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Path to War

2002, History/Drama, 2h 45m

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Critics Consensus

Path to War brings Lyndon B. Johnson's full term to vivid life with terrific performances and a screenplay that provides an intimate look into a president's psyche along with the far-reaching consequences of his decisions. Read critic reviews

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Path to war photos.

This film is a dramatization of the decision-making behind the Johnson administration's escalation of the Vietnam War in the mid 1960s. As Lyndon Johnson (Michael Gambon) agonizes over sending more troops to Southeast Asia, he is given contradictory advice from Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (Alec Baldwin) and Secretary of State Dean Rusk (John Aylward). The president also attempts to build his Great Society at home, while balancing the war's increasing drain on the nation's resources.

Rating: TV-14

Genre: History, Drama

Original Language: English

Director: John Frankenheimer

Release Date (Theaters): May 18, 2002 wide

Release Date (Streaming): Nov 30, 2016

Runtime: 2h 45m

Distributor: HBO

Production Co: Miramax

Sound Mix: Surround

Cast & Crew

Michael Gambon

Lyndon Johnson

Donald Sutherland

Clark Clifford

Alec Baldwin

Robert McNamara

Bruce McGill

George Ball

James Frain

Richard Goodwin

Felicity Huffman

Lady Bird Johnson

Frederic Forrest

Gen. Earle G. Wheeler

John Aylward

Philip Baker Hall

Everett Dirksen

Tom Skerritt

Gen. William Westmoreland

Chris Eigeman

Bill Moyers

Patricia Kalember

Margaret Craig McNamara

John Valenti

Jack Valenti

Gerry Becker

Walt Rostow

Sarah Paulson

Luci Baines Johnson

Diana Scarwid

Marny Clifford

Francis Guinan

Nicholas Katzenbach

Robert Cicchini

Joseph Califano

Curtis McClarin

Martin Luther King Jr.

Gary Sinise

George Wallace

John Frankenheimer

Critic Reviews for Path to War

Audience reviews for path to war.

Refreshingly to see that historical accuracy can be compelling and I think a tragic arc for LBJ is totally legitimate.

A thorough and effective examination of the Johnson presidency, focusing on the escalating involvement in Vietnam that would eventually undue his administration. Very well written, the film always feels realistic, often re-creating scenes with verbatim historical transcripts. Michael Gambon's Lyndon Johnson is uncanny, he captures the overbearing, homespun demeanor he was known for, while also replicating his mannerisms perfectly. Overall, I would argue the film was far too kind to Johnson, conveying him as more of a victim of circumstance, who found himself in over his head and refusing to cut his losses, and whose otherwise lofty achievements (the mythical "Great Society" programs of dubious effectiveness) go unnoticed. Still, it was very effective in showing a conflicted man, reminding me almost of Oliver Stone's Nixon. Similarly, Alec Baldwin's McNamara was surprisingly authentic, showing a brilliant, though naive, man of cool demeanor. The running time is a bit bloated, but well worth it for history/political buffs. 4/5 Stars

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HBO's Powerful 'Path to War': The Drama That Was LBJ

Richard Nixon was sometimes called a Shakespearean figure, partly for the tragedy his presidency became, but the real Shakespearean figure in 20th-century American politics was Lyndon B. Johnson. He was in fact cruelly lampooned in his time by being made the subject of an off-Broadway play called "MacBird."

"Path to War," the new HBO movie about Johnson and Vietnam, may not have Shakespearean aspirations, but it certainly depicts Johnson as a toweringly tragic figure. The movie is so powerful and passionate in its portrayal, and actor Michael Gambon so commanding in the role of LBJ, that "Path to War" could play a major role in the reevaluation of this widely maligned chief executive.

The film, premiering at 8 tonight on HBO and only 15 minutes shy of three hours, is remarkably and unrelentingly compelling, a major accomplishment for the filmmakers when one considers that it's to a large degree a dramatized debate among government figures. It isn't easy to make a meeting cinematic, and the path to war is paved with meetings -- meetings in the Oval Office, at the Pentagon, in Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson's bedroom, and virtually wherever a meeting can be held.

Daniel Giat's screenplay skillfully shows us how Johnson's grand plan for a Great Society unraveled as he took America deeper and deeper into the Big Muddy. But Johnson was being taken, too, led into this mother of all quagmires by a battery of yammering advisers, many of them military men who kept insisting the war was winnable even as they spectacularly proceeded to lose it. Eventually, "stalemate" was the highest hope even they could hold out.

Giat's words come thrillingly to life because a great director, John Frankenheimer, is at the helm. Frankenheimer has experience with political thrillers and he tightens the screws with artful efficiency. His use of a somewhat melodramatic musical score on the soundtrack may make the film seem at times old-fashioned, but old-fashioned in a good way. That is, not so much old-fashioned as classic -- classic in tone, in style and finally, classic in stature.

Gambon is entirely up to the task of making a larger-than-life icon seem painfully -- and in the end, helplessly -- human. It is a performance of fire and brimstone, yes, and when Gambon as LBJ backs down a political foe or turns some underling into quivering mush, we can see what made Johnson so intimidating and so effective -- one character calls him "the best politician this country's ever seen" -- but he had more than one bete noire. As Vietnam flared up and criticism of Johnson reached a feverish pitch, he was always quick to blame the Kennedys, the Kennedy-lovers and the Kennedy legend for his troubles.

Where his martyred predecessor had been elegant and charming, the darling of the intellectuals (or Washington's version of intellectuals) and a symbol of sophistication, Johnson was, of course, a magnificent vulgarian for whom a nuance was a nuisance -- a man of action and not words who, if he'd had his way, might easily have gone down in history as the greatest liberal president since FDR. Instead, his time and indeed his soul were eaten away by a futile war in Southeast Asia that America had inherited from the French.

Implicitly the film asks one of the most maddening questions of history: If Kennedy had lived and served a second term in the White House, would America have become just as fatally entangled in the madness of Vietnam? Johnson had many of the same advisers Kennedy would have had, and Kennedy would have been no more anxious than Johnson to be known as the first American president to lose a war.

But then the movie is not some fleshed-out version of a political board game. It is foremost a truly shattering drama, a character study of a man who didn't have time to wrestle with his own inner demons because there were so many outer demons nudging him this way, urging him that way.

Gambon's portrayal is enormous and easily dominates the film, but with few if any exceptions the other members of the cast stand up to him, and Giat's script is especially commendable in the way it gives complexity to each characterization. It's no simple matter of hawks and doves competing for Johnson's heart and mind. George Ball (Bruce McGill) is indeed the one man in the inner circle who from the beginning warns that pursuit of the war is folly, that any increase in America's involvement can only lead to ruin. And yet gradually we see Ball become consumed by the war and by his sense of being a lone voice of reason and logic, as if being the only sane person has managed to drive him insane.

Similarly, Donald Sutherland's portrait of Clark Clifford is full of trenchant shadings and provocative details. What seems compassionate one moment turns coldly cunning the next. Clifford softens his opposition to escalation because he thinks it's best for Johnson's image to do so. Before it's all over, he's become nearly as hawkish as the colossally misguided Gen. William Westmoreland (Tom Skerritt). The tragedy of Vietnam is partly that the misguided were doing most of the guiding.

Alec Baldwin has the critical role of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, a man relying on old ideas to fight what was for America a new kind of war (though perhaps not unlike the war in which the country won its own independence a couple of centuries earlier). One problem for Baldwin is that he's one of those actors who's chosen to have a high political (liberal) profile off-screen, so some viewers may find themselves looking for ulterior motives, rather than artistic ones, in the way he plays the part. But Baldwin does seem to find him an essentially honorable man -- honorable and pitifully self-deluded.

Gambon may not have Lyndon Johnson's accent down perfectly, but his raging-bull comportment seems right on the money. We see Johnson at his best as well as his worst, as when he cagily invites George Wallace up to the White House at a particularly crucial juncture in the civil rights movement. The pugnacious and bigoted Wallace (Gary Sinise) is brilliantly manipulated by Johnson into doing precisely what Johnson wants him to do. Before the meeting, Johnson says of Wallace, "I want his pecker in my pocket," and who could doubt the authenticity of a Johnsonian line like that?

