Civil War

Platform: HBO Max

Director: Alex Garland

Release Year: 2024

Watch Date: July 14, 2025

My Rating: 8.4

I thought I’d written about this movie before, but I can’t seem to find the post. This was my second watch of it.

Today is Bastille Day in France. The day the poor starving people of France stormed the Bastille and started the French Revolution. I’ll talk more about that in a regular blog post, this one is for the movie.

First, A24 makes phenomenal thought provoking films. This one is certainly no different. The film focuses on a group of journalists trying to make their way to Washington DC to interview the US president before the fall of the US government. There are three factions in the US in the movie: the government, the western front (which apparently is Texas and California…I can’t really see that happening… I think it would be more like California, Oregon, and Washington and not so much Texas because Texas doesn’t have the same Political values that the western coast states do), and Florida faction (I also kind of have trouble seeing the Florida affection, but anything could happen).

Lee (Kirsten Dunst!!!!!) is a seasoned photo journalist who is haunted by the things she has seen. Joel is an on camera reporter who wants to conduct the president’s interview, and Jessie is just starting out in her journey as a photo journalist. Along their way to Washington DC they encounter various acts of violence, including people being shot because they were deemed to be on American since they weren’t born in the US or because they didn’t look white.

The final scene, where Lee pushes Jesse out of the way so that Jesse doesn’t get shot and Lee takes the bullet instead is so heart wrenching. Earlier in the movie, Lee talks about all of the wars that she’s made it out of alive. While they did make it to see the president, she didn’t make it out of this one alive. It made my heart hurt. Joel was able to get his quote from the president (“Please don’t let them kill me”) before the president was executed, and Jesse…Jesse was able to get the photos of the execution. She’s the only one that got them.

Of course the movie ends there so you don’t find out what happens, but it was a deeply thought-provoking. The similarities to the current situation in the US I know aren’t a mistake. Anyhow, please see the other post for the provoking thoughts that this movie caused.

Cinematography, lighting, and acting were all excellent. The script was very well executed. As were the visual effects. I’m sure I will watch this one again. Maybe I should pull out the TV Show Jericho and revisit that plot (which is also plausible given this country’s current atmosphere

Photo Credit: imdb.com