Nick Offerman plays the role of the President of the United States in Alex Garland’s latest dystopian war film, Civil War. He does a fantastic job of bringing out the character of a directorial president who is currently in his third term. While the film has been receiving positive feedback from critics, fans are finding it difficult to wrap their heads around the lack of political discussion in the film.
This is simply because Civil War revolves around such a political topic which makes the absence of any real conversation about the same a little unrealistic. However, this is exactly what Nick Offerman loves about the film, and states that it is his absolute favorite thing in the entire movie.
Nick Offerman’s Favorite Thing about Civil War
Civil War is a bit vague when it comes to politics but this is all on purpose. The film’s writer and director Alex Garland has previously spoken about why he chose to go down this path but we’ll come back to this later. For now, let’s take a look at Nick Offerman’s opinion on the same.
Talking to Consequence, Offerman stated that the lack of politics and not taking sides in the film is his “absolute favorite thing.” He recalled calling Garland after reading the script and praising him for her brilliantly transcending the conversation about politics.
“I called Alex and said, ‘This is amazing — you don’t really know what side this President is on. You never really know what has happened, who did what to whom, how did we get to this place?’ He transcends that conversation, with which we are all so obsessed in this day and age.”
It is not as if Offerman wasn’t aware of what the reviews would have to say about this. However, it doesn’t seem like he cares too much about it.
“It’s funny, a lot of the people reviewing the film are angered by this, where they’re like, ‘I really would like to weigh in with my political views. Like, I feel cheated that I saw this movie, and I don’t get to like be a smarty-pants about how it relates to modern-day politics.”
The Parks and Recreation added that if the film was to give into a more political storyline, it would have ended up as a failure since people would constantly be taking sides and getting mad.
“What he is addressing is that absolute divisiveness. And if I think that if the film had political specificity, it would be a failure. One side or the other would get mad and say, ‘This is propaganda for him or for him or for her.’ And instead the movie disallows that, and if you’re able to silence the pundits in your head, and take it in as a work of art, then you receive it just as a citizen of humanity, and not of any political faction.”
Offerman’s opinion seems to be quite valid and it looks like the vague approach is working well for the film.
Alex Garland Says the Film Was “Apolitical” on Purpose
While A24’s Civil War has received heat due to the lack of a political point of view, Garland states that it was all on purpose. Talking to Inverse, the filmmaker stated that he decided to let the audience decipher the film for themselves and come up with their own interpretations instead of shoving an opinion down their throats.
“People keep saying the film is not political. I think they’re just missing the point. It’s just not stating politics in the way they want it to be stated. I thought, it’s actually not necessary because audiences ideally would make their own interpretation: ‘What threatens us? What is there around right now that might lead us to this place?’ And I leave that to them.”
So, even though Civil War is not as political as fans would have expected, it still has a political undertone that leaves the viewers thinking for a long period of time.
Civil War is currently playing in theatres.
