War Game Featured, Reviews Film Threat
Aug 7, 2024
Directed by Tony Gerber and Jesse Moss, War Game is a live-action simulation of drastic civil unrest. An emergency cabinet huddles within a Dr. Strangelove-style bunker while a hotly contested election certification turns seriously violent above. The ‘actors’ are nearly all real veterans, politicians, police, and military, given six hours to either start (red team) or stop (blue team) an outbreak of civil violence.
Somewhat like Sucker Punch with tasteful tailoring, there are many different layers and perspectives playing out. There is the game itself, a West Wing-style thriller, and then there are talking heads sequences where some detailed discussion of the legal topics goes on. Finally, a handful of actors have been sprinkled in, the most fun of which is Ralph Brown, he of the Camberwell Carrot in Withnail & I, here channeling a Mandarin-style zealot called the Patriarch.
“The only reason they didn’t use their guns was they weren’t ordered to.”
So says former US Marine Chris Jones, an eyewitness to the Trumpist mob that broke into the US Capitol on Jan 6th. And it is this tumultuous event that is used as a blueprint for this documentary/simulation. Of course, the qualifier ‘only’ can never apply to orders for killing your own police. Such things are a gulf away from our actual civil discord, but Jones spent two tours in Afghanistan before taking up journalism to cover the riot for a news source in West Virginia, so he has seen conflict at its nightmare extremes.
“…given six hours to either start (red team) or stop (blue team) an outbreak of civil violence. “
His disgust when recollecting it is impressive. He wanted to ‘start swinging’ because the capital is ‘my house.’ Despite his good intentions, this makes him sound rather like what he condemns, but that reflects balance and genuine humanity instead of just ‘the script.’
Similarly, Gov. Steve Bullock, who here plays a fictional US President Hotham throughout the simulation, delivers a grave warning to the camera about the potential for Presidential abuse of the Insurrection Act. But when he says “appalling misuse,” his face lights up. He might as well be saying, ‘blow job.’ It’s as if the very thought Palpatines his a*s for a second. It is a nice reminder that American politics is for keeps, with stratospheric power and consequence in abundance.
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