Civil War (film)
Civil War | |
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Directed by | Alex Garland |
Written by | Alex Garland |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Rob Hardy |
Edited by | Jake Roberts |
Music by | |
Production companies | |
Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 109 minutes[1] |
Countries |
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Language | English |
Budget | $50 million[2][3] |
Box office | $66.5 million[4][5] |
Civil War is a 2024 dystopian war film written and directed by Alex Garland. It follows a team of journalists traveling across the United States during a civil war fought between an authoritarian federal government and several regional factions. The cast includes Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sonoya Mizuno, Nick Offerman, and Jesse Plemons.
Principal photography began in Atlanta, Georgia in 2022, with production moving to London later in the year. The film Civil War premiered at South by Southwest on March 14, 2024, and was theatrically released in the United States by A24 and in the United Kingdom by Entertainment Film Distributors on April 12, 2024. With a budget of $50 million, Civil War is A24's most expensive film to date.[2] The film was a commercial success, grossing a projected $70 million in global ticket sales by April 23, 2024.[6]
Civil War received positive reviews from critics over the film's depiction of warfare and Garland's directorial choices, such as the use of hand-held camera footage.[7] The film received praise and criticism for its approach to contemporary political themes, including concerns of democratic decline and increased political polarization.[8][9][10]
Plot
A civil war has erupted between an
Lee and her colleague Joel intend to travel to Washington, D.C., to interview and photograph the president before the city falls. Lee's mentor Sammy asks to accompany them as far as Charlottesville, where the Western Forces ("WF") of Texas and California are assembling. Despite Lee's hesitance, she and Joel agree. Unbeknownst to Lee, Jessie convinces Joel to take her with them as well.
After departing the city, the group stops at a rural gas station protected by armed men. Lee successfully negotiates the purchase of fuel in Canadian dollars. Meanwhile, Jessie wanders off to a nearby car wash, which she saw from the road. There, she finds two men being tortured by the owners, who claim that the men are looters. One owner follows Jessie, but Lee defuses the situation by taking a photo of the man posing with his victims. After leaving, Jessie berates herself for being too scared to take photos.
Following an overnight stop close to ongoing fighting, the group documents the combat the next day as militiamen assault a building held by loyalists. Lee sees Jessie's potential as a war photographer, while Jessie photographs the militia executing captured loyalist soldiers. Continuing on, the group spends the night at a refugee camp before passing through a small town where, under watchful guard, residents attempt to live in blissful ignorance. Lee and Jessie grow closer, trying on clothes at a local shop.
Later, they are
While driving, the foursome encounter two other reporters they know, Tony and Bohai. Tony and Jessie playfully switch vehicles, only for Bohai and Jessie to be captured by militants who are dumping civilian corpses in a
Arriving at the Western Forces military camp in Charlottesville, the group grieves in different ways. Lee takes a photo of Sammy's corpse but deletes it shortly after. Joel gets drunk and begins to become hysterical. Jessie floats around the campsite. Two fellow reporters inform the group that the government's defenders have mostly surrendered, leaving Washington largely unprotected, and a WF invasion is imminent. They follow the WF into DC as Jessie's photography becomes increasingly risky. Meanwhile, Lee has a brief post-traumatic stress disorder episode and is unable to take pictures.
In the besieged capital,
The WF soldiers capture the president in the Oval Office. Joel tells them to wait so that he can get a quote. The president begs Joel for mercy: "Don't let them kill me", to which Joel replies “Yeah. That’ll do”. Jessie takes a photo of the president's summary execution. During the credits, a developing photo of smiling WF soldiers posing with the president's corpse appears.
Cast
- Kirsten Dunst as Lee Smith, a renowned war photojournalist from Colorado.[11] She is said to be the youngest-ever member of the Magnum Photos cooperative. The character's first name is a reference to famed World War II photojournalist Lee Miller.[12]
- Wagner Moura as Joel, a Reuters journalist from Florida and Lee's colleague
- Cailee Spaeny as Jessie Cullen, an aspiring young photographer from Missouri who accompanies Lee and Joel on their journey
- Stephen McKinley Henderson as Sammy, a veteran journalist for The New York Times and Lee's mentor
- Nick Offerman as the President of the United States, a dictatorial president currently serving his third term[11]
- Sonoya Mizuno as Anya, a British reporter embedded with the Western Forces' advance on the capital
- cameraman
- Nelson Lee as Tony, a Hongkonger reporter who is good friends with Lee and Joel
- Evan Lai as Bohai, a Hongkonger reporter who is a colleague of Tony
- Karl Glusman as a spotter
- Jin Ha as a sniper
- Juani Feliz as Secret Service Agent Joy Butler
Production
Development and casting
In January 2022, Deadline reported that
Filming
In a March 2024 interview with The Guardian, Garland stated that after Civil War, he intends to step back from directing and focus only on writing.[27]
Post Production
Film editor, Jake Roberts and sound editor Glenn Freemantle[28] re-team with Alex Garland, as does VFX supervisor David Simpson with Framestore.
Release
Civil War had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 14, 2024, with favourable reactions from the audience and to positive reviews from the critics.[29][30]
The film was previously scheduled to be released on April 26, 2024.[31][32] It was released on April 12, 2024, in the United States by A24 and in the United Kingdom by Entertainment Film, with engagements in IMAX and Dolby Cinema.[33][34]
Marketing and AI controversy
On April 17, 2024, A24 promoted the film on Instagram by posting five images created by artificial intelligence (AI), each showing a different American city in postapocalyptic disarray.