Johnson takes immense pleasure in his political victories and indeed in his own performance as president; in an early scene he watches a videotape of his inaugural address and gives himself what amounts to a rave review. His devotion to the Voting Rights Act and other civil rights legislation is seen as more than a matter of personal pride, however; he zealously believes in the changes he thinks he can make. As loud and rambunctious and physical as he could be, Johnson could also wax poetic on the beauties of "the Texas hill country in the spring," then in the next moment regale colleagues with a metaphorical tale about a stud bull entering a corral full of cows. He uses a Cutty Sark bottle as a prop; you can probably guess what it's supposed to represent.

The war goes on and on and Johnson's popularity sinks lower and lower. He vows never to send in ground troops and a moment later, they're there. The numbers escalate wildly. At each stage he is assured by the generals that this next step will be decisive -- and often it is, but in the opposite way it was intended.

In a reflective moment, Johnson describes himself as a man going down in a plane: "I can crash with it and burn up, or I can jump and die." He is, finally, left with no desirable alternatives, his elite brain trust outsmarted by a nation of peasants whom they snobbishly regard as primitives. Those of us who lived through the era -- perhaps as college students marching around with burning candles, or doing whatever we could to avoid going to Vietnam ourselves and becoming part of the tragedy -- may be able, perhaps for the first time, to see the ordeal from Johnson's perspective.

We can sense the anguish he must have felt as he personally signed letters to parents of those who died in the war, ostensibly in service to their country. Frankenheimer and Giat for the most part stay inside Johnson and his lush isolated world, but the growing protests from outside make their way through the walls of the White House, and the filmmakers suggest that, unlike Nixon, Johnson was truly wounded by the vitriol he inspired, by such merciless and penetrating rhetorical chants as "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many boys did you kill today?" He may himself have been dying inside; we didn't really know that then.

The film isn't entirely grim. A scene in which LBJ, at the wheel of a big ol' white Lincoln convertible, with Lady Bird (a rather colorless Sarah Paulson) at his side, brings back the glorious, posterity-be-damned esprit of the man. The film's verisimilitude is helped by such minor details as the casting of John Valenti as his father, presidential adviser Jack Valenti, even though the young Valenti won't be winning any acting prizes. From whatever angle you approach it, though, "Path to War" is a tremendous achievement -- not as a history lesson but as a profoundly emotional experience.

Michael Gambon conveys both Lyndon Johnson's bluster and his anguish.Donald Sutherland, left, brings both cunning and compassion to the role of Clark Clifford, one of many officials to give President Johnson (Michael Gambon, right) questionable advice on escalating the Vietnam conflict in HBO's "Path to War."

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

Top Ten Lists

PATH TO WAR

Post author: eenableadmin
Post published: August 5, 2019
Post category: Uncategorized

PATH TO WAR (TV MOVIE)

(director: John Frankenheimer ; screenwriters: Daniel Giat/LBJ biography by Robert Caro; cinematographer: Stephen Goldblatt; editor: Richard-Francis Bruce; music: Gary Chang; cast: Michael Gambon ( President Lyndon Baines Johnson ), Robert McNamara (Alec Baldwin), Felicity Huffman ( Lady Bird Johnson ), Donald Sutherland ( Clark Clifford ), Tom Skerritt ( William Westmoreland ), Cliff DeYoung (MacGeorge Bundy), Frederic Forrest ( Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ), James Frain (Dick Goodwin), John Valenti (Jack Valenti), Bruce McGill (George Ball, Under-Secretary of State), John Alyward (Dean Rusk), Philip Baker Hall (Senator Dirksen), Sarah Paulson ( Luci Baines Johnson) , J.K. Simmons (CIA briefer) ; Runtime: 164; MPAA Rating: ; producer: Guy Riedel; HBO Films; 2002) “ The well-produced political drama plays like the TV movie it is .”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

It brings back bad memories of the architects of the Vietnam War and their hubris in making bad decisions that led to an unnecessary and costly war in Asia that divided the country. LBJ was arguably our worst modern-day presidents (some might say Hoover) until surpassed by the ineptitude and arrogance of the later American leaders Nixon. Bush ‘W,’ and Obama. The well-produced political drama plays like the TV movie it is. It’s inspired by the Robert A. Caro’s forgiving tome-like biography of President Lyndon Baines Johnson. It was researched by historian Michael Beschloss, with writer Daniel Giat supposedly keeping it accurate and making LBJ seem human. John Frankenheimer (“The Young Stranger”/”All Fall Down”/”The Train”), in his last film, helms this as an inside look at the Johnson administration in action, but adds no new twists on LBJ’s path to war. Advisers argue for increased bombings in Vietnam before South Vietnam collapses, others argue instead for increased support of LBJ’s the “Great Society” to eliminate national poverty. Both ventures can’t together be funded. We already know that the winning voice for war was mainly made by the hawkish self-righteous Defense Secretary, Robert McNamara (Alec Baldwin) . This pic lets us see how the main players acted during those tense times, and how the war effort brought down the president..

The pic added nothing to my enlightenment of why LBJ failed as a prez, and it made me nauseous to see again those familiar haunting names that I learned to despise.

REVIEWED ON 7/29/2015 GRADE: B-

Under colorado skies, lion in winter, the, royal hotel, the.

Christian Sauvé

Aren't you wasting your time right now?

Path to War (2002)

(On Cable TV, October 2019) John Frankenheimer remains a major director even fifteen years after his death, and Path to War is noteworthy for being his last movie, a made-for-HBO production that nonetheless shows his consummate skills in putting together an interesting film. It’s easy to see why it wasn’t considered for the big screen: as a nearly three hours behind-the-scenes look at the way the United States gradually manipulated itself into launching the Vietnam War, it’s a cerebral topic that is best appreciated at home. Still, the flow of the film’s sequences and the care through which the actors are delivering their performance is clearly indicative of someone like Frankenheimer’s talents. The film itself is interesting in that it gives life to a geopolitical theory: the idea that Lyndon B. Johnston wanted to focus on his domestic agenda but found himself increasingly surrounded by people who all (regretfully) saw no way out of greater engagement, even those who had been forcefully opposed to the idea in the first place. There’s an interesting statement here about the inevitability of some processes once set in motion, and how powerless even the so-called most powerful people can be. Path to War may or may not reflect the entire truth about how the US got stuck in Vietnam, but it’s an unusual movie for even approaching the topic. Performance-wise, Michael Gambon, Donald Sutherland and Alec Baldwin all deliver subtle, strong and somewhat atypical performances acting as historical characters. It can certainly be amusing to spot the various historical characters populating the story—all the way to the appearance of Jack Valenti, who worked at the White House before becoming a Hollywood figurehead. All in all, this is prestige made-for-TV filmmaking, tacking serious topics in a competent fashion. There’s an interesting link to be made between Frankenheimer’s 1960s wild political thrillers and the reality-based story presented in Path to War . In a way, he got to revisit his own past filmography in presenting the real thing.

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Path to War

TV-14 | biographical dramas | 2 HR 44 MIN | 2002

A powerful look inside Lyndon Johnson's White House in the dark years leading up to and during Vietnam. Michael Gambon, Donald Sutherland.

2 hr 44 min

Path to War (HBO):

John Frankenheimer's powerful look at how President Lyndon Johnson became the symbol for the most unpopular war in U.S. history.

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Path to war (hbo).

original, drama

Release Year

Rating information, about this movie.

From director John Frankenheimer ('The Manchurian Candidate') comes this powerful drama of soaring ambition and shattered dreams that takes a provocative insider's look at the way our country goes to war--as seen from inside the LBJ White House leading up to and during Vietnam. Michael Gambon stars as the former president.

Cast and Crew

Starring: Michael Gambon , Donald Sutherland , Bruce McGill , James Frain , Felicity Huffman , Alec Baldwin

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Path to War Reviews

2 hr 45 mins
Watchlist Where to Watch

President Lyndon B. Johnson (Michael Gambon) watches his plans for a "Great Society" deteriorate as the war in Vietnam escalates. Robert McNamara: Alec Baldwin. Clark Clifford: Donald Sutherland. Lady Bird: Felicity Huffman. George Ball: Bruce McGill. McGeorge Bundy: Cliff DeYoung. Dean Rusk: John Aylward. Dick Goodwin: James Frain. Bill Moyers: Chris Eigeman. Directed by John Frankenheimer.

