced her that no matter the reason or the end game, when there is conflict everyone loses.
This also brings up questions for me around the work of making people care enough to change course. A realization I had in the film’s latter half was that neither Lee nor Jessie’s photos were going anywhere. As they risk bodily safety and mental sanity to get the shot, they do so in a sort of vacuum. Lee’s photos never leave her camera, and despite some analogue-coolgirl-gen-z tech, the Jessie’s photos never progress beyond her negatives.
I wonder if this is commentary on our ability to understand and avoid tragedy in real time? Would it really matter if those photos were in the hands of others? Or would it be equivalent to yelling CAUTION into a mass of people plugged into their AirPod Maxes? (Noise cancelling on, specialized audio set, of course).
I don’t suggest this as an indictment of photo journalism or any type of journalism for that matter. I offer it as an indictment of our ability as a species to process and react in a meaningful way to warnings about the effects of our actions.
In this sense, I think Garland offers some compelling commentary on conflict and the human condition through what he omits rather than through what he depicts. Don’t get caught up in the action! Read between the lines! Visuals of war-torn middle America are grotesque and haunting. In the end we’re left wondering what it’s all for. That is the point.
End notes….
I originally wanted to see this movie not because it’s a near-future dystopian set primarily in rural America (a part of this world that I have long found extremely eerie and extremely ripe for story), but because of its leading ladies. I love the idea of two Sofia Coppola muses headlining an A24 action flick. I am sure I am not the only girl like me coming at the movie from this angle.
I knew I would write about this movie when De La Soul closed and drowned out a bloody fight sequence. Love the juxtaposition. I’ve been listening to Say No Go on repeat since Friday.
Who else thinks Joel (Wagner Moura) is super hot? He reads and writes and cares about understanding the world around him, but is also a sort of sensory-seeking bad boy. His mustache really works, too.
Pricilla and Ex Machina are next on my watchlist.
Let me know what you think ;)
Polky! Kicking off the socratic seminar here ;)
I really appreciate this take, especially in contrast with the general criticism of this movie. The unfulfilled expectations seem to have impaired people's analysis (althoughh I do think it's pretty interesting to observe how hungry we all are to see our dystopia / political division play out on screen). This movie had me gripped– palms sweaty, stomach turned– and I feel certain that much of the audience shared that response. I think part of the horror of it is that we don't need the director to fill in the blanks. Our minds go there alone, which is maybe more disturbing (the call is coming from inside the house!).
Love the note about "the work of making people care." There is such an interesting paradox that plays out here– in the effort to document the violence and move people to care, the journalists are necessarily desensitized, and stopped feeling as moved themselves. We see this in Joel's adrenaline junky attitude towards the war, Jessie's character development, and finally in the Abu-Ghraib esc photo the film closes with. I think this mirrors the same desensitization that we as consumers of this media experience. In the effort to document, spread alarm and make people care about war, we become numb to it. Photography and media is almost used by the journalists (and by us as consumers) as a weapon and shield against the horrors of the world and of violence. The way they carry their cameras as they crouch and follow soldiers during battle scenes mirrors the way those soldiers carry their own guns. Lee offers to photograph Jessie at the gas station as a means of protecting her. Etc. Etc.
Alsooo the Americana noir of it all!!! Amber waves of grain with bomb smoke stacks rising. "Go Steelers!" backdropped by nooses. Striking, American landscapes and the dark underbelly laid bare. Lovedddd it.
Okay that's all!!!! Loving this brand of academia that Phil primed us for. Can't wait for the next read <3
P.S. I think we know who Joel reminds us of ;)