A Good Death (and Life): Civil War the Movie

I think many of you all have seen the Civil War movie in 2024 by Alex Garland. It's a dystopian near future movie following a group of embedded reporters and photographers crossing America to DC as the literal modern & very violent new civil war in America winds down. 

It’s chaotic and atrocity-filled which is tough to take in. As one of the soldiers in a scene says: “No one’s giving us orders, man. Someone’s trying to kill us, we’re trying to kill them.”

If you haven’t, it’s worth watching. If you haven’t and want to, there will be spoilers here. 

There is that infamous scene, when they face some armed militia members at a mass burial site, one of the journalists says: “We’re American”, the militia man responds: “What kind of an American are you?” He starts threatening them, even executing their Hong Kong journalist friends until the older journalist mentor Sammy drives their truck over and runs the militia men down. It’s a pretty shocking scene. 

But it’s the scene after, the montage after that really stuck with me. We find out their older mentor friend Sammy is shot while rescuing them. The scene is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YMLtx3xA4A. Sammy is bleeding out in the back, looking out at the window while they drive through a burning forest at night. The accompanying song “Breaker’s Roar” by Sturgill Simpson is just perfect. I’ve watched it like 50 times trying to process it. 

I don’t know if there ever is a good death, especially from a gunshot wound. But the more I think about it, maybe this is it. Sammy died saving his friends, people he considers family. And during his last hours, he is with them. He has lived a full life and as he drives through the forest fire, you see him smiling. It’s hauntingly beautiful and he reaches out to touch all the sparks outside. 

Maybe that’s all a man can ask for. Living a full life. Passing on your hard earned knowledge, protecting your friends and family. Dying while surrounded by beauty. That is not nothing. 

These are the lessons I take from this movie. And also more practically, make sure you are fit, well trained and well-armed so no one messes with you!