Civil War: One of the most visually stunning films

• Release Date: 19/04/2024
• Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson
• Director: Alex Garland

“Civil War” Explores the Raw Emotions and The Haunting Beauty Amidst Chaos in A Disintegrating and Visceral World

“I feel that they have unnecessarily stretched the dramatic and emotional bits,” commented one of my two friends, who has over the last few months become almost a permanent fixture in my weekly movie escapades. His comment came during the interval.

“I am glad that you are experiencing the same frustration that I did while watching Love Lies Bleeding,” said the other friend, whose last film with us was “Love Lies Bleeding” which had frustrated him with its bizarre finale and lack of finality and clarity.

I was quick to defend “Civil War” as I was already enjoying it and was intrigued by its presentation, characters and drama. “I feel that they wanted to reach the most inert of the audiences with the dramatic and emotional bits of the film since it forms its core and would lead to impact later,” I said. “They needed to ensure that everyone felt the impact of the tragedy and insanity that these characters were thrust into, and hence they had to slow down since the speed at which we process emotions and drama may not be the same as some other less responsive viewer,” I summarized in defence of the film.

My friend, who was very assertive but almost always even more respectful, agreed, even if it was only to be not disrespectful in my opinion. I was able to gauge his current opinion and feelings about the film and was hoping that it would prove to be a worthy watch for him in the second half, as I was the one who dragged him into it. I couldn’t bear to have been wrong about an event film from A24, one of the most fascinating production houses of recent times.

The Story:

“Civil War” is the story of a group of photojournalists who find themselves in the middle of a ravaged country during the outbreak of a violent civil war in the United States. The country has effectively disintegrated into three parts, and the president, sitting at the White House in DC, is on the verge of losing his head to the fast-moving rebel forces. The photojournalists believe that the only story left to cover in the war is to document and share the unadulterated opinion of the president about the unfolding events before he is executed. The idea was to decipher what led him to set forth a chain of events that led to the massive human tragedy that was the Civil War.

The rest of the film is about what these photojournalists experience during their 800-mile journey to Washington DC, culminating in them meeting with the president but under the most bizarre circumstances.

Exceptional Performances from The Ensemble Cast:

Each of the characters in the film undergoes a profound arc through the course of the film, beautifully essayed and captured by the ensemble cast. Lee (Kirsten Dunst) is a battle-hardened photojournalist who has seen everything there is to see about wars, and it has left her scarred. She is haunted by her own inaction, which interestingly is one of the core principles of a photojournalist. She is always supposed to observe and record for others to form opinions and share them while never doing the same herself. But her inaction towards massive human tragedies starts taking its toll on her, resulting in her doing something at the end of the film that was totally out of character but was in keeping with her inherent humanity that she had lost over the course of an illustrious career but was not willing to part with when her end came.

This was a complex character to pull off and could have easily disintegrated into one of those angsty, disgruntled caricatures of “I am an angry and disgruntled soul” person cliches, but Dunst masterfully underplays her part to extract genuine emotions and empathy for her character, resulting in it becoming impactful and intriguing. The character grabs your attention even when all she is doing is speaking, showing the power of the dramatic impact that Dunst is able to lace the character with. I was able to decipher every emotional and dramatic angle that she was playing into, and it was one of the most rewarding aspects of the film. Her chemistry with Cailee Spaeny was particularly delightful.

Cailee Spaeny plays Jessie, a photojournalist who hails Lee as her hero. She is just starting her career and has never seen anything like what the team lands in the middle of during their trip. Every experience that she has transforms her a little into the mechanical being that she later turns into. It can be said that Jessie gradually turns into what Lee was at her peak, as Lee gradually disintegrates from her mechanical self to being a feeling and thinking individual more in line with what Jessie was at the beginning of the film. This exploration of the two characters as they spend time with each other and are influenced by one another’s actions and the circumstances surrounding them was highly rewarding and satisfying to watch. I was so engrossed in their performances and interpersonal drama that for a while, I felt as if I was in the middle of the action with them.

