'Civil War' is terrifying not for what it says about America, but about journalism

[Nevilledog]

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/civil-war-movie-about-journalism-20240421.html

No paywall link
https://archive.li/EzpN0

Around 2 p.m. on Friday, I opened my laptop and bought a ticket on Fandango for that night’s showing of Civil War, the No. 1 movie in America that depicts a not-too-distant U.S. future of killing fields, refugee camps and bombed-out shopping malls. At almost the second I was hitting the “confirm” button, the internet started lighting up with a shocking headline from New York City: A man had lit himself on fire, right outside the courtroom where ex-President Donald Trump is standing trial.

“We have a man, he has set fire to himself, a man has emblazoned himself outside of the courthouse just now ...,” a shocked and understandably rattled Laura Coates, the CNN legal analyst who’d been conducting a live interview less than a stone’s throw away, reported as the flames climbed high into a Lower Manhattan afternoon. “We can smell the air, I can smell the burning of some sort of flesh, I can smell the burning of some sort of agent being used.”

The violent death on live national TV of a man said to be an unhinged conspiracy theorist suggests the challenge that Civil War’s writer and director, the Englishman Alex Garland, faced in trying to render a near-future American apocalypse that would shock moviegoers at a moment when political violence in this country is already at levels not seen since the 1960s, or maybe the 1860s. In this time when the office of a leading U.S. senator and former presidential candidate is scene of an arson and it barely makes the news, and when a Republican seeking her own Senate seat tells voters to “maybe strap on a Glock” to prepares for the 2024 election, how could Garland create a fictional dystopia worse than reality?

To pull this off, Garland’s one-hour-and-49-minute film is a nonstop montage of “it can happen here” shock and awe, with black smoke or orange flames shooting from a strip mall, high-rise office, or suburban McMansion in almost every shot, and more dead people than you’d see in a typical zombie movie, which is what Civil War feels like at times. These are the times when Garland’s work feels less a motion picture and more like a music video for Talking Heads’ end-of-America 1980s masterpieces, “Life During Wartime” or “(Nothing But) Flowers.” This was a shopping mall, now it’s all covered in flowers.

*snip*

[WarGamer]

1. oddly enough, I hear it has no political leanings...

No obvious or subtle hints
to Trumpists, etc...

[senseandsensibility]

3. That is too bad

Not that I think they would have heeded them, but honesty requires telling the story truthfully.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. After the release of this film, no one can complain they weren't prepared.

Everything not nailed down will be at risk of being stolen. Who's to stop anything from happening?

[bluestarone]

4. The very worst time

To release this movie. Gotta wonder if it's a plan?