Kelly Beck

Spoilers : I was talked into watching this. It was much better than I thought it would be. I didn’t know anything about it, other than the trailer. I thought it would be a political propaganda piece , propping one political party up as the , “good guys.” If it was , I missed it. There was some antifa reference and a few other things , like persecuting the press that could be read into but overall there was too much missing from current politics, on both sides, for me to gather it was making a claim about which current political party is the good guys. I think the film deliberately put Texas and California together to not make it about current politics but a statement about Civil War in general. I liked that the journalist lost their political motivation and it was more about documenting. The main journalist said she thought by documenting war over seas it would prevent it happing in her home. So I gathered she didn’t have any illusions about what she was doing . No self righteousness. Which was refreshing. However, I didn’t think they fully appreciated the towns that didn’t get involved. It takes centuries to build and what cause is really good enough to destroy the life work of generations before you (grandparents, great , great greats etc.) and kill your neighbors, family and friends over? Hundreds and hundreds of years of work gone in a short time for a cause that should have just been worked through. However, maybe that fit into the over all theme that they were documenting, not necessarily acting like they had the answers. I’m glad the film didn’t take sides. And there was enough violence to get the point across without it being over the top. One critique is it left out a major element , which is , if we had civil war, I’d bet other opportunist countries would take advantage and that was left out, but I’m not sure that’s important. Overall well done. Most action and shoot ‘em up movies I can’t get through. The acting was really good too. I was impressed with Kirstin Dunst's performance. I wouldn’t be surprised if she won best actress for this, she really should.