Culture chat: ‘Civil War’ is not the film you think it is

Life and Art from FT Weekend

Forhecz Topher

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 601 Ratings

🗓️ 19 April 2024

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, we talk about the new film ‘Civil War’, directed by Alex Garland, which depicts a future US that’s divided and decimated. It stars Kirsten Dunst as a veteran photojournalist, who is on a road trip with a ragtag group of colleagues. They’re driving through the war-torn north-east to reach the White House before it is stormed by rebel forces. The film has been highly praised as well as highly criticised. What is it trying to say about the state of America? Is it a war film, a political film, or both? The FT’s politics columnist Stephen Bush and US executive producer of audio Topher Forhecz join Lilah to discuss.

-------

We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap and we’re on X @lifeandartpod. You can email us at [email protected]. We are grateful for reviews, on Apple, Spotify, etc.

-------

Links (all FT links get you past the paywall):

– Danny Leigh’s review of Civil War (he liked it less than we did): https://on.ft.com/4aTzD6P

– FT critic Leslie Felperin’s interview with Alex Garland: https://on.ft.com/3W03lmt

– You can get a free trial of Stephen’s political newsletter Inside Politics – which includes a daily cultural recommendation – by clicking here

– Stephen Bush on X at @stephenkb.

– Listen to our episode ‘How to process the news when it all feels bad’, with FT foreign editor Alec Russell. You can find it in our feed

More or Less:

– Topher wants to see more interesting landmarks used in films, as in ‘North by Northwest’ and ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’

– Stephen wants to see no more ‘Ghostbusters’ ever. Here’s the FT’s 2-star review of ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’: https://on.ft.com/4aVOEot

– Lilah wants fewer menus. She recommends 15 Fox Place in Jersey City, and Osteria 16 in Copenhagen

-----

The FT Weekend Festival is coming back, and will be in Washington on May 4. Speakers include Nancy Pelosi. To book tickets, go to ft.com/festival-us and use our exclusive discount code: weekendpodcast.

Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart

—

Clips this week are from A24

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Life and Art from FT Weekend.
0:05.5	I'm Lila Raptopoulos and this is our Friday chat show.
0:09.6	Today we are talking about Civil War, the new film from director Alex Garland.
0:14.6	When it starts, it's the near future, the U.S. is in turmoil and at war.
0:19.9	A number of states have seceded. Kirsten Dunst is a veteran
0:23.4	photojournalist, and she and her two war reporter colleagues are racing to get to the fascist
0:28.8	third-term president before the White House is stormed by rebel factions. They're joined last minute
0:34.0	by a rookie photojournalist, played by Kaylee Spaney, and the three of them drive through a dangerous destitute America from New York to Washington, D.C.
0:42.4	It's part war movie, part disturbing road trip.
0:46.8	Every time I survived the war song, I thought I was sending a warning home.
0:52.5	Don't do this.
0:55.0	But here we are.
0:57.1	We're American, okay?
1:00.4	Okay.
1:01.5	What kind of American are you?
1:05.2	The movie, of course, is coming out in an election year in the U.S., and people have very strong feelings about it, both praise and criticism. And today we're going to talk about it. I am Lila, and I'm bumming a ride across America with the guy from Narcos, the guy from Dune, and the girl from Priscilla. Joining me in New York representing the Florida Alliance, it's the U.S. executive producer of audio. He produces the news briefing and this great show, among others.
1:29.0	It's Tofer Forges. Welcome, Tofer. Thanks, Lila. Also, from London, sitting on his farm,
1:34.8	pretending this isn't happening. It's political columnist, film buff, and friend of the podcast,
1:39.7	the great Stephen Bush. Hi, Stephen. Hi. It's great to have both of you. Okay, let's just get into it. Big picture. What did you think? Did the film succeed? Did it fail? Stephen? Yeah, I thought it was terrific. I mean, I think, yeah, the thing that the film is trying to do is to depict the type of civil war and indeed the type of conversations journalists covering that type of civil war have about what they're doing.
2:08.3	But instead of setting it in the sort of place where that type of war happens and is covered all the time,
2:14.6	but to set it in the imperial court, as it were, right?
2:17.6	And to set it in the most recognised cinematic location ever.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Forhecz Topher, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Forhecz Topher and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.