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Even before the release of his drama, the writer-director was facing controversy over his vision of a divided United States with Texas and California as allies.
By Christopher Kuo
One of the haunting moments in Alex Garland’s new drama “Civil War” comes in the form of a question.
A soldier, pointing his assault rifle, confronts an organization of terrified journalists: “What kind of American are you?” he asks.
This question, and its underlying impulse to divide and demonize, is the central reason why Garland has made a long-awaited and already highly debatable film about America’s implosion. “Civil War,” which opens Friday, warns of the risks. of excessive partisanship, Garland said in a recent interview: the horrors that can occur when American citizens, or any other organization of people, oppose themselves.
“I think the Civil War is just an extension of a stage,” said Garland, the 53-year-old British director of “Ex Machina” and “Men. “”This scenario is polarization and the absence of restraining forces on polarization. “
In the film, America’s divisions escalated into chaos. Fleets of helicopters patrol the skies and explosions rock major cities as Western secessionist forces, including those in Texas and California, advance toward the president, an authoritarian who served three terms and dissolved the FBI. and introduced air strikes opposed to their fellow Americans.
If polarization is one of the poisons of this epidemic, Garland sees the paintings of a relaxed, independent press as one of the antidotes. His film imagines the Fourth Estate as a means to fight extremism and authoritarianism.
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