Alex Garland is one of the most inventive creatives to emerge in the 21st Century, following the tremendous genius of 2015’s Ex Machina. Having failed to reach the same level of critical praise, he’s continually worked at a high level in the business with major theatrical releases.
With 2024’s Civil War, Garland is tackling a very charged topic (albeit through a fictional narrative) in a year with the highest political tension in decades. The same year we are electing a president, and with each candidate threatening dire consequences if they are not the winner… it feels like this film could perhaps add gasoline to the fire.
Regardless of the ultimate influence the film has on everyday citizens or the larger populous, the film’s trailer (included below) is getting plenty of traction amongst political pundits and online social media users.
The film establishes that an authoritarian federal government is in place, helmed by Nick Offerman’s third term president. There are secessionist pockets round the country, and though the President’s government claims that victory is imminent, it feels anything but from the footage on the ground that we’re shown early in the film. It’s akin to The Walking Dead, only the only zombies are red blooding Americans brainwashed by each side’s ideological platform.
In a move that makes little sense, Texas and California are dubbed the “Western Forces” moving toward D.C. with the intent to remove the president. The story follows war photographer Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst) and a journalist colleague Joel (Wagner Moura) who want to interview the president.
The duo’s mentor, Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), decides to meet his friends on the front-line at Charlottesville, Virginia to dissuade them from this risky plan. At the same time, a young aspiring photojournalist, Jessie Cullen (who we met earlier in the film played by Cailee Spaeny), joins the group as they depart the city.
The next set piece occurs at a gas station protected by armed soldiers where they stop. Jessie finds the men torturing two alleged looters at a car wash and gets spotted, leading one of the guards to follow Jessie. Fortunately, Lee defuses the situation by taking a photo of the man posing with his victims… a particularly uncomfortable moment.
Their next stops sees them reporting and documenting the battle between secessionist militiamen and their assault on a loyalist base. Lee is mentioning Jessie in a way, and Jessie captures images of the secessionists executing prisoners. The team stays overnight at a refugee camp and then make their way to a small town where the residents attempt to live without giving a single thought to the war raging outside the town. The well-guarded town allows its citizens to live outside the mental anguish of the uncertainty of the future of the nation.
A particularly intriguing set piece is when they get caught between warring sniper rifle wielding soldiers. Joel questions which side is firing on them, and the soldiers make it clear that it doesn’t matter… they just need to kill the people trying to kill them. As an audience, we see Jessie becoming numb to the sheer amount of brutaltity witnessed on her journey, and, in turn, her skills improve. It’s a very weird beat in the story when Jessie questions if Lee would photograph her as she’s killed and Lee responds confirms that she would do it.
On the road, their ground encounters two familiar reporters, Tony and Bohai, from their past. Bohai and Jessie drive ahead of the group, and the next time they run into them it’s in dire circumstances. The duo are held at gunpoint by uniformed militia who are concurrently burying dead civilians in a mass grave. Lee and company attempt to negotiate their release, but the leader of the militia chooses to kill Bohai and Tony as foreigners. The others are saved by Sammy after who remained off screen so he could conveniently speed to the rescue (a cheap screenplay tactic) and ram the group’s truck into members of the militia.
Unfortunatley, Sammy’s heoric move leaves him mortally wounded and this is the end of the line for their mentor. Lee and the two surviving group members arrive at the at Western Forces base where the remaining loyalists have surrendered. This means that leaving Washington D.C. is down to just Secret Service protection and some remaining military. Lee and company join the assault on D.C. to document the battle. It’s the climax of the film and where everything is supposed to fire on all cylinders. At this stage though, the film has underwhelmed and the lack of clarity within the narrative is a major issue (alongside the ubiquity of two dimensional characters serving only to engage in evil acts).
Jessie repeatedly endangers herself during fighting to capture photographs, because how else can you raise the stakes as the characters have no real motivations beyond documenting the events. There are no post war plans or anything the characters are clinging to or dreaming of that might have emotional resonance on the country’s infighting ceases.
The presidential limo flees but they kill the passengers and fail to find the president. They enter the oval office and the president is killed once he gives a quote to the journalist team. As the soldier pose with the dead president, you’re left wondering why you sat through such an underwhelming and poorly plotted film with the most poorly crafted characters in recent memory.
Letter Grade: D