Civil War, Explained: What The Movie Is Really Trying To Say

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Civil War, the near-future dystopia film from director Alex Garland starring Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, and Cailee Spaeny, was steeped in controversy before it even premiered. But it turns out that the film and the conflicts it’s actually most interested in exploring aren’t at all what people had been expecting. While it certainly is a ‘war film’, the specific civil war in question isn’t the point so much as the framing for the themes the story actually seeks to unravel. So what was Garland really trying to say with Civil War? Let’s take a closer look at the film to analyze what it's really about.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
00:43 thanks to Conflict of Nations
01:36 Why the war in Civil War is kept so vague
03:10 Civil War, Children of Men, 28 Days Later
05:09 The movie's effective use of quiet violence
06:05 Using the journalists to tell the larger story
07:39 The different reasons for/effects of desensitization
10:22 Civil War's ending explained

The Take was created by Debra Minoff & Susannah McCullough

[thetake]

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[Weebei]

The fact that Conflict of Nations specifically sponsors every Civil War movie youtube video is humorous.

[Kabutoes]

The movie is purposefully trying to put you in a spot where you have no idea what’s going on. Like many Americans viewing wars outside of their country, the movie feels like they’re taking civil wars in a foreign country and putting in an American style to it.

[lauren_ea]

I think it's worth noting the scene in which Lee deletes the photo she took of Sammy dead in the car. I interpreted Jessie and Lee as characters swapping places. As Lee's walls come down, Jessie's go up.

[doubllechief]

For me, the ambiguity worked just fine. I read it as, no matter our politics, if we can’t connect with eachother on a human level, we risk something like this actually happening…

[arminb]

Sammy didn't sacrifice himself, the rest of the journalist killed him. That each of their ego driven purpose for engaging a clearly dangerous situation is what finally breaks dunsts character.

[ADavid]

Excellent work. People are hair-splitting and nit-picking this film to discredit it, but the core message remains undeniable:
_Is this what you want for America?_

[mortalkomment]

I just saw this movie and I love the small indications of Kirsten actually being unable to be desensitized and her humanity essentially floods back in and she's almost intrigued at the moments that she sees that Jesse loses parts of her humanity. I also loved how crucial moments of her characters walls breaking down and how we see through her eyes in general are seen through a camera lense, not a photo, but genuinely she has different focul length when we're supposed to see through her eyes. It accentuates these crucial moments for her, without a picture. Her mental camera, which was just as important. Then she sees the flowers in the middle of potentially dying and she let herself drift into that humanity a little bit, ironically also desensitized. The ability to stop and look at the flowers in the middle of hiding for your life is twisted. Honestly this movie was straight up art

[janepdx]

If the film had gone into the weeds of the “why” and “how” audiences would be bringing their own beliefs and biases into, thereby missing the point of the film. By keeping it vague, Garland gives us a space to imagine the idea of a war at home.

[Dapryor]

I saw this a few nights ago and it stuck with me. It’s been a long time since I had a theater experience like that.

[AlexandreDhote]

I think that y’all don’t understand the movie. This isn’t a movie about a war, this is a movie about journalism, questioning the journalism, not the USA civilization

[mayln]

As a reporter why didn’t Joel have a tape recorder for the President’s quote?

[grahamrichardson]

"The thing people don't realize about the Gear Wars is that it was never about the gears!"

[csmooney]

When Lee (Kirsten Dunst) is shot at the end of the movie, it is inconclusive if she died. There was no visible blood and she was wearing a bulletproof vest. Since the combatants were shooting submachine guns, which fire pistol ammo, it is very plausible that bullets only knocked her out.

[Murderface]

Democracy is one's power over another. So when politicians say "our democracy is at stake, " they don't mean the American people. They mean "their own power over the people is at stake."

[Maeda_Miakoda_Gaming]

"There are no happy endings in war. Only the carnage left in its wake and the trauma born of its brutaliy." Such great writing!

[TurkeySub-wqzl]

The only issue I took with this film, and I thought it was overall a great movie, was how unrealistic I thought the way the journalists moved with the soldiers. How on earth are they able to get permission to stay with these front line combat soldiers documenting everything? I get that war photographers risk their lives and do go into active combat zones, but surely there’s no way they’d be that entrenched with the squads in the thick of firefights. Maybe someone with more knowledge can correct me if I’m wrong, but I just find it unbelievable considering they’d be a hindrance more than anything and an open target for the enemy given their lack of combat training.

[valmid]

*“I Remember the Secret Service Being Tougher”*
—Red (2010)

[geraldmantanona]

Jessie, the Young journalist is responsible for the death of Kirsten Dunst’s character. Jessie was so ignorant she thought she was impervious the bullets.

[natalie]

It wasn’t quite what I expected but I enjoyed the film nevertheless. It almost felt like a coming-of-age or road trip buddy movie at times. I agree with this take - Dunst’s character talking about sending images as a warning was the ‘aha’ moment for me.