The Writing and Execution of Jesse Plemons’ Cameo Was Astounding:

Wagner Moura and Stephen McKinley Henderson, in their respective roles, were astounding. Moura starts off as someone who gets a massive kick out of life-threatening circumstances, but as the film progresses and he loses people that he loves, he turns into a whole new person filled with remorse, questions, anger, and increasing cynicism. Stephen McKinley Henderson plays a character who uses the last bit of life left in him to save lives, even when everything in his body and guts tells him not to. Both actors do a phenomenal job with their respective characters. Interestingly, it is Jesse Plemons in a character that is not on screen for more than 10 minutes who leaves a far more pronounced impact. This has a lot to do with the writing of the character, the inspirations behind it, the way Plemons plays it, and most importantly, what it draws our attention to. I knew I was going to be bowled over by this character when I first saw it in the trailers, and I was right.

“Civil War” Is One of The Most Visually Stunning Films That I Have Seen This Year:

The visuals of the film constantly strive to find beauty in the most grotesque, tragic, and horrifying imagery that the outbreak of a civil war could provide. This effort of the director (Alex Garland) and the cinematographer (Rob Hardy) results in some of the most hellish imagery that one could have envisioned. It is still presented with such melancholic beauty, recalling images we have seen in magazines and newspapers documenting wars, that it leaves a telling impact both aesthetically and emotionally.

The film was shot with IMAX presentation in mind, using the full extent of the IMAX screen to populate its visual palette with angles and long shots that not only elevate the overall visual presentation of the story but also punctuate it with the kind of character and gusto that the viewing angles and the visual symphony created by motion and editing (Jake Roberts) could offer.

This aspect of the visuals becomes most pronounced in the second half of the film, where we see the buildup of forces in the Western rebel headquarters and then an all-out attack on DC that ultimately results in the downfall of the White House. This portion takes up the entirety of the second half and successfully justifies our understanding of the first half where the pacing was a lot more leisurely. This entire portion is so visually overwhelming with so much happening in single frames that it justifies why the director slowly built us up to what he was about to serve as the knockout punch to culminate his story.

The film also uses a sizeable number of close-ups to convey the emotional state of different characters through their expressions, which was a stark departure from the wide panoramic views used to establish and immerse viewers into the hellscape of a war-torn United States.

Nothing Can Prepare You for The Kind of Action That This Film Has to Offer:

I was astounded by the sheer physicality and the raw human emotions attached to the savage, breathless, claustrophobic, and chaotic nature of it. Even with that, the visuals are captured with finesse that neither robs the proceedings of organic realism and authenticity nor fails to ensure that the viewer is in the best vantage point to enjoy everything unfolding while always being impacted by the sheer power and tragedy of the events. The editor uses both long takes and traditional quick editing techniques to compound the impact of the graphic violence unfolding (as duly noted by one of my friends). Combined with terrific performances and laced with the drama and character development that the film was building from the beginning; we get the kind of experience and jolt from the action sequences that we don’t often get these days. The last 30 minutes of the film will satisfy even the most hardcore of action junkies and will be just as presentable and intriguing to someone watching the film for its story and drama, rather than testosterone-charged gratifications.

Final Words:

“I feel that the film is a nod to the USA’s constant meddling in other countries’ affairs that often leads to permanently destabilizing them, like in the case of Iraq and Afghanistan”, remarked one of my friends after the screening. “I am unable to get this film and its imagery out of my mind”, wrote the other in a WhatsApp chat as he was taking an Uber back home.

I felt that the film was as much a nod to the Civil War in the past that the US had endured as it was to the fast galvanizing and deteriorating political and socio-economic conditions in many parts of America that threaten a similar outbreak in the future. We saw a little glimpse of it during the raid on the Capitol during Joe Biden’s election as president.

When a film is able to extract such varied opinions and emotions in its runtime and makes you think about so many different associations to real-life events and possibilities, it has succeeded in its endeavour. I feel that “Civil War” is as much a wake-up call for deteriorating political and social conditions in the US as “Contagion” was to an imminent threat like Covid-19. It always feels impossible until it becomes possible.

Rating: 4/5 (4 out of 5 Stars)

The views expressed in this article are that of the reviewer and do not reflect EastMojo’s position.

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