The latest film from writer/director Alex Garland, Civil War is a tense and compelling character drama that examines the cost of war on the human soul, while still delivering an accessible and gripping thriller.

Premise: In a future America ravaged by civil war, four journalists led by Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst), a renowned war photojournalist, attempt the perilous journey from New York to Washington DC in the hope of securing an interview with the President (Nick Offerman) before his loyalist armies fall to the Western Forces of Texas and California.

Review:

Civil War is the type of film that needs to be judged for what it is, not for what some might have expected it to be. Despite the studio’s marketing arguably giving the impression that Civil War is an epic action film, it is in reality a much more intimate movie that explores the wider events through the eyes of its main characters, four journalists reporting on the war. If you’re expecting massive battle sequences to rival Saving Private Ryan or Apocalypse Now, you’re likely to be disappointed – but that’s simply not the type of film that Civil War was ever trying to be.

This is the latest film from writer/director Alex Garland, who graduated from writing some of my favourite sci-fi films of the last few decades (including 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Dredd) to directing some of the most thought-provoking sci-fi films of the last ten years (including the excellent Ex Machina and Annihilation). In many ways, Civil War is a departure for Alex Garland given that this movie doesn’t include any sci-fi elements and (other than being set in an alternate/near future America) is far more down-to-earth than his other films – but on the other hand, Civil War includes the exploration of existential themes that Alex Garland’s previous work is so well known for.

“…Kirsten Dunst & Cailee Spaeny are fantastic in their roles…”

The story is told through the eyes of four main characters as they encounter various groups on their journey to Washington DC. Headlining the movie is Kirsten Dunst who plays Lee, a veteran photojournalist who’s renowned for her war photography, but whose career has left her jaded and emotionally detached from the rest of humanity in her quest to dispassionately record the horrors of war. Kirsten Dunst is fantastic in this role, delivering an understated, emotionally repressed performance that still tells the audience everything they need to know about the character’s inner turmoil.

At the other end of the spectrum is Jessie, a naive aspiring photographer who wants to follow in Lee’s footsteps. Jessie is played by Cailee Spaeny, who for me was a complete revelation in this role. Admittedly, I’ve not seen 2023’s Priscilla (and I remember her only having a very small role in 2018’s Bad Times at the El Royale), but I thought she was amazing in this film, bringing all the various (and sometimes contradictory) layers of Jessie’s character to life. This was the type of performance that marks Cailee Spaeny out as a talent to watch, and I’m now very intrigued to see what she does in the upcoming Alien: Romulus due out later this year.

“…fundamentally, ‘Civil War’ is not about which side is right or wrong…”

The other members of the quartet are Joel (played by Wagner Moura), a reporter working with Lee who’s hoping to interview the President, and Sammy (played by Stephen McKinley Henderson), an aging journalist who hitches a ride with Lee and Joel to the front lines. Both bring their characters to life and deliver memorable performances that have stuck with me after the closing credits. This movie really is a four-hander, with other actors just appearing briefly for a scene or two – most notably, Nick Offerman as the President leading the loyalist states, and Jesse Plemons as a soldier the journalists encounter on their journey.

One of the most interesting decisions that Alex Garland makes in Civil War is to all but ignore the politics and ideology of the opposing sides – because fundamentally, Civil War is not about who is right and who is wrong. This itself feels like a pointed commentary on the tribalistic and partisan nature of politics today, where every issue and argument is boiled down to a binary, them-or-us, right-or-wrong mentality, with no room for compromise or empathy. Obviously, this film was written years before the current escalation of tensions between Israel and Palestine, but one only has to look at the inflexible and polarised nature of the discourse surrounding those events to see how quickly we as a society descend into tribalism and othering.

“…brings the realities of war to the audience’s doorstep…”

In Civil War, the actual events that led to the war, and the political ideologies of the various factions, are never discussed because to do so would encourage (or at least permit) audiences to choose a side, which is not the point of this film. My theory is that Alex Garland chose Texas and California to be the main powers behind the coalition of “Western Forces” because a union between the traditionally Democratic California and the traditionally Republican Texas makes it more difficult for audiences to arbitrarily assign a political ideology to the Western Forces.

During the course of the movie, we see suicide bombings, summary executions, lynchings, and straight-up war crimes being committed, but it’s rarely entirely clear which side it is that we’re seeing commit these acts. (Yes, I’m sure it may be possible to pause the film and look for insignia on some of the uniforms, but the identity of which side we’re watching at any given point is not often explicitly addressed). In one particular scene, this point is even expressly addressed by the characters, when one of the reporters under fire asks a soldier which side he’s on, and the soldier replies that he’s on the side trying to kill the ones who are shooting at them. Civil War isn’t interested in labelling the politics of the titular war, instead the American setting is designed to bring the realities of war to the audience’s doorstep, rather than the usual abstract concept of a war in a faraway and unfamiliar country.

“…focuses on the morally ambiguous actions committed on the battlefield…”

The film also touches on other topical issues, like the fact that even with a civil war raging across America, large swathes of the country are attempting to “not get involved” by pretending that it’s not happening (Lee and Jessie both comment that their respective parents are doing just that). It’s also exploring what it means to be a photojournalist in a war zone – I can’t comment on how true it is that they have to remain emotionally detached from what they are documenting (in much the same way as wildlife documentarians don’t “interfere” with what they’re witnessing), but this film certainly delves into what it means to observe the worst of mankind without having the ability to affect it.

Despite me saying that this is an intimate, relatively small scale and low-budget film (the budget was reportedly around $50m), the scope of the movie really opens up in the final act. I don’t want to say too much about specifics, but whereas the first two acts of the film rely on suspense and tension for their drama, the final act embraces the full scale of the military conflict. But even then, the film never lets the action overshadow the themes of the film, so rather than delivering a gung-ho depiction of a military assault, we remain focused on the morally ambiguous actions committed on the battlefield.

“…arguably Alex Garland’s most accessible film so far…”

The exploration of the moral ambiguities of war means that this is about as far removed from a jingoistic action war movie as you could get. Ultimately, Civil War is a beautifully shot, brilliantly acted, character-driven thriller that also serves as a dystopian allegory for today’s polarised political landscape – making this arguably Alex Garland’s most accessible film so far as a director. Although a few of the film’s points are made in a slightly heavy-handed way, overall this riveting and intentionally unsettling film engages both the head and the heart, and gives you plenty to think about after you leave the cinema.