Alex Garland’s ‘Civil War’: Hint of Things to Come?

A few weeks before the U.S. election, I opted to watch “Civil War,” Alex Garland’s film about the United States collapsing into yet another rebellion. Topical, obviously. Plus, I’ve always liked Garland, who’s adept at binding complicated, often highly abstract concepts into speedy, midbudget sci-fi spectaculars—I’m thinking of the quantum computing and the debate over free will at the heart of “Devs,” or the physics-bending bomb the size of Kansas in “Sunshine.”

“Civil War” envisions the U.S. split into a handful of rival factions, the most vigorous of which is the Western Forces, headlined by Texas and California. The protagonists are two war photographers (played by Kirsten Dunst and Cailee Spaeny; burned out and perky, respectively) and a Reuters journalist (Wagner Moura; alternately wry and embittered) who make their way from Brooklyn to Charlottesville and then to Washington DC as the Western Forces’ armies bang it out with whatever’s left of the U.S. government. It’s less of a plot than a series of vignettes: a car bombing in NYC, a sniper duel in rural Virginia, a room-by-room gunfight through the White House, etc.

Upon its initial release, the critics savaged aspects of the movie as unrealistic. They couldn’t buy Texas and California teaming up to fight the Feds (a red state and a blue state working together? Hawhawhaw!). They wanted more onscreen explanation for why the country split apart, as if a half-dozen reasons aren’t in front of our collective face. They questioned the choice to release the film during an election year, like swing-state voters would somehow be unduly swayed by fictional Virginia highways littered with burning cars, or Nick Offerman’s vaguely Trumpian portrayal of a dictatorial president.

But I don’t think Garland cares about explanations. He’s adept at worldbuilding when he wants to—“Dredd” is a filled-out dystopian vision squeezed into a tight 95 minutes. Instead, “Civil War” is a vehicle for taking sights all too common in the rest of the world—the killing fields, the scorched tanks, politicians executed in their offices—and transplanting it to 21st century America, where it reassumes the shock of the new against the backdrop of mini-malls and community college campuses.

‘The shock of the new’ for most Americans, that is, especially those who thought we’d always be exempt from what we see on the news. Here’s what you might have to live through one day, Garland seems to be saying. What so much of this planet already knows too well. The movie’s visual language is adapted from a century-plus of war photography; there are a few heavy nods to Robert Capa (particularly the final images) and a couple of visual cap-tips to Lee Miller. Many of the scenes also reminded me of the OSINT footage coming out of Ukraine. The kind of full-throated carnage that hasn’t happened here in quite some time. But it could.

From the editors: In Germany, author Robert Zion who just did a remarkable book about „Noir Western“ will be out in Summer 2025 with a book about „Alex Garland: Die kinematografische Singularität„

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Nick Kolakowski is the author of „Maxine Unleashes Doomsday“ and „Boise Longpig Hunting Club“ as well as the Love & Bullets trilogy of novellas. His noir fiction has appeared in Tough, ThugLit, Mystery Tribune, Plots With Guns, and various anthologies. His „Payback is Forever“ (Shotgun Honey 2022) is inspired clearly by the novels of Richard Stark. Our review here (in German). – See also his Hell of a Mess. A Love & Bullets Hookup.

Nick Kolakowski, geboren 1980, aufgewachsen in Washington. D.C., hat Geschichte in Chicago studiert. Er schreibt Romane, Kurzgeschichten, Lyrik und Essays, viele davon über Crime Fiction und verwandte Themen. Seine Texte erscheinen u. a. in der Washington Post, in Shotgun Honey, North American Review, The Evergreen Review, Rust & Months. Kolakowski lebt in New York City. Eine Besprechung des von Parker inspirierten „Payback is Forever“ in unseren Bloody Chops.

Bei Suhrkamp auf Deutsch: Love & Bullets.
His essays with us. 

His website nickkolakowski.com

His column „Smoking Gun“ with us: 
‘Salem’s Lot’ and the Horror of a Stephen King Adaptation
„Rebel Ridge“: Calmly Burn the Whole Thing Down
‘Monsieur Spade’ and the Faustian Bargain
John Woo is Remaking ‘The Killer.’ But Why?
The Newest ‘Ripley’ Series is Stunning and Flawed
‘Sugar’: Not the Neo-Noir Revival We Need
Moral Redemption in Noir: Is It Possible?
What Makes Jack Reacher Tick?
‘True Detective: Night Country’ Tries to Make the Familiar into Something New
Is David Fincher’s ‘The Killer’ a Comedy? 
Rewatching ‘Drive’: Gosling as Noir’s Apex Predator
Elmore Leonard  – City Primeval
Cormac McCarthy Used Crime Fiction’s Tropes to Make Masterpieces
Parker: Donald Westlake’s One Amazing Trick
Cosby, Winslow, Pruitt: Three Heavy-Hitting Thillers for Summer
Weed-Based Crime Thrillers are Going Up in Smoke
‘The Last of Us’: Crime in the Post-Apocalypse 
What Made “Glass Onion” and “Knives Out” So Popular?
Jordan Harper’s One-Two Punch of Crime Fiction Deserves a Wide Audience
‘True Detective’ Season 2: Was It Better Than We All Thought?
From ‘Touch of Evil’ to ‘True Detective,’ Long Shots are Crime Films’ Secret Weapon
Michael Mann, again: What Michael Mann Teaches Us About Enduring Crime Fiction
„Heat 2“ – How Do You Craft a Sequel to a Masterpiece?
4 Ways Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” Novel Stands Out From the Film.
On „Heat“: Manhunter Takes Down Thief: How Michael Mann’s Early Career Led to ‘Heat’
The Most Honest Nihilism – on „The Way of the Gun“
No, Time to Die – The latest James Bond movie digs into the fatalism at the iconic spy’s core.
Cormac McCarthy’s Overlooked Masterpiece? – „The Councelor“
„Nightmare Alley“ – How Guillermo del Toro’s Film Alters a Masterpiece Noir Novel
David Cronenberg – The Carnal Crime of “A History of Violence” and “Eastern Promises”
With Parker, Donald E. Westlake Pulled Off Crime Fiction’s Most Spectacular Magic Trick
Guy Ritchie’s Return to Crime Films is Worth Watching