Bookshelf Battle

A house divided, etcetera, etcetera, 3.5 readers

BQB here with a review of Civil War.

I had no interest in seeing this in the theater, but fun fact (or maybe not so fun fact) about movies these days. If you miss it in the theater, wait a minute, and you can watch it on your TV. It’s this trend that is causing movie theaters to close by the boat load (including my local one) and frankly, changing the way movies are made. I think Hollywood wants this because if theaters are shuttered, they only have to make movies to TV standard, which means they can be churned out faster, cheaper, and schlockier, and they don’t have to make them to theater standard, which means the days of the well-written, well produced, blow your ass off blockbuster will soon be gone, if they aren’t already.

But I digress.

This film is a tad schizophrenic as it serves two purposes, neither of which it does well, but I’ll at least give it some credit as it tackles topics that other movies aren’t. First, it’s a love letter to journalists, those plucky scribes and camera jockeys who throw themselves into the breach of danger to get us the information we everyday schmucks need to keep informed, keep democracy alive, and keep our public officials honest.

Second, it serves as a warning to a country currently polarized and divided about the hellscape America could turn into if we continue to go down the path of hating on each other, failing to see our countrymen as people and treating them as villains just for having different points of view. While it’s normal that we’re all going to disagree in such a diverse country, we have to muster up some empathy, put ourselves in the shoes of our frenemies and consider where they are coming from rather than just write them off as “the evil other.”

It is largely a bizarre road trip movie, with journalists played by Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny and Stephen McKinley on a trek from New York City to Washington, D.C. with a plan to interview the president. In any other world, this wouldn’t seem like such a bad idea but in this world, it’s either courageous, or stupid, or both, but mostly dangerous, for the president, played by Nick Offerman, is a dictator who has installed himself in a third term, dissolved all checks on his power, and treats journalists as enemies to be shot on site. However, the team has intel that the president’s power is fading fast as the secessionist Western Forces approach Washington D.C. looking to take control and depose him, so perhaps under such circumstances, he might be willing to talk to reporters.

Spaeny’s Jessie is a young rookie while McKinley’s character, Sammy, is elderly. Lee (Dunst) resents having to turn her mission into what she calls “a kindergarten and nursing home,” fearing a kid and an old man will hold her back, but eventually plays protective mama bear. Dunst and Moura, who we know from Netflix’s Narcos, play impromptu parents on the road, except the final destination isn’t Disneyland and the sights are far from fun.

The online buzz leading up to the release of this flick was a bit much. It was a bit of a rorschach test as people saw whatever they wanted to see in the previews and the twit-o-sphere was a-light with questions as to what political message, if any, was this movie trying to sell, i.e. which side of the aisle would be blamed for this hypothetical, fantasy civil war, anyway?

To its credit, the film tries to avoid that. The president is portrayed as a despot, though his reasons for being one are never given and the backstory of how he was able to seize such power are never given. The President’s enemy, the Western Forces, are a coalition comprised of forces from California and Texas and I suppose the movie makers leave the audience to think about that scenario. California is the most liberal state in the union while Texas is the most conservative. If those two very unlikely allies were able to set aside their differences to join forces against a common foe, then the president must have truly been one great big, giant, economy sized asshole with extra butt-face sauce.

Yet, we aren’t given much indication that the Western Forces will be any better at governing or restoring democracy. They are ruthless in their takeover of D.C., the final scenes of a street by street firefight in the capitol are both exhilarating yet heartbreaking if you take it too seriously. At any rate, they break enough rules that you’re left to wonder if they’ll be any better than the man they came to depose.

Along the road trip, we are treated to all sorts of indications of how terrible life would be in a modern civil war. Sandwiches cost $300. Gas stations are protected by gun wielding owners who draw a bead on you the second you pull up to the pump for fear you’re here to rob them, and then they rob you by demanding you pay far more than the regular sale price. Riots are common. Violent gangs and factions go to war in the streets. Various militias and rag tag armies of villains have formed, taking advantage of the chaos to promote their own evil ends.

The movie came very close to avoiding politics except for two scenes, one where rainbow haired gun packers save our intrepid journalists from a sniper. No, said heroes don’t come right out and say they drive Priuses and vote for Biden but the rainbow having become a symbol for LGTBQ rights and all things liberal, you do the math.

Add in a scene where Jesse Plemons plays the leader of what we can only assume is an extremely far right militia that has been taking advantage of the chaos to round up anyone who isn’t white and execute them. The overall implication in the movie seems to be that in a civil war scenario, lefties would be the good guys and righties would be the villains.

In reality, I would in a civil war like the one described in the film, one where the president sucked so hard that a liberal and a conservative state joined forces, you’d probably see good and bad things from both sides of the political spectrum. You’d probably see lefties do some courageous things, but if the movie wants to go there, then it shouldn’t ignore that you’d probably have a lefty militia or two turning going full on Pol Pot, trying to impose communism. And sure, you’d probably see extreme far right militias committing hate crime atrocities without the rule of law to hold them back, but that not so extreme neighbor of yours, you know the guy who drives a pick up truck with a MAGA sticker on the bumper, loves the constitution and country music, can recite the constitution on command, worships the second amendment and has a small arsenal in his gun cabinet would probably be the first guy to save your ass from looters, rioters, psychopaths, perverts, crack pipe hitting weirdos and what have you once the shit hits the fan, and he wouldn’t ask what color you are or who you voted for.

So, I just think since the movie chose to get political, it should have gone all the way, and shown the good and bad of every side, rather than pick and choose. But I’ll give it credit that at the very least, it tries to avoid politics for 90 percent of the film’s run time.

Meanwhile, while the film is a love letter to journalists, and much can be said about journalists taking a beating as of late. The job sucks. The hours are long. The pay is shit. The pressure is unbearable. You’re under constant criticism, you never make anyone happen, someone always hates you. All that is presented well. We’re asked to appreciate journalists more as they are called upon to get us the information we need to keep democracy alive and hopefully keep such a tragic civil war from ever happening.

And yet, the movie fails to address a big criticism of the journalism industry as of late, namely, what role do they have in fanning the flames of division in this country? In the social media age, the country has never been more divided and while neither side has ever shared the same opinion, today we can’t even agree on the facts. If you’re on the left, there’s an abundance of outlets that will tell you the facts are X. If you’re on the right, there’s just as many outlets that will tell you the facts are Y. In reality, if facts can only be Z, then left and right wing journalists do us a disservice by warping facts to fit their agenda. And whether it’s a married couple or a nation, once people can’t agree on the facts anymore, that’s when divorce is right around the corner and the only hope is that it is an amicable one. So, the movie could have talked more about the need for journalists to reign in political agendas.

I will note the journalists are thrown into “the shit” and take photos of some truly heinous stuff, things that would make the average person puke and while they struggle with their emotions off the clock, when the action is on, you can see a twisted sort of delight in their eyes as they snatch those primo shots of mayhem and carnage so in that sense, perhaps there’s some criticism of the journalism industry as profiting off of suffering.

STATUS: Shelf-worthy. Despite my criticisms, it’s the only film that I know of that has taken on these serious topics, so I’ll give it credit for that.