Despite the distinguished cast's superb impersonations of Vietnam–era figures, this dour docudrama is undermined by a curiously remote quality. Campaigning on a peace platform, Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson (Michael Gambon), former-Vice President to the assassinated John Fitzgerald Kennedy, defeats Republican senator Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election and enjoys the fruits of victory at his inaugural ball on January 20, 1965. LBJ takes office with high hopes, promoting civil rights and the war on poverty. But an unresolved international issue is already distracting his attention from campaign promises: What will become the quagmire of Vietnam. Pentagon big shots rally around the cause of defeating Communism, and LBJ subscribes to their domino theory  once one regime falls to Communism, others will follow. Ignoring the advice of Under-Secretary of State George Ball (Bruce McGill), LBJ becomes hypnotized by his Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara (Alec Baldwin), and supports his rolling thunder policy. But McNamara's "unassailable" facts and figures don't matter in the face of the realities of guerilla warfare in a jungle landscape unfamiliar to American military forces. American air strikes are soon replaced by incursions by ground troops. On the domestic front, LBJ proves himself a master strategist, capable of keeping even Alabama gevernor George Wallace (Gary Sinise), a virulent segregationistin, line; but the escalating war abroad is constantly in the spotlight. Though McNamara was a tireless cheerleader for the escalation of hostilities in Southeast Asia, he begins harboring doubts as the Vietnam War bitterly divides the nation. LBJ's dreams of a Great Society crumble as American servicemen sacrifice their lives in the pursuit of an antiquated concept of American sovereignty. The War weakens LBJ's credibility during his term of office and ultimately cast a shadow over his legacy. Though director John Frankenheimer's storytelling skill is evident throughout, writer Daniel Giat's script gets lost in the details of maneuvering by LBJ's contentious advisors, and the result is more than a little grueling. The film's ambitions are admirable, but LBJ's emotional agonies are never as emotionally compelling as they ought to be and are overwhelmed by the follies of his administration.

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Path to war (hbo).

: A powerful look inside Lyndon Johnson's White House in the dark years leading up to and during Vietnam. Michael Gambon, Donald Sutherland.

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Drama, Period Pieces, Biographical Dramas

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Rating information, about this movie.

A powerful look inside Lyndon Johnson's White House in the dark years leading up to and during Vietnam. Michael Gambon, Donald Sutherland.

Cast and Crew

Starring: Michael Gambon , Donald Sutherland , Bruce McGill , James Frain , Felicity Huffman , Alec Baldwin

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Path to war.

2002 Directed by John Frankenheimer

A powerful drama of soaring ambition and shattered dreams that takes a provocative insider's look at the way the USA goes to war—as seen from inside the LBJ White House leading up to and during the Vietnam War.

Michael Gambon Donald Sutherland Alec Baldwin Bruce McGill James Frain Felicity Huffman Philip Baker Hall Frederic Forrest Diana Scarwid Sarah Paulson Chris Eigeman Tom Skerritt John Aylward Peter Jacobson Gerry Becker J.K. Simmons Reed Diamond Gary Sinise Cliff DeYoung Francis Guinan Robert Cicchini Randy Oglesby RayVeness Brenda Wehle

Director Director

John Frankenheimer

Producer Producer

Writer writer.

Daniel Giat

Casting Casting

Mindy Marin

Editor Editor

Richard Francis-Bruce

Cinematography Cinematography

Stephen Goldblatt Nancy Schreiber

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Cary Brokaw John Frankenheimer Edgar J. Scherick Howard Dratch

Camera Operator Camera Operator

Bruce Alan Greene

Production Design Production Design

Waldemar Kalinowski

Art Direction Art Direction

Scott Meehan Jan O'Connell

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Richard F. Mays Florence Fellman William S. Maxwell III Antoinette J. Gordon Samuel J. Tell Adam Austin David Agajanian Jeff Hay Dutch Merrick Chris Peterson Jeannine Stevens Bret Ross Keith Sale

Visual Effects Visual Effects

Jonathan Rothbart Marc Sadeghi Robert W. Morgenroth Andrew Hardaway

Title Design Title Design

Kyle Cooper

Stunts Stunts

Bud Davis Lynn Salvatori Blaise Corrigan Joey Anaya Mimi Lesseos Rick Kain Jacob Chambers Lee Waddell

Composer Composer

Sound sound.

Thomas Vicari Kevin E. Carpenter Steve Pederson Mike Le Mare Gary Ritchie Kathy McCart Charles M. Wilborn Matthias Schmitz

Makeup Makeup

Gretchen Davis Kris Evans Dennis Liddiard Michael Germain Mark Landon Kimberly Felix Jane Aull Tena Austin Cindy Gardner Timothy A. Miguel

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Toni-Ann Walker Elaina P. Schulman Joy Zapata Georgina Williams Lumas Hamilton Jr. Ora Green Stephen Robinette Patricia Budz Ellen Powell

Avenue Pictures Edgar J. Scherick Associates HBO

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

Czech English

Releases by Date

04 oct 2002, 28 oct 2003, 09 mar 2015, 28 jul 2003, 18 may 2002, releases by country.

Physical 12
Theatrical 13
Premiere Warsaw Film Festival

165 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Ziglet_mir ★★★ 3

PROJECT FRANKENHEIMER Nick's Review Max's Review

The final film of John Frankenheimer's career retreads the historical backdrop of his glory days behind the director's chair. The focus on LBJ is not really a coincidence as Frankenheimer was friends with the Kennedys and many other political personnel of the era, so to cover a sprawling lens on LBJ's perspective of Vietnam makes sense. Johnson's relationships with key Kennedy holdovers such as Bob McNamara are clearly important characters (and people) to Frankenheimer. They are handled eloquently amid one of the most tumultuous times in American history.

Per IMDb user erose001:

"The tragedy, if we look on LBJ as a tragic hero, is that there was no next election for him because of…

Review by Burrows ★★★ 5

I really wanted to like this, and I did, I guess, to a point. However, PATH TO WAR is a long, political gabfest. I would suggest that John Frankenheimer's film is merely a word-fest spent going from committee meeting to committee meeting. As the Vietnam War unfolds--to the dismay of LBH who just wants it to go away--the film contentedly discusses public opinion, budget updates, and combating philosophies on international policy. However, I'm never sucked into LBJ's central journey.

Maybe I was too sleepy to watch film that was basically a three-hour class on 1960s American International policy, even though I'm pretty sure that I never did fall asleep. Donald Sutherland has never been nominated for an Oscar, but he's…

Review by MushiMinion ★★★★ 4

Watched as part of PROJECT FRANKENHEIMER , along with Ziglet_mir and Nick Langdon . Check our their reviews as well!

The final film of John Frankenheimer returns him to familiar territory in the realm of political discourse. In his earlier dramas, Frankenheimer made his criticism of the American government well known, for the underhanded politicians in charge and our continued struggle to uphold the principals of life, liberty, and the pursuit for happiness to all of it's citizens. Coming back to this at the end of his career, towards the end of his life, allowed him to approach the question of why our political system continues to fail us with a great deal more sympathy than is found in his earlier films.…

Review by Nick Langdon ★★★★ 6

Part 25 of Frankenheimer Fest, a retrospective being undertaken by myself, Ziglet_Mir and MushiMinion .

John Frankenheimer's final film before his sudden death at the too-young age of just 72 represents a closing of the circle, in both form and content. As the whiz kid of live television directors he was an acclaimed master of the medium while still in his 20s, and after years struggling with his cinematic career re-found both popular success and critical respect in his final decade making prestige TV mini-series and movies. Politically and personally he was also very close to the Kennedys, with John F. Kennedy first offering him a job on his 1960 campaign, then as a fan of Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate (1962)…

Review by Daniel Bernard ★★★

For his final "tour of duty," John Frankenheimer really goes all the way with LBJ and delivers quite possibly the most engaging political TV Movie I've ever seen. Gets my vote further with the fact I put this on after midnight (and surprisingly with interruption,) but only got sleepy with this nearly 3-hour debate towards the very end.

