What Kind of an American are You, Civil War, 2024

What Kind of an American are You?

In Alex Garland's Civil War (2024), the U.S. is plunged into an internal war between a dictatorial president clinging to power, and a group of states that have decided to rebel against tyranny. To avoid pointing the finger if they are Republicans or Democrats, the leaders of the rebel alliance are two states - Texas and California - that have historically elected governors from one side or the other. Perhaps not the most credible detail in the story, but Garland doesn't care. Garland wants to analyze what would happen if Americans tasted a spoonful of their own soup on American soil, namely, having their own country plunged into a chaotic war, with militia gangs rampaging through the streets, fanatics immolating themselves in front of crowds wearing bomb vests... turning the U.S. into another hellish scenario like Iraq or Afghanistan (as well as discussing what kind of brutal scenario may be unleashed in the USA due to the increasingly extreme ideological positions of the current political parties).

While all of this is an exploration of a variety of themes - from how war correspondents can keep their sanity while capturing the carnage of war, the Talibanization of the most fanatical sectors of the population due to a tsunami of malicious messages issued from those who are in charge of the central power, to the shock of seeing Americans killing Americans - there is a single memorable scene that condenses, in a handful of minutes, the concepts that Garland wants to express about the American reality.

At one point the group of protagonists - Lee, the veteran war reporter (Kirsten Dunst), who has seen so much carnage to the point that she is totally insensitive to death; Jessie, the rookie photographer (Cailee Spaeny) who lives jumping from one shock to another, as she finds it impossible to believe that people (who until a few months ago were compatriots and neighbors) are now embarked on an insane crusade marked by extreme cruelty; Joel, the adrenaline-addicted reporter (Wagner Moura); Sammy, the veteran correspondent (Stephen McKinley Henderson) who knows this is going to be his last rodeo and wants to make it memorable by getting to Washington before anyone else and interviewing the president before he is overthrown or executed - cross their paths with a couple of friendly foreign correspondents who are on the same route and, amidst all the chaos and angst, there is a moment of relaxation and entertainment. Embarking on a foolish race along a country road (and making an unusual exchange of passengers at top speed, jumping through the windows of their respective trucks), soon the truck of one of them disappears and when the remaining car locates it, we are close to a place where a group of people are working tirelessly.

But what appears to be a group of workers on a construction site soon turns out to be something much more shocking and aberrant: the dump truck is unloading dozens of corpses into a mass grave (to make matters worse, they are civilians, not soldiers, judging by the absence of uniforms on the corpses), and the journalist friends are at the mercy of an unidentified militia member (Jesse Plemons), who has them under threat with a high-caliber rifle.

While the whole situation is highly dangerous and volatile - they have fallen into the hands of a psychopath and it is unpredictable what will happen to them - what chills viewers' skin is the calm urbanity with which Plemons begins to speak to them. His appearance is bizarre - he has pink sunglasses, possibly stolen from a corpse - and might even seem comical if it weren't for the fact that the man owns an AR 15, which he casually swings as if playing with it. While Jesse and one of the foreign correspondents are on their knees - expecting the worst as they listen to Plemons' banal reasoning, while Plemons' companions throw large amounts of lime on the mountain of corpses they have piled up in the mass grave - the rest of the group has decided to move closer. They cannot abandon their comrades. They have no weapons. They have no military training. The only way to rescue them is to reason with the psychopath. Joel - the adrenaline junkie - approaches the group as if it's nothing, speaking in total tranquility as if this is the most normal situation in the world.

“There's a misunderstanding. They are my colleagues.”

The militia looks at them casually and asks “what kind of colleagues?”.

“Journalists. We are just passing through.”

“Passing through... where to?”

“Charlottesville.”

“What's in Charlottesville?”

The dialogue becomes hopeless because the militia only answers Joel with more questions. Joel invents a kind, banal story to empathize with the militia. If it weren't for the rifle and the tension floating in the air, this would be the casual chat between two strangers. Joel pretends that the AR 15 does not exist - impossible to ask an armed man (who is not in his right mind) to put down his weapon -. Meanwhile, the militia starts to look bored as he ominously swings his rifle back and forth.

The reality is that he doesn't care at all about any of the words coming out of Joel's mouth. The militia is the one in control of the whole situation and is enjoying the moment. The lives of all these people depend on the words his rifle spits out. When at one point Joel's chatter bores him, he asks him a couple of questions - “this is your colleague?” “this other one, is he also your colleague?” -.

