The politics of *Civil War* (full of spoilers, do not read)
I saw the film as having very definite politics, and yes I am aware of the pronouncements of the director — ignore them! I am writing about the movie, what was on the screen.
The seceding states — California, Texas, and Florida — all have substantial Latino population segments. The core political message is that a nation cannot hold together under those conditions. The “Democrat vs. Republican” issues become irrelevant in those scenarios, and that too is part of the political message. Ethnic considerations become primary in the final analysis. And note that the separate Florida, not part of the Western Alliance, is the one state with lots of Latinos and not so many Mexicans. It is California and Texas that share the same ethno ambitions.
The key moment is the scene when they encounter the evil blond-haired guy with the big gun, and he asks “What kind of American are you?” The naive viewer expects the Socratic dialogue to shift in the direction of red vs. blue states, but no the baddie starts talking about “Central Americans” and “South Americans.” The real question has become what kinds of Americans are we indeed.
The Hong Kong/Chinese guy is shot immediately, once he announces his nationality, again a stand-in for the broader ethnostate divisions the movie is portraying.
When the two individuals shift cars, and jump from one moving vehicle to the other, that is the true portend of pending disaster, as Hollis Robbins has pointed out. Stay in your car (country)!
Of course Hollywood cannot put such a message on the screen explicitly, nor are most critics capable of seeing it. Mostly they are left wondering what has happened to the Trump vs. anti-Trump divisions they heard about on NPR.
If you doubt whether this movie is historically detailed and aware, consider how it portrays West Virginia on this civil war “next time around.” They are less interested than are the Virginians.
You won’t see much Christianity in the film at all.
Except for the black veteran, the media class are shown as selfish, elevating the scoop above all while disclaiming moral responsibility, enjoying the witnessing of violence, and verging on the psychotic. It is not an entirely favorable portrait (and yes I do know the director’s words on this).
The U.S. citizenry gets rather caught up in fighting the war, and the most positive visions are of the two fathers who retreat to their farms, again a reactionary message.
Blacks are shown as the servant class of each side in the civil war, a portrait that, if people were more aware, would be considered offensive.
So those are the politics of the movie, but with the distractions of the violence on the screen and of current culture wars, we just don’t notice how much they are pushed into our faces. I give the director credit for his guts, noting that George Lucas ripped off Leni Riefenstahl and I still like that movie too.
To be clear, those are not my politics at all, as loyal MR readers can attest. But that is not how I judge movies and this one — while definitely flawed — was still pretty good.