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How Alex Garland's Civil War offers a warning about the US political divide

Caryn James
Features correspondent
A24 Kirsten Dunst playing a war photographer in new film Civil WarA24

A harrowing action film imagining a near future in which the US has descended into chaos is the year's most controversial film so far – and the polarised response is just as interesting.

The most harrowing, visceral scene among many in Alex Garland's Civil War takes place on the streets of Washington DC, which has become an intense combat zone. In a very near-future when seceding states are rebelling against the authoritarian US government, helicopters fly overhead and explosions hit the Lincoln Memorial. Near the White House, journalists hide from gunfire behind armoured military vehicles. Garland puts us in the centre of a stomach-churning fictional battle that feels all too real, especially in light of the real violence in the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.

Yet the heart of film is not in US politics. The dynamic plot, in fact, is more about journalists' important role as witnesses to war. Lee, a famous photojournalist (Kirsten Dunst), begins the film already looking exhausted from covering brutal conflicts. She and Joel (Wagner Moura), a reporter, hope to interview the president (Nick Offerman), who has disbanded the FBI and ordered the military to attack ordinary citizens. In response to his regime, rebellious states have formed different alliances, including the unlikely Texas-California partnership of the so-called Western Forces.

A24 Civil War focuses on a group of journalists documenting the conflict, including newbie Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) (Credit: A24)A24
Civil War focuses on a group of journalists documenting the conflict, including newbie Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) (Credit: A24)

As these reporters travel through the war-torn country from New York to DC, Garland's point becomes clear. A young man at a gas station proudly shows Lee the writhing, bloodied bodies of two men he has hanged by their wrists. "I went to high school with him," he says, pointing to one man. "He didn't talk to me much." Men in unmarked combat gear shoot at snipers in a farmhouse. "Someone's trying to kill us. We are trying to kill them," one of them tells Joel, who incredulously asks "And you don't know what side they're fighting for">window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'alternating-thumbnails-a', container: 'taboola-below-article', placement: 'Below Article', target_type: 'mix' });