The Second Civil War
| The Second Civil War | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Black comedy, political satire |
| Written by | Martyn Burke |
| Directed by | Joe Dante |
| Starring | |
| Theme music composer | Hummie Mann |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 1 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Chip Diggins Barry Levinson Guy Riedel |
| Cinematography | Mac Ahlberg |
| Editor(s) | Marshall Harvey |
| Running time | 98 minutes |
| Distributor | HBO Studios |
| Release | |
| Original network | HBO |
| Original release |
|
The Second Civil War is a satirical comedy film made for the HBO cable television network and first shown on March 15, 1997.
Directed by Joe Dante, the film is a satire about anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States.
The film also stars James Earl Jones, Elizabeth Peña and Denis Leary as reporters for a CNN like cable network, ("NN"); Phil Hartman as the U.S. President, James Coburn as his chief political advisor, and William Schallert as the Secretary of Defense. Brian Keith portrayed a general in one of his final movie roles.
The film is set in a United States in which foreign immigration has skyrocketed: The mayor of Los Angeles speaks only in Spanish, Rhode Island is populated mostly by Chinese-Americans, and Alabama has a congressman from India. Politics is openly reduced to a matter of catering to various ethnic groups for their votes - the Alabama congressman will only support the president if his state receives more money for Hindu temples. When an atomic weapon is used in Pakistan, an international organization makes plans to bring orphans to Idaho.
Idaho governor Jim Farley (Bridges) orders the state's National Guard to close its borders, as Idaho has already received more than a million refugees; he acknowledges this even though the Governor himself routinely indulges in Mexican food, Mexican soap operas, and an affair with a Mexican-American reporter (Peña). Despite the best efforts of his press secretary Jimmy Cannon (Kevin Dunn), Farley remains largely oblivious to the national crisis he's the center of, since Farley is more concerned with rekindling his romance with his mistress rather than dealing with national matters.
...
Wikipedia