alex garland’s civil war.
A car weaves through a graveyard of cars. The song “Rocket USA” by Suicide blasts. The thrumming bass is relentless, like gunfire echoing in the distance.
This is America but it’s not. It’s America as Gaza as Ukraine. It’s Alex Garland dropping us into the reality of a war-torn country where there seems to be no rhyme or reason for the carnage. The reason, the why that led to all this, doesn’t matter. In these circumstances, there are no hypothetical rights or wrongs to debate. There’s no “well, America did X so X had to happen.” Now, there’s just fire, blood, bombs, broken bodies, and death. Politics don’t matter. Survival matters. Saying the right words when a gun is pressed to your forehead matters.
Civil War is the feel-bad movie of the year where Alex Garland holds a mirror to the face of America and asks if we like what we see. (We don’t.) Journalists are their own kinds of soldiers. They “shoot” their own weapons, peering down the sights and snapping the perfect shot to document the horrors unfolding across the American landscape. In Garland’s homage to war journalists and the fearless work they do to capture the truth, the audience is forced to stare the truth in the face.
Civil War isn’t a fun action-adventure romp where you cheer on the “good” soldiers and cross your fingers, hoping that the “good” violence beats the “bad” violence. It’s all just violence - indiscriminate, bloody, and hideous. It’s a loud, disorienting, and relentless film that will leave you stumbling out of the theater emotionally drained and awake.
This is a very, very important film. Everyone should see it. Everyone who supports war “under the right circumstances” should sit down and watch what they’re supporting. Watch what you’re funding and praying for. In Gaza, in the Ukraine, in America, in the world, there’s no good or bad violence. There’s just violence.
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