for essayist Dominique Simonnet, the film is “a metaphor for the total opposition between two camps”

After Ex-Machina (2015) and Annihilation (2018), British director Alex Garland continues in science fiction with Civil War, a film which imagines in the near future an America in flames and blood, torn apart by a civil war. The film is released in theaters in France on April 17.

Embarked aboard an armored vehicle, Ellie (Kirsten Dunst) and Joël (Nick Offerman), two seasoned war reporters, hope to do the last interview with a dictatorial president threatened by the “forces of the west”, led by Texas and California. Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), an old veteran at the end of his career, and Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), a very young photographer, are also part of the trip.

The film, very spectacular, depicts images of war that we are used to seeing elsewhere on the planet, on the landscapes of the United States. Is such a scenario credible? Franceinfo Culture asked the question to Dominique Simonnet, journalist, writer and essayist, author with Nicole Bacharan of the essay The Great Days That Changed America (Pocket, 2022).

Franceinfo Culture: the scenario of Civil War is it plausible? Is a civil war imaginable in the near future on American soil?
Dominique Simonnet: I think it is above all a scenario which expresses fear. This is also a theme that has come up regularly recently, in books in particular, which emphasize the significant divide that separates American society today. But here, we are clearly in a disaster film, in a fiction film. I think it’s more of a metaphor for the total opposition between two incompatible political camps. Trump calls his opponents “vermin”, rhetoric that evokes Hitler, he promises a “bloodbath”, speaks of “revenge”. The political debate has reached an unprecedented level of verbal violence, even if the phenomenon is not new in the United States.

There are also worrying signs in the actions of certain Republican officials, such as in Texas for example, which is not respecting federal law by refusing to remove the wall on the border with Mexico… Biden’s election is still contested by some, who continue to say that the election was stolen from them and who question the legitimacy of the president. But so far, the violence remains verbal.

Does the approach of the election reinforce this fear which is expressed in fiction?
We have two possible scenarios, and both can indeed arouse fear. If Trump is elected, he has already announced very concrete measures. He does not hide his intentions which are known through “Project 2025”, which provides for radical reforms, particularly in electoral matters. He also announces purges in the administration for example… And in the event that he is not elected, he says: “I cannot lose”. Which can be interpreted as “I will win the elections”, but also as “I cannot accept losing”. Americans live in the specter of the attack on the Capitol, so yes, it is a fear.

There is also the problem of weapons, is this a factor which could lead us to imagine that the situation is slipping into a guerrilla-type internal conflict?
There are nearly 400 million guns in circulation in the United States. It is a country that was founded on struggle. The fight against adversity, with all this cowboy tradition. So indeed, there may be a risk, but once again, for the moment, the violence remains verbal.

Can we imagine a new Civil War?
What is happening today has nothing to do with the Civil War, which left 600,000 dead and which opposed the South and the North, and two very different, incompatible systems, with the South of the cotton fields, rural, slave-holding on one side, and on the other, the North, industrial, developed. Today, the scenario of a geographical conflict is not realistic. We could imagine that this is the case by looking at the electoral map which shows clearly demarcated red zones and blue zones. But in fact, it is an illusion. If we look at the electoral map at the pixel level, we realize that in reality the division is very fractional. There are red pixels and blue pixels absolutely everywhere in the country. The divide is not geographical. It should also be noted that a maximum of 30% of Americans are in this violent opposition. 70% of them want neither Trump nor Biden and would have liked other candidates for the presidential election. It is the “third America”, and it is the majority. And finally, the diversity of the American people means that they are very attached to the nation, to the idea of ​​the nation, to the flag, to common values, to freedom. They have a real desire for consistency and always find themselves around the “American dream”. All of these elements constitute safeguards.

American cinema has always staged conflicts, depending on history, with the Soviet Union, with the Arab world, with China… This time, it is an internal enemy which is staged, is- Does this indicate a real threat?
Americans have an incredible capacity to portray their history and their fears in fiction. It’s a bit like a way of exorcising demons. It started with Westerns, which show American identity in its purest form, and in which their basic moral values ​​are portrayed.

Cinema has always been a kind of catharsis, which allows us to digest trauma, like the Vietnam War for example. Cinema also addresses domestic political issues, such as the Watergate affair in The President’s Men. Americans have this ability to digest what happened, and to integrate the elements of their history into fiction quite quickly.

And regarding the film “Civil War”, is it also a way of absorbing a worrying present?
Regarding this film in particular, I think that it is part of this same movement of putting fears and anxieties into fiction in order to exorcise them, to appease them. It is perhaps also a way of warning, a call to find a little reason and wisdom by showing the worst. But I believe that, even if the forces of disintegration exist and are particularly fueled today, there are very strong forces of resistance around attachment to the federation, to the nation and to common values. which make this scenario unlikely. The worst is always possible and the film expresses this fear that a spiral is triggered in which events follow one another until the point where we no longer control anything. But for me, once again, we are not there. I think that the Americans are aware that it is the federation and the nation which guarantee them the conditions of peace, security, which assures them their rights and their freedom. With this disaster film, it is the salutary function of Hollywood cinema which is expressed, by showing what could happen, an America at war, destroyed cities… Like a warning.