Welcome back to the blog readers. While it may have taken me a long while to actually get to watch this film, I persist and I get shit done. This is a film that has been on my radar for months since the trailers released (the film came out in April for crying out loud), but I never got around to seeing it. Knowing the premise and the circumstances behind the film's release, would I be able to put that aside and watch this film as a piece of art? Stick around to find out.
Civil War was written and directed by Alex Garland. The film stars Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sonoya Mizuno, and Nick Offerman. In the film, a group of war journalists travel from New York City to Washington, D.C. to interview the President of the United States during a second American Civil War fought between a despotic federal government and secessionist movements before insurgent rebels take the city.
As the final film I got to see in 2024, I had some high expectations going into it. Especially because the main consensus is that the film is very good. And as someone who is a connoisseur for drama films and someone who is a sucker for war, action, and thriller films, I have been excited to see it for obvious reasons. Although I was told this was not the film I would expect, I did not expect to see what I did. This film is a haunting representation of truth and fact told from the lens of war journalists. Kirsten Dunst delivers a stunning performance and I can get behind what the filmmakers are trying to say.
Kirsten Dunst is one of those actors that rarely has people hating on her because every performance she has given has been excellent. From playing Mary Jane Watson alongside Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man to her roles in Melancholia (2011) and The Power of the Dog (2021), Dunst has been a force in Hollywood for twenty years. And she never really gets the love she deserves. Give her her flowers after this performance because she is a real force. From the stoicism she displays and her numbness to the situation at hand, to the absolute trauma that she displays throughout that shake up her worldview, Dunst shows just why she is due for an Oscar nomination (even though I know it will not be for this film).
One thing I do want to praise about the film is the cinematography of the film. Rob Hardy, who has worked with director Alex Garland before on Ex Machina (2014) and Annihilation (2018) (and has worked on Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018) and The Invisible Man (2020) as well), is the man holding the camera for this film and he truly knows how to get the right shot. Getting to shoot the wide shots of almost post-apocalyptic cities is haunting enough but also being able to shoot the actors up close and in living color is just as haunting at times. Take Jesse Plemons's scene, the skirmish we see in the middle of the film, and the climax of the film as two examples of this being done perfectly. I hope his work had been shortlisted for Best Cinematography at the Oscars because I would have definitely given him his flowers.
Next up, I want to talk about the story of the film for a bit and how it relates to our current situation. The main selling point of the film is a President of the United States that virtually became a fascist and got a third term, leading certain states to secede from the union and wage war against the United States. The film is depicted as having Texas and California joining up as the "Western Forces," and Florida has also formed its own rebellion. Sorry to be blunt, but I think that the situation we are heading into as a country is going to eventually lead us to a scenario where this film becomes more than a work of fiction and starts dictating real-world events. Do I want that to happen? Of course I don't, but we have to be prepared for anything with the incoming administration.
Finally, I want to talk about the one negative I have with this film. I mentioned in the previous paragraph that the backdrop of this film is a second American Civil War fought between a fascist United States and rebel factions that secede from the Union, but this film puts that through the lens of war journalists who are observing the conflict from the outside looking in. My negative is that the conflict is only second-fiddle to following our protagonists. I really would have liked to see the origins of the President, what led to the rebel forces seceding from the union and the conflict overall. Maybe that will be Garland's final film Warfare (TBD), but I really want to see more of this conflict.
In conclusion, Civil War is a haunting look at modern warfare that features stellar performances but a muddled look at the conflict in question. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.
Comments