TL;DR – A deeply haunting film that engaged you so you could not look away, even though you wanted to.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that viewed this series.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Civil War Review –

Today, we look at a film that I didn’t know if I was going to review or not. It had awkward screening times when it had its theatrical release, and the election happened, and things felt a little too real to dive into a film like this. However, as the year came to a close, I felt like this was one of the films of 2024 that I had to watch to be able to understand the year that was.

So, to set the scene, in the not-too-distant future, The United States has devolved into civil war again, with the forces of the so-called central United States government based out of Washington DC up against the Western Forces of Texas and California. It is a chaotic time, with competing narratives as to what is happening and scarcities of resources like water putting pressure on everyone. In the midst of all of this are the photographers who are documenting the war, including veteran photojournalist Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst), who has been doing this long enough to know when a suicide bomber is coming. Everyone can see that DC is going to fall, and rather than being on the frontlines, Lee and her partner Joel (Wagner Moura) want to go into the Capital and interview The President (Nick Offerman) before he is murdered by whatever faction gets to the Capital first. The only problem, well one of many problems for them, is that the road from New York to the Capital is fraught with fighting, damage, and military forces looking to blow up anything that moves.    

Now, I need to start by saying that this is a very uncomfortable film to watch at times, as we are exploring a conflict where the law of war has been long forgotten. There is indiscriminate killing of wounded soldiers and prisoners of war, then civilian massacres, as well as the general carnage that can be found nearly everywhere they travel. As this is a film about photography, they use a lot of insert shots to hammer home the themes they are exploring. Some of these can be profoundly confronting, and I will be thinking about them for a long time to come.

From a narrative perspective, what we get is almost like a series of vignettes as Lee, Joel, Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), and Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) make their way to DC. Each of these moments is a snapshot of the lives of both the people who come across but also in how they are growing or failing as human beings. Some put their heads in the sand, others pull their sleeves up and try to help, and then there are those undertaking the bloody carnage that they see all around or using the cover of war to enact whatever punitive policies they like.     

From a production perspective, Civil War is a stunningly beautiful film at times, the way that people hide in the bluebells while sniper fire reigns down or how the flickering embers of bushfire can look like a stunning work of art in your final moments. Quite often, the film will remove all music, giving you nowhere to hide as the carnage explodes in front of you or amps the music up so loud that you can hear the screaming that is happening everywhere. It is these juxtapositions that keep unsettling you throughout the film. All the military scenes felt contextually correct, to the point where I think they must have had extensive military advisors to make those scenes work.

Civil War touches on a lot of different themes: what we chose and did not choose to document, how war changes you through desensitisation, the false confidence you can get through hubris, and the destabilising nature of dictatorships. These are all critical points, and it helps step you back from all the explosion porn that tends to permeate military films. It is left frustratingly brief as to what led up to the conflict, mostly because I think they didn’t want to dwell on what would actually make Texas and California work together, nor was there any discussion about nuclear weapons, which should have been there somewhere as they were moving through the White House.

In the end, do we recommend Civil War? I mean, it is a fundamentally difficult film to watch. However, it also captured me right from the start by a cast at the top of their game in a way that I could not look away. Have you watched Civil War? Let us know what you think in the comments below. If you liked Civil War, we would recommend to you Godzilla Minus One.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Civil War
Directed by – Alex Garland
Written by –  Alex Garland
Music by – Ben Salisbury & Geoff Barrow
Cinematography by – Rob Hardy
Edited by – Jake Roberts
Production/Distribution Companies – DNA Films, IPR.VC & A24
Starring – Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sonoya Mizuno, Jefferson White, Nelson Lee, Karl Glusman, Jin Ha, Juani Feliz, Jonica T. Gibbs, James Yaegashi, Evan Lai, Greg Hill, Edmund Donovan, Nick Offerman & Jesse Plemons
Rating – Australia: MA15+; Canada: 14A; Germany: 16; New Zealand: R; United Kingdom: 15; United States: R