The images were criticized for inaccurately depicting certain cityscapes: The AI-generated image of Chicago wrongfully depicted the Marina City apartment complex, with the buildings depicted as being separated by a non-existent island on the Chicago River. In real life, the buildings are located directly next to each other.[35][36]
Given that the use of AI has continued to be a controversial topic in the film community, and following calls earlier in the year for a boycott of Late Night with the Devil for its use of AI-generated stills, the promotional images received online backlash.
A source connected to the film confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that they were "AI images inspired by the movie. The entire movie is a big 'what if' and so we wanted to continue that thought on social — powerful imagery of iconic landmarks with that dystopian realism."[37][38][39]
Reception
Box office
In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross $18–24 million from 3,838 theaters (the widest-ever
The opening weekend audience skewed male at 63%, while 57% of attendees were between ages 18–34. IMAX contributed over 16% of the opening weekend gross, with the main reasons given for seeing the film being its subject matter, the action, and a general interest in indie films (each grouping made up a third of the audience, with the former narrowly higher).[41]
As of April 27, 2024[update], Civil War has grossed $51.1 million in the United States and Canada and $15.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $66.5 million.[5][4]
Ideological composition of viewership
Regarding ideological composition of the audience in the Unied States,The Hollywood Reporter reported that ticket buyers were equally conservative and liberal according to exit poll data.[41] Deadline Hollywood wrote that 41% were left-wing (22% Liberal, 19% Democrats), 17% were right-wing (6% Republicans, 6% Evangelical Christians, and 5% Conservative) and 11% were moderate.[3] The film remained in first place the following weekend, grossing $11.1 million.[42]
Performance outside North America
Commentators noted that, despite the film's inherently U.S.-centric subject matter, Civil War performed well in several markets outside the United States. This includes the United Kingdom, where it grossed $4.8 million as of April 23, as well as the Netherlands, where it reached ticket sales of $750,000. The film additionally opened in first place at the box office in Brazil, Spain, Belgium, Finland, and Portugal.[43]
Critical response
Following the SXSW premiere, review aggregator
In a positive review, Peter Debruge of
Lovia Gyarkye of The Hollywood Reporter also gave the film a positive review, writing: "With the precision and length of its violent battle sequences, it's clear Civil War operates as a clarion call. Garland wrote the film in 2020 as he watched cogs on America's self-mythologizing exceptionalist machine turn, propelling the nation into a nightmare. With this latest film, he sounds the alarm, wondering less about how a country walks blindly into its own destruction and more about what happens when it does."[50] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times echoed the sentiment, writing "rarely have I seen a movie that made me so acutely uncomfortable or watched an actor's face that, like Dunst's, expressed a nation's soul-sickness so vividly that it felt like an X-ray."[51]
Some critics had mixed reactions. The Washington Post's Amy Nicholson described the film as "coldly, deliberately incurious about the combatants and the victims", but also said "the film feels poetically, deeply true, even when it’s suggesting that humans are more apt to tear one another apart for petty grievances than over a sincere defense of some kind of principles."[52][53]
Valerie Complex of Deadline Hollywood offered negative comments, saying: "The script's utilization of characters of color as conduits for brutality needed to be explored further. ... Ultimately, Civil War feels like a missed opportunity. The director's vision of a fractured America, embroiled in conflict, holds the potential for introspection on our current societal divisions. However, the film's execution, hampered by thin characterization, a lackluster narrative and an overreliance on spectacle over substance, left me disengaged."[54]
Johnny Oleksinski of the
Stephanie Zacharek of Time observed: "Civil War has the vibe of your standard desolate zombie movie with a modern American backdrop, but it's far less effective than your average George A. Romero project: sometimes a B movie with a sense of humor about itself says more about a nation's despair than an overserious, breast-beating one. ... Do we really need a movie to invent, and rub our noses in, the possibility of a bleaker future?"[57]
References
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- ^ a b c Welk, Brian (December 28, 2023). "Alex Garland's Civil War Is Not 195 Minutes Long Despite Reports". IndieWire. Archived from the original on December 28, 2023. Retrieved December 28, 2023.
- ^ a b c d D'Alessandro, Anthony (April 14, 2024). "Civil War Takes Box Office Spoils With $25.7M Opening, Best Ever For A24 – Sunday AM Update". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on April 13, 2024. Retrieved April 14, 2024.
- ^ a b "Civil War — Financial Information". The Numbers. Archived from the original on April 13, 2024. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
- ^ a b "Civil War". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
- ^ Rubin, Rebecca (April 23, 2024). "A24's 'Civil War' Crosses $70 Million Globally". Variety. Retrieved April 28, 2024.
- ^ Dubiel, Bill (March 20, 2024). "8 Reasons Reviews For A24's New Dystopian War Movie Are So Good". ScreenRant. Retrieved April 28, 2024.
- ^ Gyarkye, David Rooney,Lovia; Rooney, David; Gyarkye, Lovia (April 23, 2024). "Critics' Conversation: 'Civil War' and Civic Anxiety". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 28, 2024.
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External links
- Official website
- Civil War at IMDb