I Don’t Need Your Civil War

Alex Garland’s 2024 movie Civil War could easily be a documentary in a few years. That’s the way it feels sometimes, anyway.

Garland drops us into a United States clearly sometime after a Civil War has broken out. We’re introduced to Lee (Kirsten Dunst) a hardened and seasoned photojournalist covering the war in New York City. When tensions escalate between police and citizens picking up water Lee unexpectedly and reluctantly saves aspiring photojournalist, Jesse (Cailee Spaeny) who ultimately ends up tagging along with Lee, Joel (Wagner Moura), and Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) who are en route to the front line and Washington DC respectively to continue their coverage of the war.

At this point, we don't know much about the war. We know some states are secessionists. We know the president (Nick Offerman) is somehow in his third term and has disbanded the FBI. As they travel, we get more indicators of the state of the nation as they stop for gas, encounter a firefight, and witness a battle, raging from afar.

A respite stop in West Virginia at a high school football stadium relief center gives us a peek inside civilian life and offers Lee and Jesse an opportunity for levity and to connect.

Being an A2 for production, the music and cinematography have that feeling of something always being a little off. The movie itself builds tension and unease just as much as the story itself. When our weary journalists come upon a seemingly normal town, Jesse, even comments that it seems like the Twilight Zone an an apt comment for the feeling of unease that is being built. The movie does feel like a modern Twilight Zone episode.

Things take a dark and twisted turn, when our intrepid journalists come upon a small militia force led by an unnamed soldier (Jessie Plemons, uncredited). It quickly becomes clear that this militia is acting as judge, jury and executioner, for those who are "not American enough" and our unfortunate to come across their compound. After this harrowing encounter, our heroes escape, but not without suffering heavy losses. I very nearly got sick to my stomach during this scene, realizing how close we may actually be to actual “well-armed militias” taking out their twisted agenda on those they don’t consider American. It's unsettling to say the least.

We learned that the western front forces are moving toward DC, and apparently, what's left of the Republic has surrendered. We see a firefight at the Lincoln Memorial, bombs flying over the Washington Monument, and fighting in the streets of suburban DC. Our journalists continue to cover the fighting, the younger Jesse, with a seemingly growing excitement and appetite for adventure, while the older Lee seems to be losing her desire as she loses her sense of hope. It's total chaos. Scenes that we've seen in our lifetime on the news, but in countries far from here. It's unsettling to see this happening in DC. Our journalists are in the middle of the fight as it goes right towards the White House.

Things become increasingly unsettling and unhinged as forces breach the White House, and our reporters go in for the story.

I won't spoil the ending, but would you expect to happen happens. dramatic flourish to a dramatic film. Let's just hope that this movie is a modern masterpiece treatise on journalism and gun culture and not a cautionary tale.