Still, someone like Tommy Lee Jones probably should have played him though, instead of Brit Michael Gambon. All I could hear was Dumbledore, Bill Murray's associate in Life Aquatic, and the villain of The Insider, quite possibly my next viewing for Philip Baker Hall. Although I do need to honor James Caan more, as well as the now just sadly gone David Warner, Bob Rafelson, AND Paul Sorvino!

BTW, yes this was viewed cause Phil appeared.

Review by Frances Meh ★★

If you’re unfamiliar with how the US walked backward into Vietnam this is a decent enough primer, but as a film...meh. Gambon’s great (the tapioca pudding scene alone), but Baldwin is fucking terrible in equal measure, and everyone else is a cartoon cutout.

Review by Ryan Bingham ★★★

As a history buff I probably enjoyed this film more than the average viewer. Sutherland and Gambon are particularly great. It is an interesting film, but it does run long, with some parts being extremely slow. Overall it is an interesting film for people who love history, Sutherland, or Gambon.

Review by Fred Kolb ★★★★½ 1

It's ironic that some of the best performances of American presidents have come from knighted British men, the very antithesis of everything that office is meant to represent. Both Sir Anthony Hopkins and Sir Daniel Day-Lewis delivered masterstrokes of acting in “Nixon” and “Lincoln” respectively, but it’s safe to add the late Sir Michael Gambon’s take on LBJ to the list as well. Johnson, who became president the day his predecessor was assassinated in Dallas, was an ambitious leader with quite a few accomplishments to his name that transcend the one he has become most notorious for: the escalation the war in Vietnam, an embarrassment to the United States government and military after they had to withdraw without anything to…

Review by Chris McMurtry ★★★½

A beefy “men in rooms talking” flick, this is anchored by a stellar lead role performance by Michael Gannon as LBJ. As far as TV movies go this is as deep a bench as you will see cast wise and though he doesn’t go out with a loud bang, it’s a decent final film to wrap up John Frankenheimer’s stellar career, coming out two months before he passed.

Review by reallybeanie ★

i was BORED and i do not need any more movies about old white dudes yelling at each other

Review by ChiefChegwin ★★★★

I watched this with my dad while drinking scotch and eating mash.

If you can watch it in those conditions, I would recommend it.

Review by Chris Cimino ★★★★

how many times does LBJ need to be reminded that this probably won’t end well

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‘Civil War’ review: Alex Garland’s dystopian vision of America horrifies

Movie review.

Alex Garland’s “Civil War” is essentially a horror movie, one in which the horrors feel uncomfortably close to home. In this vision of America, the country is divided into two violent factions: one led by a fascist three-term president (Nick Offerman, in a small but vivid role), the other an armed rebellion against the government. Four journalists — photographer Lee (Kirsten Dunst), her reporting partner Joel (Wagner Moura), veteran writer Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) and young aspiring photographer Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) — travel across hundreds of miles of this war zone to reach Washington, D.C., in the hopes of getting one last interview with the president.

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It’s a strange, terrifying journey, punctuated by bodies and blood and an eerily deafening soundscape. They drive past empty streets, abandoned cars, urban buildings with curls of smoke rising. They bargain, at a remote gas station manned by hostile men toting guns, for fuel (their offer of $300 is scoffed at, until Lee clarifies that it’s $300 Canadian ). They witness a firing squad, a bloody riot on a city street, a load of bodies in a dump truck, snipers on the roof of an idyllic-looking small-town street. And they run toward all of it — taking pictures, asking questions, documenting, remembering. If “Civil War” wasn’t so utterly horrifying, it could be a superhero movie, with journalists wearing the capes.

But in its quieter moments — you wish there were more of them — the film becomes the story of an impromptu family: four people united by a common goal. No one is saintly here: Lee, hardened and weary from years of war reporting, bickers with Joel about not wanting to take responsibility for the inexperienced Jessie, and makes it clear that Sammy is a burden; he’s old, she says, and can’t run. But ultimately they take care of each other, in sometimes surprising ways, and the actors let us see that bond. Dunst, whose Lee seems hard-wired to expect danger at every turn, beautifully lets us see the faintest of meltings as she becomes a reluctant mentor to Jessie. And Henderson shows us an aging man full of stories, even those he didn’t want to tell; he’s still seeking one last byline, somehow.

“Civil War” creates the sort of dystopian world in which little flashes of normality seem startling: water bottles, newspaper vending boxes, a dress shop open for business, a quiet hotel room. They’re tiny islands of calm for these characters, racing through a war zone, not knowing how long they can stay alive. Lee, at one point, muses on her career documenting violence around the world. “I thought I was sending a warning home: Don’t do this,” she says. The words hang in the quiet for moment, soon drowned out by gunfire.

With Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, Wagner Moura, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Nick Offerman. Written and directed by Alex Garland. 109 minutes. Rated R for strong violent content, bloody/disturbing images, and language throughout. Opens April 11 at multiple theaters.

Geek Review: Civil War

With the large number of real-life armed conflicts raging across the globe, there is undoubtedly a level of disconnect with the general population, and it’s against this backdrop of violence that director’s Alex Garland’s latest cinematic venture , Civil War , dares to ask – what if the unthinkable happened in the world’s most powerful nation?

This isn’t dystopian science fiction as it’s a chillingly plausible exploration of where America’s simmering political tensions might lead, and also asking, will you care more?

Not strictly adhering to the confines of science fiction or speculative fiction, the film plunges audiences headfirst into a future America ravaged by internal strife and divided loyalties, offering little in the way of exposition. Viewers learn snippets, including a whisper of ‘Western Forces’, an unlikely alliance between the states of Texas and California, and a third term of the American Presidency, but the reasons for the whole conflict remain frustratingly opaque, though it doesn’t matter because as we know of any conflict, various parties will invoke their rights but the result is a fight where there will never be winners. This strategic omission allows audiences to project their interpretations onto the film’s canvas, emphasising the narrative’s universal relevance over the particulars of its fictional conflict.

Garland , known for tackling narrative challenges head-on, from the unnerving exploration of AI in Ex Machina to the psychological terror in Men , continues this tradition with Civil War . The film’s conceptual daring, of a group of photojournalists, known to document events as it happens, is matched by Garland’s keen directorial eye, crafting a story that’s not only intense and emotionally charged, but also one that doesn’t flinch from portraying gut-wrenching violence.

Shaky camerawork and jarringly loud gunfire thrust viewers directly into the chaos of battle, leaving a lasting impression of the horrors, as Garland distils the simmering tensions of a fractured America into a potent narrative, using this devastated landscape as the backdrop for meticulously orchestrated violence. Crashed helicopters litter desolate plains, and abandoned shopping malls stand as eerie monuments to a lost yet familiar Western society, and it’s a depiction that many will recognise, as each frame captures the chaos with an unsettling beauty, highlighting the stark contrast between a well-known nation in ruins, and the brutal acts unfolding within it.

Yet, the true essence of the film emerges as Garland invites us to view this spectacle through the eyes of its characters – journalists striving to capture reality through their lenses. This act mirrors the director’s own cinematic lens, creating a meta-commentary on image-making in a world desperate for truth. It elevates Civil War beyond mere world-building, inviting viewers to draw uneasy parallels between the film’s fictional America and the anxieties gnawing at our own reality.

Through this lens, Civil War eschews the typical for the innovative, ensuring it stands apart in Garland’s oeuvre as a poignant, distressing examination of conflict and the people caught in its crossfire. At the heart of the film lies a group of journalists, each representing a facet of the journalistic drive: the pursuit of the story, the adrenaline rush of danger, and the often-ignored cost of such endeavours.

Led by Kirsten Dunst’s Lee, a photojournalist whose legend looms large over her every shot, and Wagner Moura’s Joel, the narrative dives into the ethos of war reporting. They are accompanied by Stephen McKinley Henderson’s seasoned The New York Times journalist, Sammy, and the naïve yet eager newcomer, Jessie, played by Cailee Spaeny. Together, the quartet embark on an 800-mile perilous road trip to the heart of America’s upheaval in Washington D.C., to possibly secure an interview with the President, whose tenure has sparked the nation’s descent into chaos.

