Civil War Movie Review – An Unsettling Portrait

Some movies exist for pure and unashamed enjoyment. After a tough week at work, you call up some friends and catch a movie to laugh and unwind. Civil War is not one of those movies, but it’s a must-watch—a disturbing look at who we can be at our worst.

About Civil War

British novelist and filmmaker Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Ex Machina, Annihilation) directs this A24-produced action/war film about a divided America where two large states, California and Texas, have come together to take on the Union under the banner of the Western Forces (WF). Other states like Florida are watching and following suit, too.

Their objective is to unseat the current POTUS (played by Nick Offerman), whom they view as corrupt and power-drunk, and they will remove him by any means necessary. In this case, ‘any means necessary’ equals violent military force. There’s lots of violence in this film. Our desensitized selves have watched all forms of onscreen violence to the point where we can laugh when we see someone shot. Civil War’s violence is not the type of violence you laugh at. It feels real – the type that leaves you disturbed and shaken, as all violence should.

The story is carried by a group of journalists who have seized upon an opportunity to travel to the capital, Washington DC, where they plan on interviewing the President before the city inevitably falls to the WF and a new order begins.

Starring in Civil War is Kirsten Dunst as Lee Smith, an experienced war photojournalist who makes the dangerous trip to DC with colleague Joel (Wagner Moura), mentor Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), and aspiring and sometimes overeager young photographer Jessie (Cailee Spaeny). Their journey is filled with all sorts of perils, discoveries and moments of reflection amid the war raging all around them.

Experiencing The Film

For whatever reason, I love war films and political thrillers – two genres that don’t exactly scream peace, love and happiness. Civil War is a bit of both. One of the first things that struck me in terms of the creative choices made by the director was how he elevated the soundscape for heightened emotional effect.

First, I loved that the film steered clear of the usual huge orchestral set pieces that we usually associate with war films that deal with patriotic themes, mainly American or European ones. The score in this movie is bizarre, sometimes leaving you feeling like you’re doped or tripping. I’ve never been high, but my mind thinks this is what it must feel like at some level. Creatively, this must have been a choice to highlight the whacky, dystopian world Garland is building, to tell us, “This isn’t what you think. This isn’t what you know. This isn’t the movie you thought it would be.”

Secondly, the film is wise in how it uses sound. There’s loads of gunfire and everything associated with military destruction, but none of it is distracting. It’s compelling, disturbing and in aid of the story. Any time a gun is fired, you feel it. As I wrote, most of us are too used to gun violence on screen now, but it was amazing how many times I heard loud gasps from the other people who were in the cinema with me.

Coming to the performances, Dunst is excellent as the disillusioned but resilient photojournalist on a dangerous mission that could mark the pinnacle of her career. She is a reluctant mentor to Spaeny’s character who helps us see the person she once was – full of hopes and dreams.

Two of my favourite performance moments were seeing Wagner Moura’s Joel scream uncontrollably in the middle of a military camp after the death of someone close to him. The scream is more than just about that death; in a way, he’s screaming for us all, having seen so much that is hard to digest.

The second is a cameo scene in which Jesse Plemons plays an unnamed, trigger-happy soldier at whose mercy Lee Smith and her group find themselves. I’ve watched Plemons play some pretty mean people in his career, but these few minutes in Civil War were movie gold.

On the minus side, though, some of the dialogue was wonky, and it was sometimes hard to figure out if this was bad writing or intentionally written that way to show how weird and confusing everything is in this world. I lean more towards thinking it was terrible writing, but it wasn’t so devastatingly bad as to ruin the things that worked well.

Also, I still don’t know how I feel about the supreme place that journalism and photography had in this movie. The photographer characters snap pictures of everything, and I couldn’t help but wonder who it was all for or whether there are meant to be boundaries we respect. Sure, they’re photojournalists, and a time like this is ‘peak business’ for them, but some of it felt very unsettling, and that was probably the point.

The Politics of Civil War

I won’t spend too much time on this because it’s not the point of my review, but a lot is being made in some reviews about Garland failing to make a point with Civil War. Wired, in their review, say he played both sides. With this film being released in an election year in America and with everything that happened in the last days of Trump’s presidency, I sense some disappointment from some quarters.

I have a different view, though. This film feels like it’s more than just about America. Yes, it uses America as its setting, and it’s not set in the distant future, but close to now. Still, it’s a film that paints a very unsettling portrait of who we become when we don’t live by our highest ideals – more about society than politics. I don’t think the film tries to teach anyone anything or even make a statement. I think it’s a movie that shows us one among many paths that humans can travel down if we’re not careful.

What’s sad is that so many people in other parts of the world (some even close neighbours of the US) already live that reality. But when this new generation of young Americans sees it play out in familiar territory, it should make them quake. I know I did a fair bit of quaking while watching it. Civil War is meant to be felt, not enjoyed.