Civil War is directed by Alex Garland and follows a team of photojournalists as they make their way to Washington amid the chaos and danger of a civil war.
This movie plays like an extended car chase through urban terrorism. It plunges you into a world that feels so viscerally real, so dangerously believable, and yet all the meanwhile so horrifyingly unfathomable that you’re shocked at every moment.
Garland gives this movie a documentary feel— but with a cinematic scale. Sweeping shots of empty cities, abandoned buildings, and looted streets set to track 80s rock and Hip-Hop music gives it a haunting quality. And Garland paints an apocalyptic urban landscape that is at once familiar but at the same time an entirely unique cinematic vision.
Now, the story isn’t actually that driven by any contemporary American context. Multiple decisions by Garland in the writing process including which states side with who, and a particular choice to be vague about any political opinions that the characters hold. In In fact, it’s not really about a hypothetical Civil War or the causes of one. The exclusive focus here is actually the journalists. And that is what makes it powerful.
This film is about journalists, and the risks they put themselves in to capture the horrific moments of history that unfold before us. It’s about the stories they hold, the horrors they witness, and the situations they have to face to get the perfect shot, get the pivotal interview, and have to live in a moment that feels both devastating but monumental.
The cast is exceptional. The standout is Kirsten Dunst who gives a really heavily emotionally weighted performance that captures the seriousness, the fear and also the bravery of this role. And Wagner Moura adds some levity but is also devastating at expressing his sadness here. Cailee Spaeney is amazing, her chemistry with Dunst is one of the best parts. And Jesse Plemons who features in the trailer, has probably the most anxiety-inducing, horrendously tense scenes in this movie where you actually feel like you have to look away.
The movie is actually plotted like a road-trip, with the characters slowly making their way across America as they reach Washington. And this makes it feel like a really long car chase. I was reminded of movies like Children of Men and Cloverfield, where a team of characters have to fight their way through haunting and shocking confrontations as they venture further along the journal.
And in this path Garland chooses to put us in unthinkable situations where the tension is turned up to 11. Multiple moments have people putting their lives on the line, and the entire movie feels like its constantly on the edge of snapping with a series of anxiety attacks.
The editing is what makes it work here. Garland uses sound really cleverly to manipulate your emotions. During key moments, the sound often cuts out totally, when something brutal happens, to focus your attention on the shocking moment. Some of the biggest shootout sequences are set to upbeat music which created a very off-putting and ironic juxtaposed tone. And the best editing technique is when Garland actually cuts to still photographs in the actual movie to reveal a key moment. So instead of the actual scene playing out on film, we cut to a still photo from the perspective of one of the journalists whose taking it, and we see it play out through the slow-motion stunted perspective of a photograph. And that really puts the journalist’s story at the heart of it. We feel like we’re in their point of view. Witnessing these moments through their eyes.
Also, for those expecting some big action, the movie consistently delivers shootout sequences with booming sound reminiscent of that in Michael Mann’s Heat and editing in the most brutal way. With Garland genuinely laying waste to Washington in one of the most convincing sequences of a siege of the US Capital.
Civil War, a shocking and gripping movie set in an urban apocalypse through the unique perspective of photo-journalists.
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