SPOILERS AHEAD, you have been warned…

Director Alex Garland’s Civil War premiered at South By Southwest on March 14 but didn’t have its opening weekend until April 12. The film stars Kirsten Dunst playing Lee Smith, a war photojournalist who has been covering a civil war taking place either in the near future or present American society in which the United States have become more similar to factions. see image below

I think that the film tells a very important story of not only the danger of what a modern American Civil War could look like but also the toll of war on people. One aspect of the film that I found interesting was that while certain states were aligned with each other the journalists the movie follows never show which faction they align with. I think this is important because it shows how their experience as members of the press varied while trying to do their job. They encountered both faction troops as well as 2 different groups of militia men one group obviously nicer than the other. It shows (ironically) how even nationalist militia men completely disregarded first amendment right to the press simply because two men were Chinese. The movie depicts the complexities of what an extremely volatile political environment could lead to in America and serves as an important warning during an election year.

The film had a budget of $50 million which is a new high for A24 and I think the quality of the film reflects that. The CGI shots are phenomenal as well as some of the other shots of the movie. I wish I could see the individual film stills or the pictures that were shown from the film because there were some truly stunning scenes. For example, While Lee is documenting the damage from the suicide bomber in the first major scene, some of the photos she takes are shown on the screen briefly, the film does this many times which I think really gives the audience a chance to think about the horror of the scenes as well as think about how the characters must feel to be living these moments and to have to preserve the tragedies that lie before them. 

Audibly the film was intense, some of the scenes were almost deafening, but loud scenes were often followed by silence that often spoke volumes by allowing you to focus on what was happening visually throughout the scenes. A great example of this is the scene before they breach the barriers around the white house, you can see soldiers shouting orders and weapons being fired but all at a dead silence. Scenes like these really help add to the suspense of the film which kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time.

While talking about sounds of the movie I should bring up how I love the film’s use of the soundtrack. The best example is when the group is taking pictures of some urban warfare and assisting Jesse (Cailee Spaeny) in getting shots of Boogaloo boys-esque militia fighting U.S. Military soldiers. After the militia men beat the U.S. forces in their battle, De La Soul’s “Say No Go” began to play. Which helped dissolve the tension felt during the scene. The film also ends with “Dream Baby Dream” by Suicide which plays while the credit are rolling at the end which really made it easy to reflect on the 109 minutes of suspense and shock that I just witnessed. 

Honestly I think this will be one of my favorite films this year. I can’t wait for Alex Garland’s rumored next film known as Warfare, I hope it maintains the quality of his past films including Civil War. But for now I’ll be waiting for Civil War to find it’s way to streaming. As for my rating I’d give it a four out of five without a doubt. I would also recommend that any and all that want to watch it should.