I don’t know if Civil War is meant to have a clear real-world corollary for the conflict. In the movie Texas and California are aligned against the president and Florida and most of the NW states (including Idaho and Ohio) are breakaway factions that seem aligned against the federal forces as well (the implication that Idaho and Ohio are in the communist state alliance is pretty fucking laughable)
i almost didn’t watch the movie because all the reviews i read were stuck on this one point but …
… i’m pretty sure the producers intentionally avoided real-life groups to keep the movie focused on the topic of journalism and to avoid it being used in exactly this type of political fearmongering.
it was clear to me that this was true during the paramilitary soldier hostage scene; that was the closest the film ever got to contemporary political alignment and even then it was vague enough not to point fingers.
i’m so glad the movie i intended to see was sold out and i ended up watching civil war instead because it’s one of those movies that sticks with you and i’ve haven’t felt that way about a movie in a long time.
kirsten dunst was the reason why i went with this movie over the other options i had at that moment and i suspected that the movie would be at least decent from the start since i’ve liked every movie she’s ever been in; i would have seen this movie on opening day were it not for all the reviews i mentioned earlier.