A Different Kind of War Story
'Civil War' is both an ode to war journalism and a scary picture of our potential future
Welcome to From the Teacher’s Desk, where we take turns further reflecting on our episodes and applications to the classroom.
I like dystopias and post-apocalyptic stories as much as the next English teacher, but when the movie Civil War came out last spring, it appeared it would hit a little too close to home. But then I read this piece by
and I knew I needed to see it. It was worth the emotional rollercoaster.When War Comes Home
The movie opens in the near future, the United States caught up in a civil war where California and Texas have joined forces and are headed to Washington, DC to take down the current government. We never get an explanation for how or why it happened, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is the story of the journalists traveling to DC to get an inside scoop as the war reaches its climax.
Jessie, a young aspiring journalist, finds herself in the company of veteran journalists and friends Lee (brilliantly played by Kirsten Dunst), Joel, and their mentor Sammy. The threesome have spent most of their careers covering wars in other countries. They never thought they would cover it in their own country. Lee finally agrees to mentor Jessie, teaching her how to detach from the horror in front of her and let her camera tell the story. They arrive in DC just in time to witness the Western Forces bringing down the White House.
We Forget the Storytellers
There are a lot of reasons to want to avoid a film like Civil War right now. But what I found in the film was a beautiful love letter to the men and women who have spent the last two centuries putting their lives on the line to report what they see and hear in conflicts around the world. Lee appears jaded as she takes photographs of dead bodies lying on the street in front of her, but we see flashbacks and recognize that much of her bravado is a coping mechanism for the PTSD she experiences daily.
History is told by the victors, but it is also recorded by the men and women brave enough to witness the accounts firsthand. As an English teacher who frequently integrates history into my classroom, I depend on these stories to help my students better understand the background of the fiction I am introducing them to. When we study the work of war journalists and photographers, we see artists who are both veterans of war and professionals who must temporarily emotionally and mentally detach themselves from their own humanity so they can honestly record what they are witnessing. They are the reason those at home know the truth and future generations can learn from our violent pasts.
We also forget the role war has played in shaping beloved writers from JRR Tolkien to Ernest Hemingway to George Orwell. Lord Byron went off and fought in the Greek war for independence! Their experiences influenced the fiction they wrote, but there is also a certain artistry to the photographs photojournalists send home. When I taught The Things They Carried, I had my AP Language students select a US war and study the visual rhetoric of the war through photographs and advertisements. Some of the most influential pieces of war journalism have come from a photographer being in the right place at the right time and taking a photo that changed everything. The movie Civil War helps remind viewers of the personal cost of doing so.
And while it was sometimes difficult to watch as I imagined my country taking the same violent turn that we saw in the film, I discovered a newfound respect for the journalists who do this dangerous work all over the world. They all pay a price to ensure those of us safely at home have the information we need to make important decisions related to our voting, spending, and interactions with our fellow human beings. Some have even paid the ultimate price by dying in the line of duty. It was a lesson I will not soon forget.
Helping our students understand war
One of my favorite short stories when I was teaching The Things They Carried was Mark Twain’s biting satirical piece, “The War Prayer.” If you’ve never read it, I highly recommend you give it a few minutes of your time.
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I'm always incredibly happy to hear anything I wrote here or elsewhere inspired someone to engage with a piece of art. CIVIL WAR is a brilliant film, I think.