Parents' Guide to Civil War

Parents need to know that Civil War is a grim, gruesome dystopian war drama set during an imagined Second Civil War in the United States. Seen through the eyes and lenses of a team of combat journalists (Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, Wagoner Moura, Stephen McKinley Henderson), the wartime violence is raw, gory, intense, and terrifying: Bombs catapult bodies through the air, a captive is lit on fire and burns alive, torture victims are strung up (with an eyeball barely in its socket), and assault rifles fire constantly, sometimes at close range. Bloody and maimed dead bodies are seen throughout, including hanging off bridges, stacked in a pit, and being dumped from a truck. Language is very strong throughout ("d--k," "s--t," "f--k," "Jesus," and more). The journalists smoke cigarettes, and one smokes a joint. Characters drink, sometimes from the bottle, and there's vomiting. Dunst's jaded war photographer, Lee Smith, has hardened from the horrors that she's witnessed over the decades, and writer-director Alex Garland shows viewers the worst of it—making clear the traumatizing toll this type of career path can take, but also underlining the importance of a free press and warning viewers that when a polarized country loses the ability to communicate, brutality ensues.

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