Source
I walked out of Civil War (2024) with a pit in my stomach and dust in my lungs, like I’d just returned from the front lines myself. Directed with chilling precision by Alex Garland, the film drops us in a version of the United States that looks hauntingly familiar but broken in all the ways we’ve quietly feared. There are no grand political expositions here, no convenient villains, no sides begging for moral alignment. Just fragments—of cities, of families, of ideals—shattered under the weight of something we thought could never really happen here. It’s not a movie about how we got to this point, but what it feels like to survive it.
At the heart of the film is Lee, a seasoned photojournalist played with understated grit by Kirsten Dunst. Through her lens—both literal and metaphorical—we witness the unraveling of the American dream in real time. She’s not interested in taking sides, and that ambivalence, that weariness, becomes the film’s emotional core. Watching her maneuver through warzones that used to be suburban cul-de-sacs isn’t just surreal—it’s nauseating. There’s a scene where she quietly photographs the aftermath of a massacre in what was once a shopping mall, and it’s not just the image that burns into your brain—it’s her expression. Detached, exhausted, but still chasing the truth. And maybe that’s the real tragedy: when even the truth starts to feel futile.
The violence in Civil War is not stylized or cinematic—it’s procedural, intimate, and deeply American. There’s something uniquely disturbing about seeing apple-pie Americana twisted into kill zones. The film doesn’t revel in gore, but it doesn’t flinch either. What struck me the hardest was how normalized everything felt. Civilians stepping over bodies, militia groups rolling through neighborhoods like they were running errands. Garland seems to be asking: what does it take for a nation built on exceptionalism to implode? And the answer isn’t dramatic—it’s gradual. Unremarkable, even. That’s the scariest part.
Growing up outside the U.S., I used to watch American media with a sense of awe—like they had figured it all out. The freedom, the optimism, the moral clarity. But Civil War dismantles that illusion with surgical calm. It suggests, without sermonizing, that the very myths America exports are the ones that could blind it from seeing itself clearly. Yet, the film never becomes a political lecture. It simply observes. Maybe too closely. And in that observation, the audience is forced to confront a darker mirror.
Source
What makes Civil War feel so urgent isn’t just the destruction on screen, but how close it brushes against current fractures. The polarization, the distrust, the media echo chambers—none of it feels speculative anymore. The movie doesn’t predict a dystopia; it renders a version of today, just a few steps further down the path. But amid the dread, there’s still a heartbeat: in Lee’s mentorship of a young aspiring journalist, in brief moments of solidarity among strangers, in the camera’s unblinking gaze. Cinematically, it’s stark and deliberate—shot with icy beauty, soundtracked by silence and explosions—and it leaves you asking not just what’s next, but what we’ve already lost.
WoW! what a way to start, well I also want to join you to have sand in my lungs after watching this film haha 😃.
Is that Alex Garland is a powerful director in the philosophies and ideologies that he wants to convey or leave as debate, he takes the issues to the next level, that's why you perceived even the dust in your lungs because Garland makes transcend the topics he develops to perceive them in a very real way
The journalism that seeks realities like this I think is one of the most traumatic things that can be because it is to be an observer of injustice, the latter I think is what most traumatizes, I see that it is a film that only with the name I perceive already seeks to narrate the rawness and cruelties of human society at war, reminds me a lot of the cycle of hate pain in naruto, are cycles then it is difficult to get out of that loop to follow the path of peace
I already have it ready to watch and psychologically preparing myself for what the good Garland wants to make us reflect
Nunca había visto una película de este director. Si conocía productora, A24, épica, valiente y diferencial de lo mainstream... Civil War ha sido una grata sorpresa, y me ha gustado que fue lanzada al público en 2024, antes de todo lo que hoy vemos y nos horroriza, y que le da un nuevo sentido a varias cosas que se muestra en el film... Gracias por pasar, @promete0sz .
P.D: buen nombre de usuario.
I'd like to encourage you to watch Ex_Machina which is also by him and also leaves a lot to debate and reflect on.
ajjaja thanks, I like to give the good fire of knowledge from time to time, your name is also great, a lot of style 😏
I will, don't worry
This was one of those fims that really grew on me with time. Great review!
I'm glad you felt the same as I did... It is indeed an excellent film
Your review left goosebumps on my skin! You just painted an image in my head and I won't rest until I go watch for myself this movie. Beautiful, amazing your review here.
Oh, thank you! You're so kind. And please, do that, go and watch it
Congratulations @chris-chris92! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
Your next target is to reach 70000 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOP