Kirsten Dunst’s Civil War has received positive reviews from critics who saw its premiere at the SXSW Festival on March 14. The film showcases the plight of journalists in a dystopian future when a Civil war shook America. Dunst plays the lead role of a journalist in this film directed by Alex Garland. The Spider-Man actress revealed that her character was based on the American journalist Marie Colvin.
Colvin was one of the famed war correspondents of her generation and she covered several conflicts across the globe. She was killed in a targeted attack while covering the siege of Homs during the Syrian Civil War.
War Correspondent Marie Colvin Influenced Kirsten Dunst’s Role In Civil War
Kirsten Dunst plays a renowned war photojournalist Lee who’s documenting the U.S. during an internal conflict in Alex Garland‘s upcoming film Civil War. When she appeared for an interview with BBC, she revealed that her character drew inspiration from Marie Colvin. Dunst added that the film is “a very moving, realistic piece about journalists.”
Director Garland heavily draws from real-life scenarios like that of Colvin to weave this fictional tale. He revealed to BBC that journalism is “under attack” in the current world and the film shows how “strange, scary, and dangerous” that can be. Garland took only influence from “old-fashioned journalists” like Colvin, who reported the happenings in war zones without any bias or opinion.
Colvin was a journalist, who reported about humanity being pushed to the unendurable in the war zones where she landed. Even during her last days in Syria, she was continuously reporting on the scale of human tragedy she saw in those war-affected cities. Colvin was hailed by many as a hero and even the local population of Homs mourned her death in the streets.
Colvin’s articles on wars around the world mainly focused on the lives of ordinary citizens in those war zones. She was never interested in sharing opinions or finding facts about the weapons that caused the destruction. In an obituary article dedicated to her in The Guardian, she was quoted saying:
“My job is to bear witness. I have never been interested in knowing what make of plane had just bombed a village or whether the artillery that fired at it was 120mm or 155mm.”
Civil War also stars Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Nick Offerman. The film will be released in theaters by A24 for a wider audience on April 12, 2024.
Amy Adams’ Lois Lane Also Took Inspiration From Marie Colvin’s Life
Chris Terrio, the Oscar-winning writer, and scriptwriter of Batman v. Superman, revealed that he based some of the scenes of Amy Adams‘ Lois Lane on Marie Colvin. Speaking to Vanity Fair, Terrio was not happy with many audiences disliking Adams’ dialogues in the film. Lois Lane’s one reply during the opening scene of the film, “I’m not a lady, I’m a journalist,” received ridicule from the viewers.
However, Terrio revealed that the dialogue was something Colvin actually told a Chechen warlord who refused to shake her hand because she was a woman. She told the warlord, “There is no woman in this room, only a journalist.” Terrio revealed that he took the story from Vanity Fair’s feature on the journalist, Marie Colvin’s Private War, written by Marie Brenner.
Terrio revealed that Lois Lane and her line in the film was kind of a tribute to Colvin. Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice is now available for streaming on Max and Netflix.