And he decides to kill one of the foreign correspondents. The reason? He looks Asian.

“Sir?” says Joel trembling, but making a maximum effort because he knows that, if he doesn't come to some kind of understanding, his body and those of his friends will go to accompany the pile of corpses lying in the huge mass grave.

“Sir...what?”

Plemons' character is not interested in negotiating. He is a cat playing with the mouse before devouring it. He enjoys the cry, the look of terror, the respect his weapon instills in his victims. He has set himself up as judge, jury and executioner of this lawless zone. To pass through his land you have to ask his permission... and the only possible answer is a bullet in the head.

“We are journalists. We work for Reuters".

“Reuters doesn't sound American.”

“But... look, we're all Americans.”

“And what kind of Americans are you?”

And that absurd question is the one that ends up burying Joel's and the whole group's hopes of getting out alive. It's the WTF moment of the movie. Because the journalists are engaged in a game of questions where all the answers are bad.

When Joel starts to answer, Plemons' character is silent. And he thinks. But what does he think?. That depending on the state they belong, they are worthy Americans or not?

Then Plemons starts asking them questions. It's an American culture test. How Missouri is nicknamed? Are you from Colorado?

But left in the group is the other one of the foreign correspondents who is barely visible, as he was hidden behind Joel's back, and is crying disconsolately. He is another Asian.

He knows his fate is sealed.

Plemons approaches with a shudderingly paternal attitude, as if he were a schoolteacher asking his children (on their first day of school) about where they come from. But this man has a mercurial personality; at any moment he can explode in a fit of rage, kill someone in cold blood, and immediately revert to his nonchalant, urbane attitude.

One of the most terrible things about all this is that Plemons' psychopath is doing a process of guilt transference on his victims. They are responsible for them being executed. “I'm sorry, I had to kill you because you wouldn't answer me, or you gave me the wrong answer.”

And the rifle... is the second hand of the militia. When he wants to point or emphasize something, the muzzle of the gun is pointed at the person, devastating them emotionally. It's not that Plemons points in a shooting pose; he uses the rifle casually, as if it were an appendage of his body - such as a baton or a pointer - a steel index finger that points at things and, from time to time, comes to life and spits out bullets.

All civility goes to hell when Plemons kills the second reporter and Joel yells at him to stop. It's the worst thing he could have done. You can't order a psychopath to stay calm. Plemons abandons his nonchalant attitude and is already pointing at him in a shooting pose. No more good manners. It's time to die.

Sammy, the veteran reporter, who has observed all this madness from afar, uses his truck as a battering ram to run over the militiamen. The impact has been so brutal that he has thrown the rookie into the mass grave, where she falls on a gigantic mattress of corpses. The girl's face is unhinged with horror. Death is no longer a spectacle she sees from afar or through the lens of a camera; she is now sitting on a mountain of corpses, over which she must crawl - she must touch them - in order to get out of the pit.

Rescuing Jesse, they now flee the area while other militiamen have realized what has happened and begin to shoot her at full blast. What follows is crying, nervous breakdowns... and a nasty surprise that they discover halfway through.

This whole sequence lasts no more than 9 minutes. There is no music. There are no fast shots. All you hear are the victims' moans of terror, their sobs... and Plemons' long, uncomfortable silences. The militia terrifies with his calm attitude: he is not an unhinged caricature, someone who speaks loudly, a madman who lives spouting threats. On the contrary, he talks urbane and casual with a group of strangers while, next to him, they are unloading dozens of dead people whose murder he is responsible for. He is simply burying the trash.

Now the group flees, but they have seen firsthand that human cruelty knows no bounds. They have discovered that madness and ultra-nationalism are two sides of the same coin.

Other articles this month:

• From Superman to Diabolik: Europe Doesn't Believe in Superheroes (in Spanish, challenge: What would the story look like from the villain's point of view?)
• Clint Eastwood, archetype of modern anti-heroes (in Spanish, Challenge: The rise of antiheroes)
• “What kind of American are you?”, Civil War (2024) (in English; challenge: My 2024 WTF Cinema Moment).
• The Honeymoon Killers (1970): the original Folie à Deux (in English, challenge Outlaws Couples)
• Love Lies Bleeding (2024): Queer Noir (in English, challenge Fresh Focus Cinema)