Civil War (Movie Review)

“Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”

– British statesman Winston Churchill

A very bold statement to think about. With this in mind, Writer/Director Alex Garland’s Civil War‘s wide release in the USA was on April 12, 2024… 163 years to the day of the start of the American Civil War.  Put out there by A24, who also released this year’s MaXXXine, and I Saw the TV Glow, it was then released On Demand on May 24th before arriving on Blu-ray, DVD, and $K Ultra HD Blu-ray on July 9th through Lionsgate Home Entertainment. 

Offering audiences plenty of options to check it out, it stars Kirsten Dunst (Interview with the Vampire 1994, Spider-man 2002) as Lee Smith, a renowned war photojournalist from Colorado. The youngest member of the Magnum Photos cooperative, her first name is a reference to famed World War II photojournalist Lee Miller. With Dunst, there is also Wagner Moura (Elite Squad 2007, Narcos series), Cailee Spaeny (The Craft: Legacy 2020, Alien: Romulus 2024), Stephen McKinley Henderson (Lincoln 2012, Dune 2021), Sonoya Mizuno (Crazy Rich Asians 2018, House of the Dragon series), among others. 

In a dystopian future, four journalists travel across the United States during a nationwide conflict. While trying to survive, they aim to reach the White House to interview the president before he is overthrown.

It is funny, if not a little telling, that Civil War was dropped on an election year. That said, the movie is a scathing commentary on how divided America is through Garland’s eyes and how media may or may not be part of said division in the angles each channel wants to spin the narrative, hence, how the TV press with one faction and the written’s with another. He uses the perspectives of Dunst’s seen everything Lee and Cailee Spaeny’s fresh-faced Jessie, who idolizes Lee.

In Civil War’s America, the two-term presidency’s been thrown out the window by a fascist dictator ‘president.’ Obviously, there are people on both sides. Everybody in the middle is collateral damage; we see plenty of it with tragic results.

The first noted realistic war movie was 1985’s Soviet Come and See. On the state side, movies range from 1930’s All Quiet On the Western Front to classic movies such as 1979’s Apocalypse Now and 1998’s Saving Private Ryan. To immerse the actors, Civil War’s production used full blanks for the gunfire, as opposed to half or quarter blanks, resulting in a discharge as loud as real gunfire.

The movie was shot in Atlanta and Pennsylvania; however, there are conflicting reports of the practical effects to computer graphics ratio, saying practical effects heavily feature real vehicles like tanks, Humvees, and military helicopters, with live gunfire, explosions, and chaotic movement to capture the intensity of a battle around the White House, all filmed on location with minimal reliance on purely digital elements, creating a sense of raw realism and immersion; this includes using real vehicles driving at high speeds, bulldozing tanks, and employing multiple cameras mounted on cars to capture the chaos from various angles.

On the same note, it is said that a significant portion of the film utilizes CGI, particularly in creating the chaotic and large-scale battle scenes in a fully rendered digital Washington D.C., including crowds, explosions, gunfire, and even the city’s infrastructure. This allows for camera angles and perspectives that would not be possible with practical effects alone; essentially, a large part of the film’s visual impact relies on extensive computer graphics work. You can not have it both ways; in today’s age, viewers can tell.

Of course, with the aforementioned realistic decibel gunfire, the acting is straight. You can see and feel the shell shock everybody is experiencing. You know what is coming most of the time, but that does not make it any less shocking when whatever happens. This is War Hollywood unedited.

Being the finale is definite, there probably will not be a Civil War sequel. Given that, Garland said his next movie will be another war movie… so we will have to see. Until then, Cryptic Rock gives Civil War 4 out of 5 stars.