Thursday, August 6, 2020

90-Min HBO Max - "The Second Civil War" HBO Fails to Find Middle Ground

*Blog post started on August 5, 2020.

Well, I have gotten through the initial lab work, handled my finances at least for a couple of weeks, and made sure that everyone can watch their appropriate media in Morton, for the most part. My older sister does not own any foreign stuff, but she sees potential in the region-free DVD player. Christmas for my folks will probably be a HDMI enabled region-free DVD player because I do not want my niece and nephew to ruin the DVD/VCR combo in their room. Tape decks are such a rare commodity.

Still, I am a bit on edge in general. The knowledge that I should not self medicate every night hinders my comfort. Trying to ensure that I am not abusing the general insurance my folks are providing me leads to a less vibrant refrigerator menu. There is also the need to show my new medical team that I am attempting to treat my body better, so I need to drop a few pounds before next Tuesday.

Damn the hour lunch schedule. How much can you do with a free hour after sustaining one's energy on Jolly Ranchers? You cannot spend it eating. With that time, you can get damn near anywhere in Champaign/Urbana and be back to work on time. I suppose it is the bank just encourage commerce (Or is it for easier scheduling construction since Illinois only requires a half hour lunch.).

I hope all of you respect my decision to be sucking the life out of Hershey's non-chocolate option. If I was not doing that, the bank could not offer Dum Dums to the customers. They are a little more hesitant to ask in these unprecedented times, but most are still using drive up banking.

Those traveling with children can risk their life or their sanity. Do you give them the damn suckers or deal with the whining all the way home? If you are not local, you will be fucked as you trek back to your sub-10K hometown.

My worries also include just being bored. I will not kick the cats out of my video game chair, so yes, I have an excuse to be bored. The ex's cat seems to be the feline equivalent to me, which means (She was hedging her bets about a break up two-years prior.) I am constantly reminded of my loneliness. Talking to myself is something I do enough of. Now it feels like I am doing it in stereo.

Who knows? Skimble might be inadvertently doubling my angst. This is what I will blame for extra nervousness/reluctance to please my parents. Perhaps that may have skewed my perception of a Mom movie suggestion, "The Second Civil War".

The Second Civil War (1997; 1 hour 36 minutes)


The chaos throughout the world has become too much for most Americans to handle. For example, war in China lead to a refugee population becoming the majority in Rhode Island. When it comes to Asia, there are never an abundance of events to create asylum seekers, the most recent being an Indian nuclear assault on Pakistan.

There are now planes full of orphans who need hope and a new home. The Federal response is to ship them to Idaho. As these future Americans load their flights, the state's governor, Jim Farley, decides to close their borders. With the shelters already built, Idaho is the only place they can go, so armed forces are deployed. After this escalation, Farley lays down the gauntlet. If the feds do not withdraw their demands, Idaho will secede from the Union.

"The Second Civil War" is a poignant TV movie 23 years after its release. It is a satire about identity politics when they were just becoming a post civil rights issue (i.e. Fear of White America being lost to the values of minorities). If the film would have tried to make a statement or solely focus on hilarity, it would be worth suggesting.

This is essentially a TV movie despite its R-rating. The feature has a strong cast and a great director in Joe Dante, but aside from the performances of the adversaries (Beau Bridges and Gov. Farley and Phil Hartman as the President), no one is given a chance to shine. When Dennis Leary shows up as a reporter with Dick Miller as his cameraman, you hope for a madcap Dante film like a "Gremlins" or "Matinee". Miller turns out to be a neutral character, so his talents are wasted while Dante's chaotic touch is no where to be seen.

Without providing a challenge to the director, perennial TV-movie writer Martyn Burke's script could have been directed by anyone. This script could work very well as a play if it only focused on the goings on between the adversaries and their respective cabinets and influencers. These are the only scenarios where the satire works. The interactions amongst parties allows for blatant impolitical correctness that serves to highlight the failures of state and federal governments. Unfortunately, Burke wants you to see the events through the eyes of a news network that is only motivated by ratings.

Fox News and MSNBC had not found their footing by playing to one side of the political aisle or the other. The news network in this feature is out to please everyone which fails to work when the two important angles focus on selfishness. It ends up failing to fit between or unite the two other stories. When most of the cast that lead me to the title are part of this angle, my disappointment was massive.

I guess you might say it is Kubrickian, but you need something wild to occur to leave us comfortable with a sad perception of the finale. Stanley Kubrick wisely gave us Slim Pickens riding a bomb and Peter Cushing announcing, "Mein Fuhrer! I can walk!"

Is there anything more disappointing that a great concept for a movie falling totally flat? I cannot say that identity politics is a great concept. Anyone who preaches that is an asshole. The idea of going to war with Idaho is.

"The Second Civil War" focuses too much on the negative effects of how politics would evolve, and its failure as a satire essentially tells us to just accept that we are going to hate those who are different than us. This feature was a waste of talent and lacks the nerve to be a worthwhile viewing experience. I guess there is nothing worse than dropping the ball. This is something I should have known being a lifelong Cubs fan, but thanks HBO Films for the reinforcement of that.

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