A brutal war drama about the collapse of the United States and the agony of a great power is being released in Russia. Dmitry Sokolov tells details about Alex Garland’s new large-scale project.
The Second Civil War is raging across America. The combined army of Texas and California is rushing towards Washington, where the president is entrenched in the White House along with the remnants of loyal troops. In the midst of the general bloody chaos, three experienced journalists – war photographer Lee, reporter Joel and their colleague Sammy – are going on a trip to the capital, hoping to interview the leader of the divided country before the separatists execute him under martial law. Young Jessie joins the team of professionals, dreaming of making her first big photo report. Ahead of them is a long and dangerous journey through war-torn America, which has become a branch of hell on Earth.
As always, first a few words about the main thing. “Fall of an Empire” is definitely one of the most provocative and violent films of the year. Coming-of-age drama, military action and social commentary are closely intertwined here, forming a merciless artistic canvas that is significant not only for Americans, but for all people living in an atmosphere of civil division. But before talking about the film, it is necessary to recall its director and identify important details of the historical context.
Alex Garland – an author with a short but vivid filmography. He was a horror screenwriter “28 Days Later” (it was there that the now familiar “fast zombies” appeared) and dystopian dramas “Do not let me go” about the life and death of clones, which can be disassembled for organs at any moment. And as a director, Garland already showed off his debut, philosophical fantasy “Out of the Machine”. In his projects, Garland has always provoked viewers by playing with genre forms and complex themes: take his metaphorical horror. “Male gender” or sci-fi filled with hallucinogenic shots “Annihilation”. But all his attacks and experiments were made not so much for the sake of hype, but for the sake of a call to thought. “Empire Falls” (Garland himself says that this is his last directorial work) in this context looks like a final – and grandiose – provocation, and as realistic as possible and therefore even more alarming.
The first (but far from the most obvious) advantage of the film is its excellent script, which skillfully plays out one of the worst nightmares of American society. Civil War of North and South in the 1860s became a conflict for the United States, which had a formative impact on the formation of the nation, but the price of unity turned out to be colossally high. The total number of deaths (soldiers, free civilians and slaves) ranged, according to various estimates, from 600 thousand to a million people – never before and never since has America lost so many people in a war. It is important to understand here that the conflict was caused not only by different trajectories of economic development (industrial North versus agricultural South), but primarily by differences in values. The North stood for the creation of a powerful federal center capable of ensuring expansion to the West (then still a desert frontier) and guaranteeing the abolition of slavery, viewing it as an archaic institution that undermines the morality of society: a country that oppresses half of its own population cannot be free. The South defended the idea of a weak central government, considering slavery the fundamental principle of social life: white freedom was impossible without the subordination of blacks. This long-standing dispute over different concepts of freedom was resolved on the battlefield when the ideals of the southern Confederacy were irrevocably destroyed by the onslaught of the Union’s northern armies.
Since then, the fear of a split of the nation into fiercely warring camps has become firmly entrenched in the American mass consciousness, although America experienced a split of any comparable scale only once in the last century, during the Vietnam War. At that time, the collapse of the country was far from over, but the intensity and scope of polarization in society amazed the imagination of contemporaries, so stories about the Second Civil War began to appear in booksthen in comicsand later in video games. At the same time, what is curious is that during all this time the topic has rarely arisen in films or TV series: of the notable examples, only brilliant satire can be remembered Joe Dante (“Howl”, “Gremlins”) “The Plot Against America”in which the whole mess begins with the reluctance of the state of Idaho to accept migrants.
Considering that the United States has once again experienced a sharp ideological split in recent years (Donald Trump will confirm), Garland’s proposed plot looks quite plausible. Moreover, he deliberately flirts with historical analogies: even the start date of the American release refers to the beginning of the first battle of “that” war. And although many of the details of the Civil War are left behind the scenes, the main trigger is clear from radio broadcasts and conversations: the president ran for a third term, violating the Constitution, thereby provoking Texas and California to revolt. They were hardly chosen by Garland by chance – California has a huge demographic and economic potentialand Texas in the middle of the 19th century was generally independent country. So, united, these states – especially taking into account the support of other separatists – may well become a serious military force.
