Alex Garland - “Civil War” | The Daily Show

please welcome Alex Garland how you doing buddy thank you for coming wow thank you for coming uh that's such an intense scene uh and I loved your film the whole thing is intense right okay good there was a lot of assumptions about the film just based on the trailer you wrote it you directed it what do you want to tell us about Civil War uh you mean how do I want to sell it I um uh I people heard Civil War and they saw the trailer and they immediately went you know it was it's this and it's this and and I all right what I wanted to do was make something compelling and exciting and engaging and all that stuff yeah but also lead to some kind of conversation have a thought process yeah uh not all films do that not all films have to do that that's that's fine but that that's what this one is aiming for and it's you know it it's set in a world where Division and polarized politics have led to some really strange authoritarian State and yeah the country is disintegrated and you're you're I believe you're purposely vague about how we got here who's fighting who was that was that on purpose am I right to assume that uh sort of yes and no I think I go for sort of yeah it's sort of um uh it is very vague about some stuff yeah and it is very very specific about other stuff and I think because it's vague about some things it creates an assumption that there's an overall vagueness but actually it's quite on point in some areas you know that that itself is a vague statement well yeah you answered it you know one of the things that I felt so much in this film was was so many of these American places that I love born and raised in America is the golf course is the football stadium and that scene we just saw I mean here's a sniper trying to take someone out on a golf course while Christmas music is playing in the background I mean it's like holy as an American I said I don't want this to happen I don't want us to be in a civil war you shouldn't want it to happen I I don't right I right I don't want it to happen either I I have to say also see with talking about it singers I appear to be on a television show right now I ought to say yeah you are exactly um it's not it really isn't just America it's set in America but this situation exists in my country and in many European countries the Middle East and Asia and South America and I chose America because everybody looks to America right um but but the things it's talking about are quite Global as a Brit was it a little bit fun watching America Crush itself okay I no honestly I hate it yeah I don't I U by the way to be serious nobody on the planet apart from Psychopaths needs disintegration in this country they don't nobody on the planet wants division in this country they want stability and decency and uh um yeah no for sure for real I I I think sometimes when you're sitting on your couch at home on Twitter and we've got our political identities and there's kind of this cute idea of oh we're going to a civil war but when you watch your film it's terrifying dude and it's like oh no no no no no no we should be having these conversations one one scene comes to mind in particular the Lincoln Memorial right I mean it's in the trailer so I don't want to it gets exploded yeah don't don't blow it up it's a good thing yeah exactly and it honestly I I I went there as a seventh grader with my middle school and I just was like holy what how would I feel if this happened of all the places you could have blown up in this film and a lot of places do blow up but the Lincoln Memorial I mean tell me why that was important to you well uh actually because uh particularly towards the end of the film uh I wanted the audience having gone through hopefully a compelling engaging story to suddenly feel a really strong sense of aversion yes like a really deep instinctive sense of sort of being appalled yes and um although it was written before January the 6th there was something about January the 6th that it was a disgrace right it was various things but one of the things was it was a disgrace and it provoked a feeling of uh whatever is happening this shouldn't be happening this just has a has like a deep wrong about it and and this is this is a kind this is that RIT large I suppose and I guess it says a lot about you that you take great pleasure in giving us these things that should not be happening there's no pleasure in it no no no it's it's just uh humility and my job that leads me to do these things yeah um it's uh but I I we haven't spoken about the role of the press in this film and it's in the clip as well but um I mean that's the center character is is Pres because on a personal level I'm completely over completely over this demonization and villainization of the press it's been happening a lot yeah it it's it comes from politicians and it comes from within social media which is this weird public discourse space that doesn't really relate to how people talk to each other at all we all know that right and um and in some places it happens within the Press but whatever it is we need journalists we need trusted journalists in pretty much exactly the same way we need doctors right so I'm I'm done with this thing and I thought I I when I was setting out to make it someone said don't make it about journalists everybody hates journalists and I thought this is just nuts it's just nuts any I mean is that a leap for me to say if we got journalism we lead to Civil War you know what right I I I will be very serious I know this is a comedy show I'm not very good at are you kidding me I mean I haven't I haven't I haven't told the joke in the first two accent thing good so so here's the thing yeah there's a system of checks and balances yeah government has checks and balances executive Judiciary legislature and then there's the fourth estate there's journalists watching that that's a system of checks and balances which is not arbitrary right it's for a reason it's guarding against something it's guarding against something real if you erode it if you erode government if you erode the people watching the government the thing you're guarding against may just turn up and what is that thing yeah actually in Europe we know exactly what it looks like because fascism there came out of democracy and a lot of a lot of fascists don't know they're fascist they kind of know it's a bad word right they don't identify as fascists it's not a thing they I know some do but most don't right right and um it's actually really a state of mind that that people drift into yeah as opposed to you know following some kind of swasti of flag it's not really that and and it is actually a danger it it it's easy for to watch this film and to go America watch out America this Civil War could be yours but really I think you briefly stated this isn't just the United States I we had a we had a prime minister a guy called Johnson sure it was interesting thing he was manifestly a liar it was it was completely obvious he was a liar and journalists would point this out but they didn't have any traction it didn't do anything it just sort of bounced off him that that was that was weird so your country my country many other countries I I I wish I had a joke up my sleeve no you don't need a joke I I uh but but you you you you swore right this ised up this is actually up and it is dangerous dude I watched your film and then I got in a cab in Manhattan and I was like I want to get the I want to go to the country right now and just like I mean it it is very powerful it's an anti-war film for sure uh and is there a lesson I should be taking should I be having more conversations with people that ideologically I'm different than he here's my feeling right most people are not extremists yeah most people just are not yeah they don't really have a voice extremists have occupied noise and I think the key thing to be um thank you thank you for coming to chat with us thank you for your film it's it's tremendous I hope everybody sees it civil war is in theaters and IMAX Nationwide April 12th Alex [Music] G

Channel: The Daily Show

Views: 249,829

Keywords: the daily show, the daily show episodes, comedy central, comedians, comedian, funny video, comedy videos, funny clips, daily show, news, politics, michael kosta, civil war, civilwarmovie, alex garland, ex machina, filmmaking, a24, kirsten dunst, nick offerman, journalism, jesse plemons, dystopian movies

Id: Bt9cKfiaAmQ

Length: 9min 32sec (572 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 10 2024