Civil War opens in theaters on April 12, 2024
We never really learn what exactly led to the titular civil war, and that’s both its biggest feature and a bug of writer-director Alex Garland’s film. It works because we’re allowed to fill in the blanks; thanks to vagueness around why the United States split into three warring factions it can support every ideology and theory. What’s more, that lack of specifics helps make this a malleable story that’s understandable no matter your familiarity with American politics — in fact, the less you know about the current political landscape, the more Civil War makes sense. The problem is that the opposite is also true: the moment you start thinking too hard about the logic of the conflict, the less plausible it becomes that this is happening, at least based on our current situation. But even then, Civil War sidesteps the issue because the actual plot is less about the intra-state conflict, and more a big road-trip movie about a group of journalists traveling to Washington D.C. to try and interview the President (Nick Offerman in a small and subdued performance), documenting the state of the union along the way. This is the big magic trick Garland pulls, and what makes Civil War stand out.
The Characters
Our entry point into the story is Lee, a veteran war correspondent who has seen all kinds of atrocities humans are capable of, with Kirsten Dunst giving the character a “I’ve seen some s***” look that sells you on how much she has become both desensitized to violence and disillusioned with seeing her country fall to the same conflicts she witnessed abroad without words. She is accompanied by Wagner Moura’s Joel, a maverick journalist who gets giddy at the sight of violence, thrives in staring death in the face, and lives for the danger. Their dynamic offers some necessary levity in what’s otherwise a heart-wrenching story, with Moura giving his character an infectious enthusiasm and glee that complements Dunst’s somberness.
With them is Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), an older writer along for the ride, who becomes a sort of parent figure to the eager Jessie (Cailee Spaeny). Spaeny gives her character the kind of extreme naivete that made her so compelling to watch in Priscilla, in spite of what is clearly a horrible situation. Jessie idolizes Lee and all she wants is to join the cohort of combat journalists, without fully understanding what she’s getting herself into.
Civil War delivers a poignant, faithful representation of the toll war journalism takes.
This is the key to Civil War: Garland wanted to make a big love letter to the power of journalism, one which manages to convey the dedication, the impact, the sacrifice, the joy, and the thrills of delivering important news that Aaron Sorkin dreamed of portraying with The Newsroom. From the moment we first meet Lee, Joel, and Sammy in a New York hotel room, chatting cheerfully about their work despite having witnessed a horrific suicide attack, Civil War delivers a poignant, faithful representation of the toll war journalism takes and the way reporters cope with the horrors they see in order to deliver what Lee calls “a warning home.” That is the crux of Garland’s use of a civil war scenario, and it’s used to show all the mundanely horrible and violent things Americans don’t want to think about because “those things don’t happen here.”
Civil War First Trailer
To deliver that point, Civil War takes a very grounded, matter-of-fact approach to violence, showing bodies getting shot to bits, set on fire, and blown up. It makes the story more affecting because of how real it feels. To that point, Civil War’s use of sound is simply exquisite, with long stretches of absolute silence that increase the tension but also help showcase just how used to violence the characters are. By the time silence gives way to the deafening sounds of gunshots, it becomes as terrifying and heart-pounding as any horror movie, effectively using war as a jump scare. This is particularly true once Jesse Plemons’ character shows up, with the actor using his signature deadpan look to deliver a terrifying showstopper performance and the tensest scene in Civil War.
Civil War’s use of sound is simply exquisite, with long stretches of absolute silence that increase the tension.
It helps that Civil War is being shown in IMAX cinemas, because that larger format truly encapsulates the epic scope. Reportedly the most expensive film A24 has ever produced, the money is definitely on the screen. It feels massive in scale, with hundreds of extras, stunning vistas of a war-torn USA, and epic battles on the Lincoln Memorial giving this story a summer blockbuster feel. Cleverly, photojournalism is integrated into the film edit itself, constantly interjecting still photos characters are taking into action scenes. This shows how a story becomes a picture, and how a picture tells a small part of a much larger story.
Again, the lack of details regarding this political situation work in Civil War’s favor when showing that the country is so deep into its war that everyone has kind of forgotten why they are fighting in the first place — like during a scene where two soldiers are trapped by a sniper, and they argue that they are just here until one kills the other, no matter the reason. Similarly, the times when Garland shows how the war is impacting smaller communities, like passing through a town that’s completely ignorant to what’s going on, or a random militia indiscriminately killing people, it almost feels like a Fallout game in how it expands the world through visuals.