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Post by the Scribe on Feb 18, 2024 5:45:55 GMT
“War Game” Examines the Real Possibility of Another Insurrection in the U.S.
festival.sundance.org/blogs/war-game-examines-the-real-possibility-of-another-insurrection-in-the-u-s/
January 25, 2024
PARK CITY, UTAH – JANUARY 23: (L–R) Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber attend the 2024 Sundance Film Festival “War Game” premiere at Prospector Square Theatre on January 23, 2024, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Michael Hurcomb/Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)
By Lucy Spicer
In December of 2021, The Washington Post published an opinion piece by three retired generals who posited that another coup like the one on January 6 could take place after the 2024 presidential election — and this, time it could succeed.
The op-ed suggests several steps that should be taken in order to prevent an insurrection. One of those suggestions is that the Department of Defense should war-game another post-election coup in order to identify weak spots. On January 6, 2023, the nonpartisan nonprofit Vet Voice Foundation conducted such an exercise, which Sundance alums Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber capture with all the intensity of a political thriller in their new film War Game, premiering January 23 at Prospector Square Theatre in Park City, Utah, as part of the Special Screenings section of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
The scenario: President John Hotham (played by former governor of Montana Steve Bullock) has just been reelected, and his opponent, the extreme Gov. Robert Strickland (played by actor Chris Coffey), is contesting the results. Strickland calls for an uprising among his followers, including those who are active duty members of the U.S. military. The president-elect and his Cabinet have six hours to ensure that Congress certifies the results of the election.
“The most important consideration was that the role-players themselves were people who had sat in these seats before, or had sat in very close seats to them, so they could operate in the way you see in the film,” says Janessa Goldbleck, Marine Corps veteran and CEO of Vet Voice Foundation, at the film’s post-premiere Q&A. “Sometimes I find myself watching it thinking, ‘Did we script this?’ Because they seem like they’re acting, but they’re not. They’re being themselves, they’re using their decades of experience to inform their decision-making.”
Among the role-players in the situation room are former senator Heidi Heitkamp (senior advisor to the president), former Army secretary Louis Caldera (secretary of defense), retired Maj. Gen. Linda Singh (chief of the National Guard Bureau), and many others, who together bring many years of expertise to this unscripted exercise.
Though the film keeps us aware that we’re watching a fictional scenario, the tension and the stakes feel real. Part of that is due to the cinematic way in which the project was shot and edited, but the sense of urgency largely comes from the role-players themselves, who approach the situation with utmost seriousness.
“We were able to assemble this extraordinary crew of 80 people for one day in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2023, and really exhume the ghosts of January 6, 2021,” says Moss at the Q&A. “We were in the same hotel where the insurrectionists themselves had stayed, and we were reclaiming it, I think, for democracy.”
“Literally doing this on January 6 probably impacted all of us,” adds Bullock. “When you look at five different presidential administrations — Democrats and Republicans — the expertise of the people that actually participated in this was both, in some ways, stunning but heartening, because all of them, even if we have political differences, were thinking what we share is a true belief in this country and its institutions.”
The filmmakers and the participants hope that War Game serves as a call to action. “We have a Congress that is deeply divided. But, more importantly, I think it’s cowardly,” says Heitkamp. “They’re swearing an oath to themselves. And we need to shame them. We need to hold them responsible, and we need to vote them out of office, because if there are no political consequences for gaslighting January 6, then it’s going to be repeated. And so it’s time that movies like this spark dialogue and conversation.”
To see more from the 2024 Festival, click here. sundance.org/gallery |
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Post by the Scribe on Feb 18, 2024 5:49:02 GMT
Meet the Artist 2024: Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber on "War Game"
Sundance Institute
2,236 views Jan 16, 2024 #meettheartist #sundancefilmfestival
Meet Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber, the filmmakers of "War Game," which is playing in the Special Screenings section at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Presented by Acura. #meettheartist #sundancefilmfestival
See the full 2024 Sundance Film Festival Program: festival.sundance.org/program |
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Post by the Scribe on Feb 18, 2024 5:54:22 GMT
War Game
Deadline Hollywood
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Post by the Scribe on Feb 18, 2024 6:03:35 GMT
related, kinda, sorta
CIVIL WAR Trailer (2024) Jesse Plemons, Kirsten Dunst
ONE Media
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Post by the Scribe on Feb 18, 2024 6:30:03 GMT
SUNDANCE ‘War Game’ Review: Insurrection Simulation Documentary Plays Out Like an Aaron Sorkin-Themed Escape Room
www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/war-game-review-1234947206/
Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber's insurrection simulation is both an argument for why qualified experts should be put in charge and an explanation for why they so often aren't.
