Review of Civil War, directed by Alex Garland

Despite having an increasing interest in the history of photojournalists, especially women in the field during the 1900s, I never thought I was going to see Civl War. For a hot minute, I had a subscription to my local movie theater chain (AMC A List), and I was going to see movies a lot over the course of two years.

That said, I saw a lot of trailers to the point where it flat out convinced me not to see certain movies. The first time I saw the Civil War trailer I gauged the reactions of the audience around me. Many people were saying to their spouses or friends that it felt too real.

It was the buzz online and what I was reading about the movie that ultimately convinced me to see it. Freshly resigned from my official post as a film critic at MovieWeb, I booked an afternoon ticket instead of going to work. It almost got cancelled because the projector acted up, but I toughed it out and they fixed it within ten minutes.

And man, this was such a rollercoaster ride. I almost had a panic attack watching this in Dolby because of the sound.

Let’s get into the review before I ramble too much!

A team of photojournalists races to the Capital before it falls to the rebels.

In this movie, the United States is in the middle of a dangerous civil war. Texas and California have united to become the Western Forces, and they’re quickly taking over the rest of the country. In DC, a third-term president who hasn’t been very successful at his job is holding up the last defense for what is the United States.

Photographer Lee Smith (named after Lee Miller, of course) is in New York City when she rescues a young girl, Jessie, from a suicide bomber at a water line. Jessie is an aspiring photographer, and Lee is her idol—that leads her to follow Lee to the hotel she’s staying at later in the day.

At the hotel, Lee and her colleague Joel are meeting with Sammy, a journalist with The New York Times. They want to corner the president in DC and get the scoop of the century before he’s killed, while Sammy wants to head to the front of the battleline in Virginia. They initially say no because of his age, but then agree.

Lee is also angry when she discovers Jessie sitting in the car ready to go, as Joel is letting her come with them to document as a photographer. They drive the roundabout way to DC, with their first stop being a gas station. It’s occupied by armed men, and Jessie wanders away from the group to find two looters being brutally tortured.

One of the guys gets angry at her snooping, but Lee shows up and offers to take his picture to stop the situation from getting worse. Jessie beats herself up at being too horrified to take pictures at the scene, and then Lee, after their next stop, answers Jessie’s question of whether she would photograph Jessie’s death with a slightly positive affirmation. She would.

They sleep that night with flashes and bangs in the distance, then investigate at daylight. A building is being captured by a militia, and the group moves in to document what’s happening. Jessie photographs an execution, and then they move on to a refugee camp.

The next stop is a town that seems too normal, and they even stop at a clothing store. Jessie makes Lee try on some dresses, and then Sammy reveals why it’s so normal: there are snipers on the roof and everyone is acting ignorant. After that, they drive through a dead Christmas fair, where a sniper shoots at them.

Two snipers are in the grass, and Jessie becomes normalized towards violence right about now. They then run into two reporters from Hong Kong, and Jessie and the one reporter swap cars. However, Jessie and her reporter are captured by a group of men burying bodies in a mass grave.

The one Hong Kong reporter is shot to death, and the others arrive and try to negotiate the situation down. The other reporter is killed after he admits he is not American, and Sammy saves the day after he rams the truck into everyone. He’s shot in action, and he dies on the way to the Western Forces base.

At camp, his body is removed and they clean the car. Joel discovers from some British reporters that the loyalists have surrendered, and DC is left undefended. Lee deletes a photo of Sammy’s body she took, and the group embeds themselves with the Western Forces as they lay siege on DC.

In battle, Lee seems out of it, and the White House is in sight. A limo speeds out of there, and the WF advance, thinking it’s the president. Lee realizes it’s not him, and the occupants are killed as the three journalists move in. With members of the WF, they advance through the halls of the White House.

Jessie shows herself to be reckless as she takes photos, and she ultimately exposes herself to gunfire. Lee protects her and takes the bullets, dying in the process, as Jessie takes pictures of her mentor dying in front of her. The WF get the president as Joel and Jessie continue with then.

They prepare the execution, and Joel asks for last words. They were “don’t let them kill me,” and Jessie takes pictures as he is killed. In the end, we see them posing with the corpse.

Overall Thoughts

I thought this was such a good movie in how it portrays the grey areas of morality as a journalist. We see how Jessie, a young woman who comes in with all of these ideals, slowly becomes a machine. At the same time, we see how Lee is breaking down too, even though she’s done this for years.

It also hits too close to the nose with the civil war aspects. We don’t see why Texas and California united, and what would cause these two states especially to merge, but there’s a question of the blissful ignorance too. There are mentions throughout the movie that Midwesterners are just ignoring what’s going on, and we see a town like that.

So it becomes a question of complicity, and who really runs the show here too. California and Texas really just toppled an entire government. But as I mentioned before, to pivot, I almost had a panic attack when we got to the siege of DC because of the sound and violence.

Go see this if you’re interested and haven’t seen it overall. I thought it was fantastic overall, but you have to be prepared.

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