Garland crafts scenes of stark contrast that pierce the veil of normalcy: a serene meadow, bathed in sunlight, abuts a grotesque mass grave, watched over by a sadistic soldier played by Jesse Plemons whose whimsical red sunglasses mock the gravity of his grim duties. The film’s audacious soundtrack, juxtaposing pop anthems against the backdrop of dystopian horror, underlines the absurdity of seeking levity in the depth of despair. Dark humour might surface, a sardonic laugh or two, but the film remains unflinchingly grim.

Amidst its dark vistas, Civil War grapples with the essence of journalism and the act of witnessing, the responsibility to document horrors without succumbing to numbness and of interfering with the unfolding of events. Dunst’s portrayal of seasoned, jaded photojournalist Lee is a masterclass in subtlety, her restrained performance capturing the dichotomy of cynicism and harsh truths bred from witnessing humanity at its worst and a small hope for a brighter dawn.

Spaeny’s Jessie, on the other hand, is the idealistic newcomer, often overwhelmed by the brutality around her, as should be. In part, both characters are both sides of what the general population represents – acknowledging the impact and effects of conflicts, but yet so naive as to the nature and consequence of the continuing events.

As the journey progresses, their traits become fluid, as each character experiences moments of vulnerability and resilience but Civil War delves into these dynamics only superficially, hinting at the profound effects of war on journalists without fully exploring the complexities of their experiences. The characters undergo change, yet the film’s commentary on the toll of war reporting remains somewhat underdeveloped.

Civil War ’s narrative brilliance shines in the film’s third act, placing the journalists in the heart of a war zone and transforming Civil War into an evocative homage to the resilience and integrity of journalists, particularly those who dare to tread the war-torn frontlines. These scenes hold a raw and powerful energy, a testament to Garland’s strategic perspective choices and his deliberate avoidance of overt political commentary. The events leading to this point fade in significance against the immediacy of survival but it’s also here that the actions of both women falter – the experienced professional establishes that her seasoned facade is a mask she wears because she has been worn out by her experiences in multiple conflicts, whereas the young protégé tries to be like her role-model, without realising that like a photograph, there’s more to a story beyond what you see.

But beyond the faults of both women that lead to their eventual outcome, there’s also some inconsistency with Garland’s depiction of journalism, made obvious by some of the choices that the quartet make which makes them stand out, against a backdrop where they should know better, to blend in with the action and not do anything that stands out, because the very nature of their efforts in recording history depends on their non-interference and non-involvement, but they still do.

Ultimately, the movie isn’t about the four, so some of their actions, while bordering on risky and infantile, has no bearing on the intent of the film, which emerges as critique that potentially reshapes dialogues and provokes a spectrum of reactions across a variety of forums. With an undercurrent reminiscent of Garland’s previous work, Annihilation , this film exceeds the bounds of traditional cinema to confront viewers with a stark reflection of our own troubling realities. Through a meticulous blend of narrative depth and striking visuals, Garland etches indelible images and themes into the fabric of our consciousness, akin to the persistent echo of a war-torn landscape captured in a photograph.

As a noteworthy contribution to modern cinema, Civil War extends an invitation not merely for viewers’ attention but for a deeper, more reflective engagement. It paints a grim portrait of societal fragmentation, serving as a sombre beacon that illuminates the daunting potential futures that lie on our collective horizon. By doing so, it challenges audiences to acknowledge and reckon with the grave implications of our current trajectory.

GEEK REVIEW SCORE

Alex Garland’s Civil War portrays a divided America through the eyes of war journalists, highlighting the harrowing consequences of political unrest. With a standout performance from Kirsten Dunst, Civil War serves as a stark reminder of the potential consequences of our current trajectory, leaving audiences to grapple with an unsettling vision of the future.

Story - 8/10 8/10
Direction - 9/10 9/10
Characterisation - 7.5/10 7.5/10
Geek Satisfaction - 7.5/10 7.5/10

Natalie is a big fan of anything related to movies, TV shows, games, and comics — you name it. When she’s not reading or geeking out about the latest shows on Netflix, she’s probably playing Honkai: Star Rail, cosplaying, or daydreaming of meeting her idols.

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‘Civil War’ is a harrowing portrait of America torn apart

Alex Garland’s new war film delivers intense performances and gripping combat footage.

By Nicholas Slayton | Published Apr 9, 2024 5:34 PM EDT

If the United States went to war with itself again, how would it tear itself apart? That’s the question at the heart of Alex Garland’s new movie “Civil War.” The how , not the why .

Written in 2020 and out this Friday, the new film from Garland (the writer of “28 Days Later” and director of “Ex Machina” and “Annihilation”) imagines what it would be like if the present-day United States was devastated by the type of conflict that’s destroyed so many countries in recent decades. In doing so, he’s created what may be the best film of the year so far.

Since the film’s first trailer dropped last year and the premise was revealed, there has been heavy discourse about what “Civil War” is trying to say. How political is it? How much of the current hyper-partisan divide will the film recreate?

The film is less concerned with the politics behind such a conflict and more about how a modern American civil war would lead to Americans inflicting brutality on one another, how people would try to survive, and what an end to the conflict would look like. Taking influences from civil wars in Spain, Syria, and Yugoslavia, Garland and his team crafted a uniquely American horror story.

The setup is relatively simple: The United States has become divided. A coalition of secessionist states, led by California and Texas, are the Western Forces, fighting an ongoing and heavy war against the federal government. The Florida Alliance, meanwhile, is fighting from the southern part of the country, though they are not as strong, apparently. The unnamed tyrannical president, played by “Parks and Rec” alum Nick Offerman, is only briefly in the film. Most of his scenes are in audio-only newscasts as audiences get glimpses of why he’s become so hated: he’s somehow on a third term and has been ordering airstrikes against American citizens despite his more patriotic and pseudo-pro-unification rhetoric.

Amid that setup, the movie tracks a pair of veteran journalists, photojournalist Lee (Kirsten Dunst) and reporter Joel (Wagner Moura) as they set out to reach fortified Washington, D.C. as the Western Forces try to break past the front lines in Charlottesville. They’re joined by aging New York Times reporter Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) and rookie photojournalist Jesse (Cailee Spaeny), who talks her way onto the trip despite Lee’s misgivings.

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Anyone looking for clear answers on the political splits and how the conflict started won’t get them. There’s enough information to get a sense of the world the movie takes place in, but not much more. The war has been going on for at least some time, with the front lines pushing further toward D.C. even as the wreckage of the war hits states far away. The Canadian dollar has real buying power while the American one has become almost useless. There are some echoes of real-world American issues and politics, with small-town locals wary of any outsider or one fighting force decked out in the Hawaiian shirts appropriated by the Boogaloo movement. When a camo-clad and sunglasses-sporting Jesse Plemmons appears late in the film in one of the movie’s most tense scenes, it is a scary reminder of the xenophobia in the country.

In many ways, “Civil War” is less of a war film than it is a road movie. The text on screen tracks the journalists’ progress to D.C., with the movie unfolding as a series of vignettes on their trip (and like many good road movies, “Civil War” has an excellent and eclectic soundtrack). Think of the story as a kind of “Heart of Darkness” through a divided U.S.

Perhaps the most effective tool the movie has is its use of recognizable American settings, turned upside down by the realities of war. “Civil War” is filled with familiar images: strip malls, long stretches of roads dotted with gas stations and fast food spots, or the massive parking lots of the suburbs featuring bombed-out buildings, crashed helicopters, or the sudden mass grave.

Away from the front lines, school football fields are turned into refugee camps, while internally displaced people struggle to get water, even in a city as big as New York. One vignette in a small town trying its best to present itself as a peaceful bit of Americana staying out of the war ends in an eerie reveal. Even moments of levity — there is a good dose of dark humor amid the horrors — turn terrifying. An overpass with “Go Steelers!” written on it draws some laughs only for the viewer to realize corpses are hanging below it. Garland and cinematographer Rob Hardy don’t shy away from the reality of what this kind of war would be like, although it never lingers on gore. Anyone familiar with combat footage or photos from places such as Kherson or Sarajevo will see parallels.

