I’m gonna spoil the movie, so if you care, it’s probably best if you stop reading here because I’m not putting the entire thing in spoiler tags
So, long story short, Civil War is a beautifully made film that’s also cowardly and disappointing
The cinematography is great, the sound is excellent, but the movie lacks something very important, an actual message
If the movie is supposed to be about truth and journalism and its importance, that never comes through, instead it feels very much like “The Troops are Brave: Camera Edition”
Because at no point in the film does the actual work journalists do comes up, instead you’re treated to scene after scene of our protagonists taking pictures of war and atrocities, but never actually saying anything about it, which seems to be the tack the film itself is taking
That war is bad, but never bothering to explore the how’s and why’s of the conflict
The most hints we get as to why the president is bad is a mention that he has a third term (gasp) and ordered air strikes on civilians
Which, uh, I suppose is enough for some people, but the vociferousness with which the forces of the aptly named Western Forces pursue and execute the president suggest something far more interesting, which the movie could not even be bothered to even try and explore
To make a film about the United States becoming balkanized without bothering to even offer a smidgen of backstory as to its causes or even into the politics of the sides only serves to make the film a hollow shell
We’re left with nothing to the film, and it seems like they’re not even bothered by that, which is an absolute shame because they could have at least tried to say something
Instead, they chose very hard to say absolutely nothing, which only makes the apathy all the worse
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Ngl, the political ambiguity reminded me of that Pepsi commercial with Kendall Jenner. Lots of angry dissidents fighting for vague causes. Also the Antifa Massacre bit made me laugh. Still not sure if that film was supposed to be wholly serious or a parody of war movies.
You could tell that it was meant to be serious
The only moment that made me laugh was when Jesse Plemons has the stage directions of
Exit stage left, pursued by a carYou could tell that it was meant to be serious
That’s kinda depressing. I thought maybe the movie killed off almost all its main characters of color plus a bunch of non-white extras as some tongue-and-cheek meta-commentary on white savior war narratives. The cliches were just so in-your-face.
i’d really hoped that they’d lean into the dumb shit a bit but it seems like it won’t even be fun to make fun of
The only fun bit is when Joel (the guy who I suspect becomes Alex Garland’s mouthpiece) says something along the lines of “Southern boys or Portland Maoists, they’re all the same”
Which, what?
damn the portland maosists get all the recognition
no love for our tampa bay maoists
the president bombing civilians has never been a catalyst for change before not even when theyve bombed american civilians so why would that be different in this movie? like, im sorry, the president could order troops to fire on people and half the country would rabidly support it
Exactly
Like we see nothing but animosity towards the president, but nobody acts like they were actually affected by him or his policies
Even the troops who execute him just do it without so much as a sneer or even spitting at him
It’s weird
havent seen it but that sure as hell sounds like an alex garland joint to me. cool concept to draw people in but then offensively stupid
There’s a scene at the tail end of the movie where the young tagalong photographer (Jessie) jumps out of cover, hoping to get a shot of the president
Unfortunately, the few remaining Secret Service agents start opening fire, so the older photographer(Lee) jumps out to push her out of the way, taking the barrage instead, while the younger one takes a picture of her hero dying
The scene is supposed to be a callback to when Jessie asked Lee if Lee would take pictures of her if she were shot and Lee said “Yes”
The problem is that the way it’s filmed, it looks like Lee shoves Jessie out of the way and just stands there to get shot
Not that she was actively being shot, or couldn’t get out of the way, but just chooses to be shot
I suppose that moment was trying to say something, but as my partner so poignantly put it “Why the fuck didn’t she just tackle her out of the way?”
Is the message not “division is bad and we should not be divided because this will happen otherwise” ?
The civil war itself sounds like it’s a disaster movie, as if civil wars are forces of nature like a volcano is. The message is then simply “prevent this disaster”.
I don’t even see that. Like the movie doesn’t make the civil war seem like a bad thing. Just a thing that is happening. I could see liberals taking that from the movie, but nothing in there says the war that’s happening is bad. In fact the president gets mocked by one of the propagandists and then shot in the end. You could argue the movie actually takes the side of the secessionists.
