MovieChat Forums > Civil War (2024) Discussion > SPOILER ALERT So I read a couple of arti...

SPOILER ALERT So I read a couple of articles and the Wikipedia plot summary and...

posted 10 months ago by whynotwriteme (7815)
27 replies | jump to latest

It's basically a Leftist "cautionary tale" about what will happen if we elect the hideously evil Bad Orange Man.

So to sum it up, there's an evil, fascist President who's been in power for 3 terms, imposing restrictions on the press and other dictatorial stuff the Left hates, and Texas and California unite to depose him and restore Democracy. In the end, the victorious troops of the alliance are seen in a photo posing with smiles over the President's bullet-riddled corpse. Journalists are the real heroes, bringing "the truth" to America.

Sounds EXACTLY like the bullshit Chicken Little level fear-inspired Leftist Boogie Man caricature of Trump that the Democrats are trying so hard to push down our throats, garnished with the Left's fantasy of turning Texas blue and glorifying the propaganda machine that is the modern American press.

And don't forget this film was defecated by the same director who made the vile, anti-male movie, "Men", so you can be assured of his far-left mindset right from the get-go.

[–] maximmm (3408) 10 months ago

There are significant steps being taken in the mainstream news media to make the film seem apolitical.
From what I understand, changing the map to include California on the same side as Texas was a last day change -

[–] whynotwriteme (7815) 10 months ago

Yes. It's very obvious that they are camouflaging this as a neutral viewpoint movie. They know that if they had been blatant about the Trump connection they would have lost half their profits and the chance to spread their anti-Trump fearmongering to Republicans. But the President in the film is clearly the Trump-based strawman that we hear CNN and MSNBC ranting paranoiacly about every day.

[–] e3e34ifj (1912) 10 months ago

No, it isn't. The film takes no political side at all. We have no idea what the USA and the Western Forces are fighting for, we don't know any of the president's stances or even what political party he's affiliated with. We just know he's not a very good president, but he could be left or right, we just don't know. It's literally a film about photojournalism.

I think the right very much want this to be a film about how bad Trump is but it simply isn't. This doesn't fit the anti-left narrative at all.

[–] whynotwriteme (7815) 10 months ago

Baloney. The movie President is, as I said, an obvious depiction of the Leftist's Boogieman version of Trump. As maximmm said above, they are taking very deliberate steps to try to make it seem as if it is apolitical, but the real message this movie is pushing is that if you vote for Trump in 2024 you vote for an evil dictator whose actions will plunge the country into civil war.

It doesn't need to come out and say he is Republican or he is for MAGA or whatever. The filmmakers are more subtle than that. They know that obvious an approach would alienate half the audience, cut their profits and limit the spread of their "message".

All that is necessary is that they created the film president in the image of the outrageous Hitlerian fantasy figure that the Leftist media has created for Trump in their own image.

[–] e3e34ifj (1912) 10 months ago

Absolutely NONE of that is in the film though. How can we infer that Nick Offerman is supposed to be Trump? What proof is there? We barely hear or see him at all and, again, we don't know at all what any of his policies or political beliefs are. He could be a leftist nutcase for all we know.

There is ZERO basis that he is supposed to be an "obvious depiction" of Trump, except for that you are intentionally coming into the film trying to make that connection yourself. To claim "the real message this movie is pushing is that if you vote for Trump in 2024 you vote for an evil dictator whose actions will plunge the country into civil war" is as accurate as claiming the film is about werewolves. It's nonsense and you'd know that if you actually saw the movie.

Obviously, he must have done something to piss off both liberal California and conservative Texas. If he were supposed to be Trump, I don't think we'd have Texas trying to kill him. I assume the president is likely an independent or an alternative third party, but again, the film never tells us.

It boils down to the rightwinged conservatives just desperately wanting to be the victims. They are hyperanalyzing any media to find how woke it is or how anti-Trump it is, often when the answers to both questions is "not at all". I think there's a good Fruedian slip in your argument when you call Trump "Hitlerian", because even you as a Trump supporter are subconsciously making the connection. Ironically, the president in Civil War is never compared to Hitler a single time. He may actually be a great president for all we know.