That’s not to say “Civil War” ignores the actual realities of war. Garland, with military advisor Ray Mendoza, delivers some of the most intense modern combat footage put to screen. Gunshots are terrifyingly loud, with the film putting viewers right in the middle of fierce firefights. It’s some of the best and most realistic combat in a film since Christopher McQuarrie’s “The Way of the Gun.” There’s squad-on-squad combat through a Brutalist campus, while a later sniper duel mixes well-earned tension with some surrealness as a sniper and spotter duo hide out in an abandoned golf course.

The film climaxes with the invasion of D.C., a set piece that will be seared into audiences’ minds for years to come. It’s clear why this turned out to be A24’s most expensive film at $50 million, with tanks and helicopters maneuvering through Washington, streams of tracer rounds filling the sky, and large numbers of troops pushing block by block, building by building, to reach the White House. It’s one of the most intense depictions of urban warfare on screen in recent years.

Anchoring it all is the four main actors. Dunst is at the core of the movie, with a professionalism and weariness that feels all too real. She and Spaeny provide some of the film’s richest moments. Moura’s passionate, affable Joel is partially in the backseat before getting moments to shine in some of the strongest scenes of “Civil War.” Henderson, a reliable character actor who has a habit of bringing some gravitas and charm to films like “Dune,” is equally warm and amusing with a strong bit of dry wit. As Joel and Lee say, their job is not to be the story but to document what’s happening and share it with the world. That being said, the journalists are the heart and soul of what makes this movie complete.

The lack of direct and overt politics in the film might leave some feeling cheated out, but Garland’s movie hits at something more universal: “Civil War” is about the wars abroad coming home, the ease at which people can turn on one another and what it takes to tell the stories of war. It’s the best film of the year so far and will stay in the thoughts of audiences for some time.

“Civil War” is in theaters Friday, April 12.

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Nicholas Slayton is a contributing editor for Task & Purpose, covering conflict for over 12 years, from the Arab Spring to the war in Ukraine. His previous reporting can be found on the non-profit Aslan Media, The Atlantic, Al Jazeera, The New Republic, The American Prospect, Architectural Digest, The Daily Beast, and the Los Angeles Downtown News. You can reach him at [email protected] or find him on Twitter @NSlayton and Bluesky at @nslayton.bsky.social. Contact the author here.

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‘A movie with the simplicity, even the naivety, of a fan-tribute’ … Back to Black.

Back to Black review – woozy Amy Winehouse biopic buoyed by extraordinary lead performance

Sam Taylor-Johnson’s best film to date is more interested in romance and creativity than demons or blame

‘Her demons were probably worse’: does Back to Black reveal the real Amy Winehouse?

T he last time Sam Taylor-Johnson directed a movie about drugs it was A Million Little Pieces in 2019, based on James Frey’s notoriously inauthentic memoir of addiction – and the last time she made a film about a music legend it was Nowhere Boy in 2009, about John Lennon.

Now she brings the two together in what’s easily her best work so far: an urgent, warm, heartfelt dramatisation, scripted by Matt Greenhalgh, of the life of Amy Winehouse , the brilliant London soul singer who died of alcohol poisoning at 27 in 2011. It’s a movie with the simplicity, even the naivety, of a fan-tribute. But there’s a thoroughly engaging and sweet-natured performance from Marisa Abela as Amy – though arguably taking the rougher edges off. The only time Abela is less than persuasive is when she has to get into a fight on the north London streets of Camden.

And Jack O’Connell is a coolly charismatic and muscular presence as her no-good husband and addiction-enabler Blake Fielder-Civil. O’Connell can’t help being a smart, capable screen presence and makes Blake a lot more sympathetic and less rodenty than he appeared in real life – and yet part of the (reasonable) point of the film is that he was a human being, afraid that Amy would leave him for another celebrity, and that media images are misleading.

There’s a lovely, if faintly sucrose scene in which the already boozed-up Blake first meets Amy in The Good Mixer pub in Camden Town (already famous for its association with 90s cool Britannia and Blur) – buzzing with his horse-racing winnings and airily unfazed when the already entranced Amy challenges him to a game of pool while he cheekily lets her (and us) assume he doesn’t know who she is. But of course he does and even one-ups her in musical knowledge in compelling her to admit that she has never heard, or heard of the Shangri-Las’ Leader of the Pack, which he puts on the jukebox and extravagantly mimes to. There is a growing sadness in the realisation that this ecstatic first meeting is the first and last time they will ever be truly happy together.

Marisa Abela and Jack O’Connell as Amy and Blake in Back to Black.

Perhaps any movie about Winehouse is going to suffer in comparison with Asif Kapadia’s compelling archive-mosaic documentary Amy from 2015, which delivered the woman herself and also gave a clearer idea of her demanding musicianship and professionalism, far from the tabloid caricature of nonstop drugginesss. But this film tries to intuit the part that romance played in Amy Winehouse’s life and the narrative of unhappiness that it created in her work: a poisonous wellspring of inspiration.

And Taylor-Johnson’s film is also much more sympathetic to Winehouse’s father Mitch, the cab driver estranged from Amy’s mother who came back into her life to help manage her career and famously counselled against her going to rehab.

Eddie Marsan and Lesley Manville in Back to Black.

Mitch comes across better here because he’s played with bullish charm and schmaltz by Eddie Marsan – very funny in the scene where he infuriates Amy by coming to an important meeting and siding with the record business execs against her. I actually wonder if an equally good film called Mitch could be made simply about that lonely, complex figure.

Back to Black is essentially a gentle, forgiving film and there are other, tougher, bleaker ways to put Winehouse’s life on screen – but Abela conveys her tenderness, and perhaps most poignantly of all her youth, so tellingly at odds with that tough image and eerily mature voice.

Back to Black is out in UK cinemas on 12 April and in the US on 17 May

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“Civil War” has little to say about America — but a lot to say about war

You might think a movie about a second American civil war would be a thinly veiled Trump story. It’s not — and it’s better for it.

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Spaeny and Moura wear “press” vests and helmets as then come fact-to-face with a gun while turning a corner.

You might think the new movie Civil War is a warning about America’s deepening political divide. The film’s trailer certainly suggests so , and director Alex Garland seemingly confirmed that was his intent in a recent interview with the Atlantic .

For me, a writer who has written a book on democratic decline , this marketing set off major alarm bells.

While the United States faces very real threats from extreme polarization and rising political violence , a modern repeat of the Civil War is basically out of the question (especially the film’s version , in which a rebel alliance led by Texas and California confront the federal government). Trying to use such a war to examine how American polarization could collapse our democracy would almost certainly be a doomed enterprise.

Thankfully, Civil War is not the film I was led to believe. The movie begins near the end of the conflict, providing little context about how things got so bad in fictional America. There are stray hints — the president (Nick Offerman) is in his third term and has disbanded the FBI — but nothing that could help the viewer understand why the United States collapsed into bloodshed. Contrary to marketing, and perhaps even the director’s intent, Civil War has virtually nothing to say about real-world American politics.

But this doesn’t mean the film is a failure — far from it. Once you understand that Civil War isn’t about what you think, you can appreciate it for what it actually is: a searing meditation on what happens when political orders collapse and violence takes on a sinister logic of its own.

In doing so, it channels some of the best modern academic research on violence in civil wars.

This is your brain on violence

Civil War tracks a group of four reporters as they race from the (relative) safety of New York City to Washington, DC, to cover the fall of the president: The combined forces of California and Texas are knocking at the Capitol’s doorstep.

Yet there’s no real sense of place or specificity in this narrative. With the exception of a rebel base outside Charlottesville, the towns and cities they pass through have no names. The violence the reporters witness on the road is horrific — we’re talking mass graves, suicide bombings, and torture — but it generally has no clear political motivation or higher purpose.

Dunst, in orange light, with a camera hanging off her shoulder.

In one scene, a sniper opens fire on the reporters’ car, forcing them to take shelter beside two soldiers he’s also attacked. When the reporters ask the soldiers which side everyone is on, they scoff — explaining that he’s trying to kill them, and that’s all that matters.

That scene clarifies what the movie is really about: not how political order collapses into civil war, but what happens to a society after it does.

Civil War presents a narrative where war takes on a logic of its own. For some, the need to survive pushes them to act in ways they never would have contemplated otherwise. For others, the collapse in order creates opportunities to act on their very worst impulses — best dramatized in an unforgettable scene in which a bigoted soldier (Jesse Plemons) cruelly interrogates the main characters at gunpoint.

