The last time global hysteria reached fever pitch—with war in the Middle East and Asia, the threat of Russia in Europe, and mass protests everywhere—movies helped pop the thermometer and push Western culture to the edge. Directors strove to catch the blood-flecked wind in Zeitgeist-y sensations such as Jean-Luc Godard’s apocalyptic art film Weekend (1967), Dennis Hopper’s archetypal biker indie, Easy Rider (1969), and John Avildsen’s black comedy Joe (1970), which made Peter Boyle a star as a homicidal working-class antihero who hates liberals and hippies.
Those films’ latest heir, Civil War, depicts America coming apart the day after tomorrow. It may be too deliberate and stark to ignite comparable excitement and debate. But it is a devastating destruction spectacle.