[–] whynotwriteme (7815) 10 months ago

https://people.com/thmb/syUw_yWwZsEsKYzl5SDVaVM3BV4=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2)/civil-war-121323-9-50a22fba854e48fbae017ed0dd07f76d.jpg

Not supposed to be Trump? Come, now...

He doesn't HAVE to be an obvious blatant Trump. All that is necessary is that in the movie, we have a fascist rogue President doing hideous things, and that, coincidentally, is the EXACT image that the Left has been foisting on Trump for the last 7 years. They want people to see this film and say "Yikes! If I vote for Trump, this movie might come true! Trump is a fascist who wants to destroy Democracy just like the guy in the movie! They said Trump was destroying Democracy on CNN!"

BTW, Including Texas with California is just a smoke and mirrors camo job to distract the easily-fooled.

Your objections are as if I made a movie about a beloved Hispanic pro-baseball player and movie star who seemingly shot his Asian wife and her Native American lover in a fit of rage, led the cops on a slow-mo chase through San Francisco on his motorcycle and was later found not guilty by a sympathetic Hispanic jury when a baseball cap presented as evidence did not fit. Then you see it and say "Oh, this is clearly NOT about OJ Simpson! Look at all the differences!"

[–] e3e34ifj (1912) 10 months ago

What does that picture even prove??? Oh wow, a movie where the president is an old white guy with slicked hair, no president has EVER looked like THAT before. He looks as close to Trump as he does to Reagan, Biden, Bush, or Clinton. The president from National Treasure 2 must be a Trump impersonator, because Bruce Greenwood looks about as similar to Trump in that movie as Offerman does here.

Also your OJ analogy does not fit this situation because Civil War is nowhere close to being that on-the-nose. The closest amount of evidence you can find to support the film has an anti-Trump bias is that Nick Offerman vaguely kinda sorta looks like him you squint really hard and tilt your head sideways. If Nick Offerman played an overzealous billionaire with no political experience who liked bullying people and was a former TV reality star, then yes, you could make the parallel. You are really grasping for straws here and, again, it sounds like you honestly want the film to be liberal propaganda and it sounds like you're just looking for empty reasons to come into a film blindly and start pointing fingers.

[–] whynotwriteme (7815) 10 months ago

You're being disingenuous and wilfully denying the obvious. The movie is about a rogue fascist President who dislikes journalists and the FBI and has taken a 3rd term, destroying democracy. Those are ALL part of the "Trump Dictator Boogieman" caricature that we have seen stories about every day for years and years. It's obvious to anyone who is not either completely simple-minded or willfully biased.

[–] e3e34ifj (1912) 10 months ago

Sorry but I still don't buy it. Reagan, Bush Jr, Clinton, and Nixon all had run-ins with the FBI. Clinton was accused of trying to dissolve the FBI several times when he fired the head of the FBI twice. Again, I think it's more telling that YOU associate Trump as a rogue president, one who would run for a 3rd term and destroy democracy. The movie is not telling you to think any of that. Has nothing to do with being "wilfully biased", it's just analyzing basic facts and what the film presents. Civil War is just a film about photographers taking war pictures.

[–] whynotwriteme (7815) 10 months ago

LOL. The old "WE never said Trump is a dictator. YOU are the one thinking that" gambit. Nice try, but no cigar. Ever since 2015 we've been constantly hearing from Leftists that Trump is the new Hitler. I am not associating the real Trump with Hitler, only the Left's carefully distorted image of him. But you are of course being willfully obtuse about that.

You seem to imply that it is impossible to recognize and call out an image that one sees repeatedly presented in the media without actually believing that image is true.

[–] e3e34ifj (1912) 10 months ago

Again, you're just admitting that you're painting the film with your own insecurities. I just don't know how else to get it through your skull that this film has nothing to do with liberal or conservative propoganda.

[–] whynotwriteme (7815) 10 months ago

You can't do it because when you try, it is just obfuscation of the true goal of the movie: to try to scare people out of voting for Trump in November.

[–] whynotwriteme (7815) 10 months ago

Hard not to use the word "Hitlerian" to describe the Left's imagining of Trump because that's their main point. BTW, it was not a subconscious choice. The Left is clearly drawing parallels to Hitler in their desperate, last-ditch attempts to siphon away support for Trump before the election.