But the script is good not only for its premise, but precisely as a large-scale (and very dark) illustration of the consequences of the collapse of society. Compositionally, “The Fall of an Empire” is a “road movie”, framed as a war chronicle. As the four heroes move from riot-torn New York to besieged Washington, they witness first-hand the everyday horror of combat. Garland (and here, as usual, he is not only a director, but also a screenwriter) builds the film as the story of Jesse’s coming of age against the backdrop of a war that has become commonplace for everyone around him – and therefore even more terrible.
Death, madness and fear are the norm here. There are mass graves and mass executions all around, lone psychopaths are shooting at everything that moves, and the president, who is losing power, is lavishing threats, demanding that the rebels immediately lay down their arms. Here are the joyful gas station guards ($300 Canadian per gas station!) torturing their beaten neighbors half to death. But a crazy sniper shoots everyone who drives through an abandoned amusement park. To the accompaniment of frivolous hip-hop, powerfully armed guys shoot at enemies entrenched in city neighborhoods. The entire film consists of similar episodes, interspersed with rare moments of peace when Jesse can get some sleep and at least try to comprehend the darkness he sees.
However, peace here is often illusory: in a quiet town you can be picked off by shooters on the roof, and on a deserted highway suddenly there will be a truck with survivalists ready to shoot anyone. War is “a living hell,” a famous general once said Sherman, defeated the southerners; Garland portrays this hell with meticulous, ruthless… and frighteningly beautiful.
The careful aesthetic of widespread and chaotic social disintegration is the film’s second strength. Garland’s long-time cinematographer Rob Hardy (BAFTA winner for drama “Boy A”) and editor Jake Roberts (a stack of prestigious nominations for a Western “At any cost”) work well in tandem, creating a series of impressive scenes and shots. The visuals well combine elements of a “reportage” style with gorgeous panoramic shots, in no way inferior to the works of Michael Bay or Ridley Scott. Human cruelty here contrasts sharply with the serenity of nature. Massive tanks break down concrete barriers near the White House, huge helicopters soar into the red sky at sunset, a lone car drives in the middle of the forest while fires flash in the darkness of the night – it looks majestic and eerie at the same time.
I would especially like to note the simple but stylish technique, reminiscent of the work of the main characters. In many action scenes, shootouts and battles are interrupted by black and white stills, showing what moments were captured on film by journalists. This feature – I will do without spoilers – sharply enhances the dramatic effect in the finale, when Jesse and Lee track the separatists’ breakthrough to the president’s office. As for the fighting in “Fall of an Empire”, everything is generally excellent, despite the modest budget for these days of $50 million – it is clear that that every dollar was spent wisely. They show angry crowds at police barricades in New York and city shootouts, and the film culminates with Jessie and her friends’ intense run through the bombed capital under heavy fire. The Lincoln Memorial is collapsing with a roar, tanks are plowing the White House lawn, separatist soldiers are roaming around the corners, firing at the president’s guards – all this looks in the best traditions of “Call Of Duty” (and it was also filmed with a hand-held camera).
Behind the battle scenes and the everydayness of madness, however, the third advantage of “The Fall of the Empire” is not lost – it is the dramatic component. If the content of the film is a coming-of-age drama against the backdrop of war, then this drama works thanks to the acting talents of Kirsten Dunst and Cailee Spaeny. But Garland also paints a psychological portrait of reporters as people who are forced to constantly watch countless acts of violence, unable to stop them. Finally, the film shows – albeit in broad strokes – the range of reactions to war, from defiantly ignoring it to joyfully accepting it with arms in hand. Empire Falls is also a film about how the unthinkable becomes first inevitable and then commonplace.
And this message is important not only for America, but for any country where alienation between different layers of society is growing. Using the American experience as a striking example, Garland consistently shows how fragile a peaceful life can be if it is taken as a self-evident given, never requiring any effort, sacrifice or even compromise from citizens.
