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It\u2019s been over 160 years since the American Civil War, but talk of a potential second conflict features all too frequently in US media, as the gulf between a divided nation continues to grow.<\/p>\n
Writer-director Alex Garland\u2019s latest blockbuster imagines a world of the near future where the Western Forces, a group of seceded US states led by Texas and California, battle Nick Offerman\u2019s dictatorial president in his third term of office.<\/p>\n
Rather than giving details of what exactly sparked the Second American Civil War, this action thriller focuses\u00a0on the themes and characters explored through Garland\u2019s excellent writing.<\/p>\n
Civil War follows a group of war photojournalists who embark on the long drive from New York to Washington DC to interview their Commander-in-Chief in his first (and probably last) one for 14 months.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Spider-Man star Kirsten Dunst\u2019s character Lee leads the hacks, alongside aspiring photographer Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla), as they traverse the wartorn dystopia through intense post-apocalyptic survival scenes very much reminiscent of the zombie genre \u2013 something the writer-director is no stranger to after his masterful horror 28 Days Later.<\/p>\n
Beautifully shot by cinematographer Rob Hardy, Civil War switches from quieter character-driven scenes to gripping edge-of-your-seat action.<\/p>\n
Dunst\u2019s experienced photojournalist mentors Spaeny\u2019s trainee, wrestling with the ethics of obtaining a good story, the desensitised nature of their work and the nail-biting risks they take.<\/p>\n
Much of the latter involves following soldiers into battle as they snap shots from live combat to the horrors of tortured prisoners and blindfolded executions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
There\u2019s even an ambiguity as to which side the troops they encounter are on, with a couple of men in one scene targeting a sniper simply because he\u2019s trying to kill them. After all, they\u2019re all Americans, but what kind of American?<\/p>\n
This is a question asked at gunpoint in one scene by Dunst\u2019s real-life husband Jesse Plemons, once again giving a subtle yet terrifying performance as a polite monster.<\/p>\n
Civil War (which hits UK cinemas on April 12, 2024) is a timely and thought-provoking film from indie production company A24, with their biggest budget to date at $50 million.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n[ad_2]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[ad_1] It\u2019s been over 160 years since the American Civil War, but talk of a potential second conflict features all too frequently in US media, as the gulf between a divided nation continues to grow. Writer-director Alex Garland\u2019s latest blockbuster imagines a world of the near future where the Western Forces, a group of seceded …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[765],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32742"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}