The biggest movie in America right now is about the American Civil War.
While watching the movie ‘Civil War’ at a theater in downtown Washington, DC, the scene where the Lincoln Memorial explodes and the White House is attacked is spectacular.
The film tells the story of writer-director Alex Garland’s take on the unthinkable in America: an authoritarian leader in the White House, political differences difficult to resolve through violence, the very specific horrors of modern warfare, urban combat, and refugees. It’s a straightforward attempt to imagine. All the things we associate with concentration camps, mass atrocities, and currency collapses could happen right here in America.
‘Civil War’ is also a film about journalism.
It follows four reporters as they travel from New York to Washington, D.C., through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia.
The film touches on many of the important issues we talk about in shows like this: media ethics, political polarization, disinformation polluting the media ecosystem, and the potential threat of authoritarian leaders.
Wagner Moura plays a stubborn war correspondent addicted to the battlefield. He also provides some much-needed levity to the film.
Moura is best known for his role as Pablo Escobar in ‘Narcos.’ But he is also a former journalist, political activist, writer and director. His 2019 film “Mariguela,” about Brazil’s coup and counterrevolution in the 1960s, drew the ire of then-President Jair Bolsonaro in Moura’s native Brazil.
Deep Dive host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza spoke with Moura on Thursday during the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner gala in Washington. This is a time when relationships between journalists, politicians and Hollywood are at their peak in the city.
They discuss how making a film about a new civil war changed Moura’s personal thoughts on politics, how his experience with Bolsonaro in Brazil serves as a warning to Americans, and the role of art in politics. We had an interesting conversation.
