Summary
Football plays became integral in directing
Civil War
‘s climactic siege scene for clear movement illustration.
Alex Garland collaborated with a former Navy SEAL to create a realistic action sequence in the upcoming film.
Civil War
trailers spark intrigue with unique allies and unsettling concepts that already earning high praise from early reviews.
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Civil War director Alex Garland gives insight into his creative process and details how football plays were useful when planning his latest movie. The upcoming action-thriller follows a group of journalists as they traverse through a fictional second Civil War set in the near future. The film stars Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Nick Offerman, Jesse Plemons, and Stephen McKinley Henderson.
In an interview with Screen Rant, filmmaker Alex Garland detailed how football plays became integral when planning the film’s climactic siege sequence. The director said his use of football plays was necessary to properly illustrate the flow of movement in an action scene to his cast and crew. He asked collaborator Raymond Dose, a former Navy SEAL, to assist him in this maneuver. Garland and Dose were able to achieve a sequence that should be both captivating and realistic. Read Garland’s full quote below:
I’m glad you mentioned his name. I’m about to work with him again, and he is a really important part of this film. I also like and respect him very much, and we are hoping to work together again shortly.
The football play thing is something I do anyway. Storyboards are great; they work very well for certain kinds of films. In something like this, and in general when I’m doing action, what I want the actors and crew and all of us to understand is the flow of movement. Actually, football plays explain that more clearly than storyboards do. You look at a top-down view and you can see an arrow in these little circles, which are the people are moving through here and around. It’s a of suspending the thing in a clear way in everybody’s mind.
What I said to Ray in the sequence that you are referring to was, “How would a group of SEALs move from this position to that position? How would they get there?” They’ve got people shooting at them trying to stop them. That was the only input I had into that. He brought in some colleagues he served with, and they did their thing. And then what we did was function. I said, “Don’t worry about the camera, don’t even think about the camera. Don’t even think about the actors playing journalists. The journalists will then do what they’re supposed to do, which is record what you guys are doing. And then, as the crew, we will record the journalists recording you guys.”
And so what we had in the end was something in some ways like a controlled, contrived documentary sequence that then we could shoot. There’s dialogue and actions that were never in the script; never intended. That’s just Ray and his colleagues working together to do their thing, and then we are recording it.
How Civil War Is Shaping Up To Be Garland’s Most Important Film So Far
Civil War Is Being Deemed A Warning Of The Current Political Climate.
The
Civil War
trailers also
left questions about Texas and California’s unusual pairing as allies
, further leaving intrigue about the movie’s events.
Civil War has earned its first wave of reviews and is currently ranked the highest of all the films Garland’s directed so far. At the time of this writing, Civil War has a 93% on review-aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes with 40 reviews. This suggests the movie should top out at the low nineties or high eighties. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the upcoming film is being applauded for its unsettling concept and gripping handling of its violent, captivating themes.
Title
RT Critics Score
Ex Machina (2014)
92%
Annihilation (2018)
88%
Men (2022)
69%
Civil War (2024)
93%
With the rest of his filmography as proof, Garland is no stranger to violent imagery alongside themes full of complexity and depth, with Civil War as no exception. In particular, its dystopian premise has led to many discussions about its implications for the real world, almost as a forewarning in light of the current political climate. The Civil War trailers also left questions about Texas and California’s unusual pairing as allies, further leaving intrigue about the movie’s events.
After insinuating in an interview with The Guardian, the movie became even more significant as it could have been spelled as the final directorial movie under Garland’s belt. However, that comment has since been clarified that the director is simply taking “a break from directing for the foreseeable future.”
Related All 3 Alex Garland Films Ranked From Worst To Best Alex Garland has directed three films so far, each with its own unique style and story. We rank all of his films – Men, Annihilation and Ex Machina.
With the A24 movie being one of the most ambitious, it’s no surprise that the director took the time to focus on the technical aspects to give it the realistic nature of the dire event. The approach will seemingly pay off in theaters when audiences see the anticipated siege sequence. When combined with the subject matter being dangerously close to the U.S.’s political strife, Civil War is shaping up to be a disturbing moviegoing experience that sticks with the viewer.
Civil War
Civil War is a 2024 action thriller from writer and director Alex Garland. Starring Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, and Stephen McKinley Henderson, Civil War takes place in the near future and shows the United States entering a new Civil War after California and Texas attempt to separate from the country.
Release Date April 12, 2024
Studio(s) DNA Films
Distributor(s) A24
Cast Kirsten Dunst , Wagner Moura , Stephen McKinley Henderson , Cailee Spaeny , Jesse Plemons , Nick Offerman
Runtime 109 Minutes