Civil War review: press pass to a war zone

Civil War takes place in the middle of an American civil war, but it’s about the photographers and journalists who report on the war rather than about the war. We don’t know what the war was about or how it began, we simply see the fighting and killing as the journalists follow the action.

Civil War stars Kirsten Dunst as the well known war photographer, Lee. (She’s a different Lee from the one Kate Winslet has a movie coming about.) She travels with journalist Joel (Wagner Moura). They are in New York and want to get to D.C. to interview the President (Nick Offerman).

Their long-time friend Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) is in the same hotel in NYC with them and they invite him to come along on their road trip. Joel gets drunk and also invites the young photographer Jessie (Cailee Spaeny).

Jessie is about the same age Lee was when she got started, but Lee’s not happy to have a green newbie tagging along. She knows how hard the job is.

As they drive they see very few people or other vehicles. They witness sporadic fighting and get in the middle of every battle they find. The war scenes are beautifully shot with stunning visuals. At first the blood and gore terrify Jessie and she can’t even take photographs.

Jessie watches her hero, Lee, moving among the bloody scenes taking photos. When Jessie or Lee snaps a photo, the movie shows it as a still in black and white, like this photo Jessie took of Lee. Jessie quickly learns to turn off her emotions and keep snapping the shutter.

The closer they get to Washington, the more fighting they see. They are in more and more danger. These people are adrenaline junkies. They are thrilled by the danger, which explains why they do the job they do.

Lee isn’t completely shut off from her emotions. She protects Jessie at her own peril. She protects Sammy, who is older, slow, and needs a cane.

One of the most beautiful moments in the film to me was when Lee threw herself flat on the grass to escape gunfire. She lay there wondering at the tiny blue and white blossoms on the clover in the grass, relishing a moment of beauty, peace, and nature. It didn’t last long.

There was a long scene between Lee and Jessie where Jessie was developing her film. Lee was shooting digital. I thought it was odd that they picked this activity for the two women to have a heart to heart because Jessie never seemed to run out of film or have to stop to reload the camera in the middle of a battle.

The other part of the film I found hard to accept was what they found in Washington, D.C. There was a full-fledged siege with tanks, mortars, machine guns, helicopters and action everywhere. Yet they managed to walk right into the White House and approach the President.

The scene in the White House was a sad one. It showed Jessie’s total transformation into a compartmentalized automaton of a photographer. I thought the cost to get her there was too high.

Although the war scenes were brilliantly done, the film was really about the four people on the edges of the action. The key actors were excellent, particularly Kirsten Dunst. Even hardened by a lifetime of photographing horrors, she was still the emotional heart of the film. Every expression on her face, every nuance of body language, was telling and well done.

The trailer shows how well done the battle scenes are, but also gives the impression that the film is about the war when it’s really about the people.

Alex Garland wrote and directed the film, which is streaming on Max.