[–] Satan2016 (26197) 10 months ago

So you read a couple articles from right wing sites. Links? At least maximm watched a camrip.

[–] whynotwriteme (7815) 10 months ago

Wikipedia, the New York Times, Wired and Roger Ebert Reviews are right wing sites now? Wow!

My assessment of the film is based entirely on plot summary revealing the inclusion of a fascist 3 term president who conforms to the alarmist image of Trump being falsely presented by Leftist media. The movie Prez is against journalists, he disbanded the FBI. You don't need links. I did not base my thoughts on opinion pieces. All you need to know is that the movie President is the same as the Leftist's boogieman Trump they are trying to sell to us.

[–] Oblivioid (1555) 10 months ago

Are supposed 'right wing sites' less legit than left-wing sites?

[–] BrandNewPoster (10996) 10 months ago

Your description of the film is completely inaccurate. It is not a left or right movie and the President is not clearly identified with Trump or any particular party. The film is not very political and the main message is war is bad.

[–] maximmm (3408) 10 months ago

Not clearly identified as Trump....
Do you know how psyops works?
Back in the day, CIA made cartoons - like the the animal farm, for example - nobody was clearly identified there either.
Do you know how any of this works?

[–] BrandNewPoster (10996) 10 months ago

Have you actually seen the film?

[–] whynotwriteme (7815) 10 months ago

You have a very simplistic understanding of propaganda and psyops as Maximmm says. Only the oldest kinds of propaganda are obvious. Today's propagandists are very sophisticated in their use of allegory, symbols and analogies.

The President in the movie looks somewhat like Trump and he does all the things Leftists accuse Trump of doing or planning, but because the film does not directly state "THIS IS TRUMP, FOLKS!" you think it has nothing to do with him.

[–] BrandNewPoster (10996) 10 months ago

Please list 5 ways that the President in the film is like Trump, other than the obvious that he is a white man and President.

[–] whynotwriteme (7815) 10 months ago

First, he is not like the real Trump. However he is EXACTLY like the concocted Leftist Boogieman Trump that they constantly try to scare us with.

Movie Prez is fascist.
Movie Prez wants to disband the FBI.
Movie Prez distrusts journalists.
Movie Prez has destroyed Democracy.
Movie Prez dresses similar to Trump and has Trumpian hair and physique.

He doesn't seem like either Bush, or Obama, or Clinton or Reagan or Carter or Ford or even Nixon. He DOES seem very much like the media's artificial Trump strawman, though.

If they HAD made it extremely blatant that he is Trump, they would have failed, because no Conservative would have paid to see their film.

[–] OneOfThosePeople (54) 10 months ago

However, the six encounter extremist and nationalist militia soldiers who execute civilians and bury them in a mass grave

I'm not American and I actually don't like Trump or Biden. I read the Wikipedia plotline of the movie and saw this section of it and was wondering what the context of it is? Because it seems if they're "nationalist" (and committing atrocities as most left-wing commentators are so sure Trump and his supporters will do) as most people would come to understand it, then how is this not anti-Trump/Maga?

Also, the "frontlines" just happen to be in Charlotteville, Virginia? Haha.

[–] whynotwriteme (7815) 10 months ago

Because it seems if they're "nationalist" (and committing atrocities as most left-wing commentators are so sure Trump and his supporters will do) as most people would come to understand it, then how is this not anti-Trump/Maga?

Exactly! The makers of this film simply gave the bad guys every evil trait and behavior that the Left has been accusing Trump and his supporters of since 2015.

Of course it's anti-Trump propaganda.

[–] Oblivioid (1555) 10 months ago

Of course, the film wouldn't be funded otherwise.

[–] Stratego (31075) 10 months ago

"Journalists are the real heroes, bringing "the truth" to America."

They should've been the baddies in the movie. It's funny how Hollywood defends the media. Stop crying about a lack of privacy or your name being publicly smeared, K?

[–] Oblivioid (1555) 10 months ago

The communist media preys on the ignorance of it's audience, and as we've seen, it's generally effective.