The Second Civil War

[silverscreenselect]

I saw Civil War today, and it's a very well made and very violent film. The premise is that the so-called Western Forces of Texas and California have seceded, with the help of the "Florida Alliance." The President keeps proclaiming that the US is on the verge of a major victory when in reality the Western Forces are preparing to attack Washington. The main characters are a group of reporters who travel from New York to Washington to be there for the final battle (and hopefully to get an interview with the notoriously interview-shy President before that happens). Much of the fighting involves small, similarly garbed groups of people in hunting or militia outfits taking on each other, and the movie makes a point not to specify which group is which. The scenery they pass through is a bizarre mix. There are interstate highways clogged with abandoned and wrecked cars resembling a scene out of The Walking Dead. But they also pass through pristine small towns whose residents say they don't get involved much with politics.

There were some major credibility problems in the film beginning with trying to swallow the notion that Texas and California would join forces for anything. Also, the reporters go around freely advancing right along with the soldiers as part of an advancing squad, taking pictures. They're wearing jeans and tee shirts with Kevlar vests saying "PRESS" but I would think they wouldn't last two minutes in any actual firefight.

The movie doesn't attach party labels to anyone but there are some clues. The President disbanded the FBI and ordered the military to shoot civilians. He also lies about the progress of the war and talks about God and the Pledge of Allegiance. But the only truly depraved characters are a couple of members of some unspecified militia group whom the reporters stumble across as they're dumping a truckload of civilian bodies into a mass grave. The leader of the militia group asks the reporters what type of Americans they are, perhaps Central or South Americans. He then asks them where they're from. Kirsten Dunst says she's from Colorado, and the militia leader (played by Dunst's real-life husband Jesse Plemons), says that she's a real American. But when an Asian reporter answers that he's from Hong Kong originally, things don't go too well for him.

The movie was written in 2020 and writer/director Alex Garland (who is English) was aware of the political situation here when he wrote it. But he tries to keep the focus on what the reporters are doing and why they're there, even as their efforts to make sense of what's going on prove increasingly futile. And he includes occasional scenes of unidentified characters shooting at each other... just because. It's a cautionary tale, but a well-made one.

[BackInTex]

Kirsten Dunst says she's from Colorado, and the militia leader (played by Dunst's real-life husband Jesse Plemons)

Well, I've got to see it now. I really like Plemons. There is an article about him in Texas Monthly this month.



The first time I noticed him he was playing Todd in Breaking Bad. Everytime I see him now I think of the scene in El Camino where he is driving through the desert with his dead housekeeper, that he just killed and wrapped in a carpet, and Araon Paul (playing Jesse) in the bed of his truck and Todd is singing along to Sharing the Night Together, by Dr. Hook., swaying his head and catching the wind in his hand, not a care in the world, just a beautiful day. It was a dark scene with a soft wonderful flavor.

Still need to see Kllers of the Flower Moon, too.

[Beebs52]

I remember him from The End of Things.

[earendel]

Texas and California??? What possibly could transpire to put a deep blue state and a deep red state together to wage a war against the rest of the US?

[BackInTex]

Mrs BiT and I saw this last night. I was disappontent in how little (actually none) was expalined about the ware, why it was being waged, why the President seemed to be the ultimate target and goal of the alliance. It was enjoyable, but another movie that doesn't explain itself.