I really did not know what to expect from this movie, I'd seen the trailers and like most people I was pretty fixated on why a 2nd American Civil war was happening. The western forces of California and Texas? The Florida Alliance? A third term president of the loyalist states. Some pretty interesting choices for factions of a 2nd American Civil War and if you were thinking would dive much into this you would be wrong. Civil War is fundamentally about a civil war occurring in the modern USA, journalism specifically war journalism and the people on the ground. We follow a group of journalists as they make their way to DC. Our lead is Kirsten Dunst as Lee a war photographer, followed by Wagner Moura as Joel her college, Stephen McKinley Henderson as Sammy as their old mentor and Cailee Spaeny as Jessie as an aspiring photographer who tags along. Kirsten Dunst is quite the battle hardened pro while Cailee Spaeny's Jessie is the extremely green newcomer and a good part of the movie is Jessie learning the ropes.
Are you Team Iron Man or Team Cap?
Civil War ends up being kind of a road trip movie, granted a road trip from hell as the team gets closer to DC they encounter battles, some dangerous scenarios and different sides of the war. And that is the main thing about the movie, the war, how are these battles work, what does the US look like at war with itself, where do people go, how are people reacting to it. One big thing is that when the team embed with soldiers or a militia we don’t know what faction they are on, we are told at the beginning that the white house has not talked to journalists in a while but we start in a loyalist state. But aside from the end we barely know whose side we are seeing.
There are some pretty interesting scenarios our characters encounter, the one glimpsed at in the trailer with Jesse Plemons is especially harrowing. There is quite variety on the road to DC, some of it even a bit light hearted. The movie looks amazing, the photography is mixed in so we see the photos taken. There is also strangely a lot of flex cinematography B-Roll vignettes that break up some of the segments.
So overall I did enjoy the movie. I saw it in Imax which was especially loud and felt pretty intense on that big screen. I actually felt a bit shook at the end, the characters go through quite a bit in the movie and especially at the end a lot goes down. The main thing about the movie is it's about war and about that experience. In game terms it's not Civilisation or a paradox 4X game, its Call of Duty meets Pokemon Snap. This movie does not have much to say about current politics its fundamentally about War which is bad, and fucked and will fuck up the places it happens. In some ways it is a bit disappointing that is does not delve into why a Civil War would happen, after all the politics of the US Civil War reverberate today. However Civil War does what It does really well and while War is bad is pretty simple is executed on really well that it gets a pass.
8/10
On the Photography
Who said Film was dead
So I dabble in photography here and there and seeing the kit of these journalists is quite interesting. Kirsten Dunst's Lee is pretty reasonable, Sony A series, with a bunch of different lenses. She does rock a adapted Leica lens occasionally and while im sure the image quality is stellar, manual focus in a war zone is certainly a choice. Then there is Cailee Spaeny as Jessie who rocks a old Nikon FE2 film camera. I think carrying a film camera does have some merit as cards do get corrupted and film as second camera could be a could good choice but as a main camera and in black and white I am not so sure. It took me a bit out it, especially since she takes quite a lot of photos. She does have a portable developing set up but still it’s a lot especially for the end scenario. And that’s really the thing, the end scenario is so intense and while we do see Jessie with multiple camera's changing every 24/48 shots in a war zone with a fixed length lens seems like a recipe for getting shot.
Disclaimer: I saw this through via my job and work on the Roadshow Films (AU/NZ Distro for A24) Account