Under such conditions, social trust collapses altogether; faith in both institutions and other people can’t survive.

Civil War ’s treatment of journalism basically fits this theme. The movie’s reporters, led by steely photojournalist Lee (a fabulous Kirsten Dunst), are generally decent people and stellar professionals. But in a world where no one trusts anyone, a truly neutral institution like journalism has no place. Without any legal system or supreme power to appeal to, they’re at the mercy of whatever armed faction they come across — most of whom don’t trust journalists any more than anyone else.

In conditions of social breakdown, violence consumes all of what makes a society work.

What a fake civil war tells us about real ones

Civil War ’s grim vision reminded me, more than anything else, of an academic book: The Logic of Violence in Civil Wars by Oxford professor Stathis Kalyvas.

The book, a modern classic in the literature on civil conflict, argues that most people overestimate the degree to which patterns of violence in civil wars are driven by ideology or emotions run amok. Instead, Kalyvas argues, individual decisions are often made based on calculations of rational self-interest — starting with survival.

Kalyvas’s treatment of the relationship between violence and civilian behavior is particularly noteworthy.

As we know from American experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan , winning the support of the local civilian population is critically important in determining who wins a civil war. Drawing on data from the 1940s Greek Civil War , Kalyvas argues that civilians make decisions about cooperation based primarily on perceptions of who is in control of the territory in which they live. Basically, they’re most likely to cooperate if they think that side will have the power to keep them safe and advance their other interests.

Civilian cooperation then shapes how combatants use force, as informers tell them where their enemies are hiding or who in the civilian population supports the opposing side. How combatants act on this information in turn shapes civilians’ views, affecting their future decisions to cooperate or not. Violence is, in Kalyvas’s language, a “joint process”: Who lives and who dies is determined by the interplay of civilian and combatant actions, all rooted in perceptions of rational self-interest.

This is basically how the world in Civil War works. Characters make choices not about ideology or partisanship, but about how best to advance their interests in a country defined by who’s trying to kill them and who isn’t. I can’t recall a single scene where anyone makes an ideological statement about the nature of the American civil war and why they’re fighting it.

Such a film has little to say about contemporary American politics. But the imagery and places may help American audiences connect more easily to the subtler story it’s actually telling: about how people in real-life civil wars make life into hell for the people caught up in them.

It is less a film about political polarization, or even the headline-dominating wars in Gaza and Ukraine, than one about the long and bloody counterinsurgency wars that defined the war on terror era.

In that respect, Civil War should make Americans think less about our own contemporary problems and more about the suffering we so recently inflicted on others .

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Civil War Review: Alex Garland’s Electrifying War Story Is An Intellectual Blockbuster Triumph

A24’s latest is a gorgeous shock and awe spectacle best seen in imax..

Kirsten Dunst shielding Cailee Spaeny from an explosion in Civil War.

Filmmaker Alex Garland is most notably known as a purveyor of sci-fi visions that delve into horrific territory while asking huge questions. That profile of the writer behind films like 28 Days Later , Ex Machina , and Men has only grown over time, with each project seeming to dive deeper into the unknown. For his latest project Civil War , Garland has scaled back the fantastical and focused his storytelling talents on a divided America that’s set in a future that feels uncomfortably close.

Nick Offerman speaking from the White House podium in Civil War.

Release Date: April 12, 2024 Directed By: Alex Garland Written By: Alex Garland Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sonoya Mizuno and Nick Offerman Rating: Rated R for strong violent content, bloody/disturbing images, and language throughout Runtime: 109 minutes

While Garland has eschewed his more genre heavy aesthetic for this grounded drama-thriller, that doesn’t mean that Civil War isn’t as intense as those previous films. As a matter of fact, the realism present in the story of correspondents ( Kirsten Dunst , Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, and Stephen McKinley Henderson) traveling across the war torn United States that makes this tale so urgent and horrifying.

Focusing on an American civil war in the aftermath of a third term president’s abuse of power ( Nick Offerman ), Alex Garland gives his audience two acts of strong character building that takes place through what is constructed as an episodic plot. Throughout those comparatively calmer moments, Garland’s skills are preparing the audience for the final wind up, which includes a third act so electrifying that it embodies shock and awe. The resulting combination is an intellectual blockbuster triumph that continues to prove why the writer/director is one of the most compelling storytellers in the contemporary cinematic landscape.

Alex Garland’s Civil War is his most grounded film, but it also covers some ground very familiar to the filmmaker.

For a movie with the title Civil War , you’d imagine a wide spanning cast bringing to life a larger-than-life conflict. That’s not the mode that Alex Garland chose, however and that decision is firmly in line with his credentials as a thought provoking creative. A strength of Garland’s projects has always been telling as big a story as possible with a tight knit cast of characters, keeping the stakes grounded even in totally alien environments.

That tendency only causes Civil War to dazzle its audience all the more, especially with a performer like Kirsten Dunst anchoring the story as its functional lead. As Dunst's Lee finds herself teamed up with Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, and Stephen McKinley Henderson playing fellow journalists, the actor's stellar work challenges her immediate co-stars and their respective acting games – but it's a win-win scenario that brings out the best in the whole cast, while highlighting that Dunst is one of the finest actors of our time.

Having that strong of a cast anchoring Civil War’s march into Hell gooses the nervous energy to a pleasing degree throughout Rob Hardy’s richly photographic cinematography. Random moments of chaotic action and tension are displayed merely through shutter clicks and the still images they produce. With the film operating with an A-list cast, those expressive moments can be even more harrowing than watching them in real-time.

Perhaps the greatest compliment to Civil War’s strong casting game is the fact that the supporting roles are also made all the better because of it. Alex Garland certainly knows how to assemble a cast, as seen with the inclusion of Nick Offerman and Jesse Plemmons into the mix for smaller parts. Their participation is never distracting or out of step with what the movie is aiming to accomplish, and especially in Plemmons’ case, it leads to one of the most nerve-wracking moments within this story.

Civil War is a thinking person’s blockbuster that is an urgent must in our modern, fractured world.

Alex Garland’s Civil War has been talked up as an apolitical story, and seeing the film, it’s easy to agree with that assessment. By clearly delineating the actions of the antagonists, rather than merely assigning them an “evil” party affiliation, the main conflict is one of moral, not political, issues. There is such meticulous work put into Alex Garland’s story that it’s applicable to anyone who truly believes in law, order, and a free press.

I’ll reinforce my opinion of Civil War being an intellectual blockbuster further here, because some may feel that Christopher Nolan ’s Oppenheimer falls into that same bucket. I disagree, as while Nolan’s movie financially performed like a blockbuster, the scale and storytelling were of a more traditional biopic pedigree. Alex Garland, on the other hand, put together a lighting quick ride that is scaled like a blockbuster, but still has an impressive and thought provoking story as its spine.

As the first two acts of Civil War depict humanity’s best and worst impulses with great personal stakes, the final act is a sustained adrenaline rush that doesn’t betray the intimate nature of previous events. If you weren’t sold on the importance of seeing this movie in the IMAX format, the final stretch alone is worth the ticket, thanks to a combat heavy finale that stands shoulder to shoulder with the final moments of Zero Dark Thirty .

There’s been quite a bit of talk about Alex Garland potentially leaving the world of directing after Civil War , as he seems to want to focus more on his writing. I certainly hope the man will keep moving forward with both his directing and writing work, but if he were to seriously step back after this picture’s release, I could totally understand. While Civil War seems to have invigorated his sensibilities on both sides, this would be a hell of a final statement to leave fans with. In Alex Garland I trust.

Mike Reyes is the Senior Movie Contributor at CinemaBlend, though that title’s more of a guideline really. Passionate about entertainment since grade school, the movies have always held a special place in his life, which explains his current occupation. Mike graduated from Drew University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, but swore off of running for public office a long time ago. Mike's expertise ranges from James Bond to everything Alita, making for a brilliantly eclectic resume. He fights for the user.

