A24’s Civil War attempts to masquerade as a dramatic epic which reveals insights into the effects of politics and political identities but instead presents a visually gorgeous and tense action thriller on the lives of war photographers in a generic lawless warzone.
Civil War is directed by Alex Garland and stars Kirsten Dunst as Lee Smith, an intrepid and famous battlefield photographer, who decides to venture into the thick of the ongoing civil war to get pictures of the president before Washington D.C. falls to opposing forces. Tagging along with Smith is an amateur photographer named Jessie Cullen and several reporters. As they travel through the war-torn countryside, the group encounter a variety of perils and dangerous scenarios which show the best and worst parts of humanity.
It was no surprise that Civil War was a very heavily anticipated movie, especially from those more involved in the art cinema community. A24 is well known for investing money into films that are more unique and artistic than the average Hollywood blockbuster and Civil War had the largest budget of any A24 film to date. The polarized climate of America today has also caused many to be fearful and fascinated by the potential for violence to emerge out of partisan divides. However, if you are going to release a film and market it as a grand epic movie about a modern-day version of the deadliest war in American history, you had better deliver. Unfortunately, Garland has created a film which seems to deliberately steer away from its own title, spending very little time explaining or analyzing the causes and effects of the war. Instead, the movie pivots and becomes an entertaining, albeit smaller scale, story of war photographers and the risks and moral dilemmas that they face in their work.
This bait and switch where the large civil war is substituted for secluded encounters among the war photographers is very detrimental to the film because, audiences are going to measure it against their expectations, and in that respect, it is a complete failure. The war elements of the movie are almost nonexistent for the first two acts with most of the action being derived from individuals and small groups which are never given context in the larger war. As if to overcompensate, the third act is essentially one giant action sequence which almost seems like one long video game cutscene one would find at an arcade shooter. The audience is given almost no information about the civil war itself which makes the setting which had so much potential, function as merely a generic lawless warzone which could be substituted for any other warzone to the same effect.
When viewed as a movie about war photographers, Civil War is an entertaining if uncommitted viewing experience. It is gorgeously shot and has lots of striking imagery which are sure to linger with the viewer. Additionally, many of the interactions which the characters go through are thrilling and bring up pertinent and interesting questions about the nature of deadly conflict. Surprisingly, the film seems to portray the reporters and war photographers as quite villainous and uncaring, asking the question whether it is okay to act as an entirely neutral entity, passing no judgement and taking no action when brutality and murder are committed right in front of your eyes. The film deserves praise for being blatant and obvious with messaging opting to let the viewer decide for themselves the values of the characters actions. The acting performances in Civil War are excellent though the characters are hard to get deeply attached to because they are not focused on enough. Once again, the setting of the film hinders the story it is trying to tell as the civil war aspects draw attention away from fleshing out the main characters and their motivations. The film uses music to affect the tone which can seem a bit jarring but reflects the reality that things that seem horrific and violent to us are treated as routine and normal by the main characters of the story. Expectations aside, Civil War is a highly entertaining war photographer film which is sure to keep one’s interest even if it does not live up to the limitless potential of its premise.