Set in the near future, the film portrays the United States divided into four factions. The “Western Forces,” made up notably of California and Texas, join forces to overthrow a tyrannical president, played by Nick Offerman, as the country is plunged into a civil war.
States of mind around Civil War
Rather than reproducing the traditional partisan divisions between Republicans and Democrats, the film deliberately kept the political convictions of each faction vague, in order to avoid getting bogged down in the controversies tied to culture wars. Despite this, some viewers had judged the alliance between California and Texas implausible, the two states being respectively considered Democratic and Republican strongholds.
Alex Garland, the king of anticipation?
But the “blue tsunami” that occurred during the midterm elections changed the situation. Democrats notably won the Texas governor’s office as well as a seat in the U.S. Senate, a first in several decades. As a result, many internet users are now taking a different view of the film, pointing out how Garland seems to have anticipated this political shift.
On X, one user wrote: “You all owe Alex Garland an apology,” in a widely shared post. On Bluesky, several users publicly apologized for mocking his choice to pair California and Texas. Even the professional press, including The Hollywood Reporter, is echoing this renewed interest, while a discussion devoted to the subject is gaining momentum on Reddit.
It’s all in the title after all!
Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Sonoya Mizuno were in the cast of Civil War (click for our review), which followed a group of journalists covering the final days of a second American civil war.
What is ultimately most astonishing about this whole story is seeing Americans focus on the most incidental aspect of Garland’s film: the idea of a Texas that has fallen into the Democratic camp and allied itself with California. Admittedly, that prospect seemed unlikely just two years ago. But no one, or almost no one, seems to be asking what was truly subversive and unsettling about the film: the very possibility of a civil war on heavily polarized American soil. As if that possibility no longer shocked anyone and, even more troubling, seemed implausible to almost no American.