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Path to War
Movie Info. This film is a dramatization of the decision-making behind the Johnson administration's escalation of the Vietnam War in the mid 1960s. As Lyndon Johnson (Michael Gambon) agonizes over ...
HBO's Powerful 'Path to War': The Drama That Was LBJ
The movie is so powerful and passionate in its portrayal, and actor Michael Gambon so commanding in the role of LBJ, that "Path to War" could play a major role in the reevaluation of this widely ...
Path to War
Path to War at AllMovie; Path to War at Rotten Tomatoes; Reviews. TELEVISION/RADIO; A Vietnam War Film Takes On a Sudden Resonance by Bernard Weinraub, 9 December 2002, The New York Times. LBJ's tortured 'Path to War' / HBO movie shows two sides of Johnson in Vietnam era, by Jonathan Curiel, San Francisco Chronicle, Saturday, 18 May 2002. Path ...
Path to War (TV Movie 2002)
Path to War: Directed by John Frankenheimer. With Michael Gambon, Donald Sutherland, Alec Baldwin, Bruce McGill. In the mid 1960s, President Lyndon B. Johnson (Sir Michael Gambon) and his foreign-policy team debate the decision to withdraw from or escalate the war in Vietnam.
LBJ's tortured 'Path to War' / HBO movie shows two sides of ...
PATH TO WAR: Drama. Starring Michael Gambon, Donald Sutherland, Alec Baldwin, Bruce McGill, Dick Goodwin, Felicity Huffman, Philip Baker Hall. Directed by John Frankenheimer. (165 minutes. HBO. 8 ...
Path to War (TV Movie 2002)
President Johnson (Michael Gambon)painfully watches his plans for a "Great Society" crumble as the war in Viet Nam escalates. Most impressive is Alec Baldwin as Robert McNamara. Equally strong is Donald Southerland playing Clark Clifford. Also of note are:Bruce McGill, Tom Skerritt and Philip Baker Hall.
PATH TO WAR
PATH TO WAR (TV MOVIE) "The well-produced political drama plays like the TV movie it is.". Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz. It brings back bad memories of the architects of the Vietnam War and their hubris in making bad decisions that led to an unnecessary and costly war in Asia that divided the country. LBJ was arguably our worst modern-day ...
Path to War (2002)
Path to War (2002) By Christian Sauvé 2019-10-14 2023-03-19 Movie Review (On Cable TV, October 2019) John Frankenheimer remains a major director even fifteen years after his death, and Path to War is noteworthy for being his last movie, a made-for-HBO production that nonetheless shows his consummate skills in putting together an interesting film.
Path to War (2003)
A powerful drama of soaring ambition and shattered dreams that takes a provocative insider's look at the way the USA goes to war—as seen from inside the LBJ White House leading up to and during the Vietnam War. John Frankenheimer. Director. Daniel Giat. Writer.
Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Path to War
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Path to War at Amazon.com. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users ... "Path to War" is a superb made-for-TV movie from HBO that tells the story of how U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his administration escalated the war in Vietnam during his single elected term of ...
Path to War (TV Movie 2002)
Summaries. In the mid 1960s, President Lyndon B. Johnson (Sir Michael Gambon) and his foreign-policy team debate the decision to withdraw from or escalate the war in Vietnam. A portrayal of the Lyndon B. Johnson (Sir Michael Gambon) Presidency and its spiralling descent into the Vietnam War.
Path to War: Movie Review
Watch the movie on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/-MriWa-CyPw?si=gs_JF70fy-0rMd9mSee the ending here: https://youtu.be/l9R9MKdbIvg?si=8JI3zxv7uM5qphCsMy revi...
Path to War
Path to War. TV-14 | biographical dramas | 2 HR 44 MIN | 2002. WATCH NOW. A powerful look inside Lyndon Johnson's White House in the dark years leading up to and during Vietnam. Michael Gambon, Donald Sutherland. Watch Path to War online at HBO.com. Stream on any device any time. Explore cast information, synopsis and more.
Watch Path to War (HBO)
Watch Path to War (HBO) From director John Frankenheimer ('The Manchurian Candidate') comes this powerful drama of soaring ambition and shattered dreams that takes a provocative insider's look at the way our country goes to war--as seen from inside the LBJ White House leading up to and during Vietnam. Michael Gambon stars as the former president.
Watch Path to War (HBO)
Watch Path to War (HBO) From director John Frankenheimer ('The Manchurian Candidate') comes this powerful drama of soaring ambition and shattered dreams that takes a provocative insider's look at the way our country goes to war--as seen from inside the LBJ White House leading up to and during Vietnam. Michael Gambon stars as the former president.
Path to War
On the domestic front, LBJ proves himself a master strategist, capable of keeping even Alabama gevernor George Wallace (Gary Sinise), a virulent segregationistin, line; but the escalating war ...
Watch Path to War Streaming Online
Path to War. John Frankenheimer's powerful look at how President Lyndon Johnson became the symbol for the most unpopular war in U.S. history. more. Starring: Michael GambonDonald SutherlandAlec Baldwin. Director: John Frankenheimer. Add Max to any Hulu plan for an additional $15.99/month.
Watch Path To War (HBO)
Watch Path To War (HBO) and more new movie premieres on Max. Plans start at $9.99/month. A powerful look inside Lyndon Johnson's White House in the dark years leading up to and during Vietnam. Michael Gambon, Donald Sutherland.
Path to War Movie Reviews
Buy movie tickets in advance, find movie times, watch trailers, read movie reviews, and more at Fandango. ... Path to War Critic Reviews and Ratings Powered by Rotten Tomatoes Rate Movie. Close Audience Score. The percentage of users who made a verified movie ticket purchase and rated this 3.5 stars or higher. ... Civil War (2024) Monkey Man ...
‎Path to War (2002) directed by John Frankenheimer • Reviews, film
Watched as part of PROJECT FRANKENHEIMER, along with Ziglet_mir and Nick Langdon. Check our their reviews as well! The final film of John Frankenheimer returns him to familiar territory in the realm of political discourse. In his earlier dramas, Frankenheimer made his criticism of the American government well known, for the underhanded ...
Path to War streaming: where to watch movie online?
Show all movies in the JustWatch Streaming Charts. Streaming charts last updated: 9:14:33 AM, 04/11/2024 . Path to War is 15101 on the JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts today. The movie has moved up the charts by 12038 places since yesterday. In the United States, it is currently more popular than Missing but less popular than Long Lost Daughter.
'Civil War' review: Alex Garland's dystopian vision of America
Movie review. Alex Garland's "Civil War" is essentially a horror movie, one in which the horrors feel uncomfortably close to home. In this vision of America, the country is divided into two ...
Geek Review: Civil War
GEEK REVIEW SCORE. Alex Garland's Civil War portrays a divided America through the eyes of war journalists, highlighting the harrowing consequences of political unrest. With a standout performance from Kirsten Dunst, Civil War serves as a stark reminder of the potential consequences of our current trajectory, leaving audiences to grapple with ...
Review: 'Civil War' is a harrowing portrait of America torn apart
In many ways, "Civil War" is less of a war film than it is a road movie. The text on screen tracks the journalists' progress to D.C., with the movie unfolding as a series of vignettes on ...
Back to Black review
T he last time Sam Taylor-Johnson directed a movie about drugs it was A Million Little Pieces in 2019, based on James Frey's notoriously inauthentic memoir of addiction - and the last time she ...
War Path (2019)
At first the plot seems basic, unaware of the rpg background of the movie. Even though it has a few plot wholes or inconsistencies, it is full of surprises. The CGI and the fighting scenes do make up for it. This movie doesn't waste much time with overly complex story, dialogue or character building.
"Civil War" review: The movie is less about America than war itself
Before coming to Vox in 2014, he edited TP Ideas, a section of Think Progress devoted to the ideas shaping our political world. You might think the new movie Civil War is a warning about America ...
Civil War Review: Alex Garland's Electrifying War Story Is An
For a movie with the title Civil War, you'd imagine a wide spanning cast bringing to life a larger-than-life conflict. That's not the mode that Alex Garland chose, however and that decision is ...
'Civil War' Review: Alex Garland's Carnage Without Cause
Starring Kirsten Dunst as a cynical journalist, the British director's new film depicts a dystopian, war-torn America, but it is strangely indifferent to the country's actual socio-political ...

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