BY CHRISTIAN ZILKO
JANUARY 23, 2024 5:00 PM
"War Game"Sundance Film Festival
Few political phrases have outlived their usefulness faster than “establishment,” a moniker that’s still applied to the kind of moderate insiders who once ruled Washington despite the fact that populism has infiltrated every major American institution. It’s laughable to suggest that someone like Mitt Romney — sitting alone in the Senate cafeteria hoping a lost passerby might stop and listen to his Burkean ideas over a glass of milk— is somehow still an “establishment Republican,” while a former president running for a second term whose allies control the entire GOP apparatus remains an “outsider.” But that’s the terminology used in emails soliciting donations to pay Donald Trump’s legal bills, so the rest of us are apparently stuck with it.
“War Game,” the new documentary from nonfiction heavy-hitters Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber, is a portrait of the “establishment” in exile. The film follows a recognizable group of national security experts — ranging from former senators and presidential also-rans to Trump whistleblowers who found second careers as CNN pundits — whose concern about America’s preparedness for another January 6th prompts them to stage an elaborate war game simulating a more serious insurrection. The role players came from both major parties and served in a combined five presidential administrations, but they all embody the civility, intellectualism, prudence, and patriotism that was once a prerequisite to reach the heights of American power.
Picture what would happen if Aaron Sorkin took a job as an escape room designer, and you’ll have a decent picture of the game being played. Former Montana Governor Steve Bullock pretends to be president, while his faux cabinet (including the likes of former senators Heidi Heitkamp and Doug Jones and a slew of retired military leaders) ushers him through a series of tumultuous scripted events in a mock Situation Room. On the day that congress is expected to certify a highly contested 2024 election, his narrowly defeated opponent instructs his cult-like supporters to storm state capitols around the nation in an attempt to seize power by force.
The stakes are significantly higher than the last American insurrection, as this one has the support of a large portion of the U.S. military. As the would-be president fends off a coup, the advisers are forced to weigh their most severe legal options as they attempt to secure a peaceful transfer of power without sacrificing the country’s founding principles. To win, they must create safe enough conditions for congress to reconvene and certify the election before a timer runs out.
The exercise, which was designed as a stress test for America’s checks and balances and submitted as an independent report to the Pentagon, was certainly worth doing. But it’s hard to look past the ridiculousness of watching it as a movie. Moss and Gerber’s film would have benefitted from a Brechtian approach that emphasized the fakeness of the game while focusing on the process of assembling such an elaborate thought exercise. But too much of the film takes the opposite approach, combining crisply composed shots and tense editing to present something that resembles a real political thriller.
The choice traps the film in its own form of artistic purgatory, as we’re left watching something that is neither real nor fictional. It’s abundantly clear that the unfolding scenario isn’t actually happening, yet the people acting it out aren’t trained performers who could illicit any emotional investment. It’s hard to imagine anyone genuinely wondering if Steve Bullock’s presidential LARP session is going to end with him failing to save the day and restore “West Wing” values, but that appears to be what the film is going for.
For those of us who long for a day when bookish moderates with deep principles had an iron grip on America’s nuclear codes, watching “War Room” is often a sad experience. On a personal level, I would be much happier living in a world where Bullock and Heitkamp made all of our national security decisions without fear that the MyPillow guy could usurp them if a few hundred Pennsylvania voters stayed home. But the film’s pompous self-importance left me with the sinking feeling that those very voters might be even harder to reach the next time around. Unless someone can invent a time machine and ensure that social media, small dollar fundraising, and open primaries never get invented, it’s hard to see a future where real life plays out as calmly as it does in the film.
“War Room” makes a skillful argument for why competent experts should be put in charge of things, but its fatal flaw is the way it illustrates why they so rarely are these days. There’s a certain breed of political junkie who will be profoundly moved by the film, but that person already follows all of its “cast” members on Threads and has purchased 60 percent of their memoirs. Every scene simply preaches to the converted. Watching these former leaders act out what they would do if they returned to power, it’s fair to wonder if their time would have been better spent figuring out how to get there.
Grade: C+
“War Game” premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution. |
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