It was Tuesday night, and it had been a long time since we had been out for a movie. My wife suggested Civil War, because it had gotten “pretty good reviews.” It seemed fine to me, so we both sat down in a movie theater for a movie neither of us knew anything about. I expected a movie about – well – the Civil War.
But we were wrong. It was not about the Civil War, but rather about a hypothetical civil war in modern times. We have all heard one of our presidential candidates proclaim that we’d have a civil war if he were not going to be elected. It’s about that kind of civil war.
I didn’t care for the movie much when it started. The acting wasn’t all that good, and the story didn’t make much sense to me.
Apparently two large western states, Texas and California, seceded from the union and formed the western alliance. Their flag is the United States flag, but with only two stars. The president of the United States of course is fighting a war to defeat the secessionists. That’s pretty much all we know. There is a war going on on American soil, of one American against another, some in uniform, some in vigilante pseudo uniforms, but everyone armed with military weapons. Nobody can be trusted, nobody is safe, anywhere. The country is a dystopian wasteland.
Four journalists, including one young girl who wants to be a journalist, make their way to DC in a press SUV to interview the president. The story is told pretty much from their point of view.
I said above that I didn’t care much for the movie when it started because it didn’t make any sense. The journalists were running in the line of fire completely unnecessarily, magically not getting shot, all just for some photographs? Perhaps the director wanted to glorify the noble profession of war journalism. But to me they didn’t look noble or brave, they looked stupid, took unnecessary risks, did impossible feats all movie long, for pictures that would likely never see publication anywhere.
As I always do when watching a movie, since I know I will review and rate it later, I made mental notes of what I’ll say, and how I’ll rate it. Something strange happened while watching Civil War. It started as a one-star movie, and it gained another star every half hour. I had never had that happen to me before.
When I walked out, I was stunned. I could not really talk about it. I was numb. The shock and the violence of a military operation is something most of us never experience. But it came through in the last 30 minutes of this film. I felt I was right there. I was wondering whether all the people that talk about needing a civil war because they don’t like how we treat gay people, or immigrants, or whom we give tax breaks to, or what overseas allies we support or don’t support, or what god we pray to, whether all these people realize what it would mean to have a civil war in this day and age in this country?
And there you have it. The acting of this movie is mediocre. The story obscure. The plot outright silly. But the dystopian scenes are brutal and they hit you in the face with a fist. Go ahead, have your civil war, see how that helps you, your country, your loved ones, and your grandchildren.
You have to watch Civil War, just to get that slap in the face, if you can stand it.
