"Civil War," on Canal+: Kirsten Dunst as a journalist in a dystopia caught up in American news

CANAL+ – ON DEMAND – FILM

Alex Garland's fourth feature film refers to a well-defined subcategory of Hollywood cinema that had its heyday a few decades ago. A subcategory whose particularity consisted of a way of mixing the conventions of violent adventure with that of reflecting on it, or, more precisely, of maintaining a form of distance from it, of associating with it a certain relationship to politics and contemporary history as much as to the moral conditions of individual commitment.

The characters in Civil War are war reporters, simultaneously involved in and tossed about in the heart of a conflict, subjects, objects, and witnesses of a bloody history. Anchored in current events or the recent past, Civil War defines itself as a futuristic speculation, imagining a new Civil War—led by the states of California and Texas—that would tear the United States apart in the more or less near future.

Released in 2024, the film is finding new resonance today as the Los Angeles metropolitan area is rocked by urban violence in response to Donald Trump's immigration policy, which, in turn, decided on Saturday, June 7, to send in the National Guard. This controversial decision, which allowed the president to bypass Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, led to the deployment of the first 300 soldiers to preemptively protect federal buildings.

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