Film Review of Civil War

Civil War is a terrifying vision of America, that is big on spectacle but ultimately struggles for meaning.

The film is set in an undefined near future, during a civil war with three regional factions fighting against the federal government of the USA. Texas and California have joined together as the Western Forces, under a flag featuring two stars instead of the usual 50, the Florida Alliance consists of much of the southeast while the north west forms the New Peoples Army. The rest of the states, known as the loyalist states, remain under the nominal control of the federal government and the president in Washington DC.

The prelude to the film shows the president preparing to give a speech on the progress of the war. As he prepares his lines full of bravado to declare the government is winning the war, the viewer is reminded of Donald Trump in his manner, even if in this scene he is a (presumably unintentionally) doppelganger for Keir Starmer!

The film centres on a small group of journalists and photographers led by a jaded veteran war photojournalist Lee Smith, played by Kirsten Dunst. At a protest which turns violent, in New York, she meets a young aspiring photojournalist who idolises her. The two join with a Reuters journalist and a ageing New York Times journalist to drive the dangerous route to Washington DC. They are determined to get a massive scoop by meeting and interviewing the president before Washington falls, although they doubt if he is even still alive.

While New York had seemed vaguely normal, as they travel southwards we soon see the destruction the war has caused. They cannot travel directly to Washington DC but must take a circuitous route to Charlottesville on the other side of the city, where the Western forces are amassing ahead of a major assault on the capital. Highways are blocked by burnt out cars, whole towns are bombed out and abandoned, people are living in refugee camps, helped by international aid groups. 

The group have a number of encounters with opposition militia and government forces, often in the midst of fighting, although not always clear who is who in the fight. The group witness war crimes being committed by both sides as opposition forces shoot captured government soldiers, while a particularly horrific scene shows government militia men throwing civilians they have killed into a mass grave. Jesse Plemons has a memorable uncredited cameo as a racist militia man demanding to know where the journalists are from.

A jarring incident occurs when the group encounter a small town where everything seems to be functioning normally and a bemused shop assistant tells them the townspeople are ignoring what is happening in the rest of the country. While in another incident they encounter two soldiers and a sniper shooting at each other even though they don't know which side they are on.

The film shows the brutality of war and in close and often horrifying detail but the film struggles to give real depth or meaning to it. The viewer is given no real reasoning for how or why the war started. While, as I said earlier, the president has some echoes of Trump, it is not enough to say that a Trump presidency will inevitably lead to civil war. As we know, it didn't. And while that can be a liberal interpretation of the film, it is equally possible to say that the president is vague enough that he could be any American president. At a time when, under a Biden presidency, police brutality is being utilised against peaceful protesters across the USA, it is not enough to say that a Trump presidency would, unlike other presidents, lead to fascism.

The film also conveniently ignores that journalists are often deliberately targeted in conflict, as we have seen notably recently in Palestine and Gaza where countless journalists have been murdered by Israel. Having the journalists targeted would have made for a very different film, but the sometimes cosy relationship between journalists and army as depicted in the film feels unrealistic.

Ultimately, the film works as a spectacle, with some gripping action and tense scenes of danger. It is a terrifying vision of what is possible, but don't look for any insight into how or why it could be possible.