Alex Garland Talks Feeling "Strange" Releasing 'Civil War' During an Election Year | THR Video - video Dailymotion

Hollywood Journal

Director Alex Garland admits to THR on the red carpet of the Civil War premiere that he feels strange releasing this film during an election year. Plus, he shares his reasoning for paring up California and Texas.

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00:00Congratulations on this. You wrote this in 2020. How are you now feeling releasing this

00:05four years later in this climate and six months before the election?

00:10It's odd, actually. It's slightly weird that it took four years. COVID obviously pulled two years

00:20and well, no, we squeezed in before the strikes. So we were post-COVID before strikes. But yeah,

00:27it's strange. And it's really strange, just the sense of déjà vu, that it was what happened to

00:38the intervening four years in some respects. I think the film was written really not just about

00:45this country, about a weird state we're in to do with division and polarization and extremism,

00:54the things that flow from populism. And I don't think I would have imagined that if I had projected,

01:05at the moment I wrote it, I don't think I imagined it would take four years to get to this point.

01:09But also if it did take four years, things would be so similar, so surprising, maybe.

01:16And putting California and Texas on the same side has kind of gotten a lot of attention.

01:20Why did you kind of decide to do that?

01:22I mean, I'm not exactly sure I should explain that too much, but obviously it was intentional.

01:35Partly to get around a kind of reflexive, polarizing position that people might fall into.

01:44That's one thing, but actually that's not the main thing. The main thing is to do with how the president

01:51is presented and what can be inferred from that. So the president is acting in a fascistic manner,

02:03has dismantled one of the legal systems that could threaten him, has made themselves into a three-term

02:11president, which is constitution smashing, and is being violent to his own citizens, essentially.

02:19So then it's saying that two states that have a different political position have said,

02:25our political difference is less important than this. And then the counter to that is,

02:34if you cannot conceive of that, what you're saying is that your polarized political position

02:40would be more important than a fascist president, which, when you put it like that, I would suggest

02:48is insane. That's an insane position to hold. So it's a sort of a bleak commentary. And I think

02:58that's how the film works in general. It's not explaining this stuff, but it's also not avoiding this stuff.

03:04It's present, but it's via conversation, if you see what I mean, maybe.

Alex Garland Talks Feeling "Strange" Releasing 'Civil War' During an Election Year | THR Video

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