Review of The Second Civil War (1997)
Seen in 2017.
The control of politics by the PR industry and broadcast TV as Idaho closes its borders to immigrants, in a near future of massive immigration to and ethnic strife within the US.
Satire. A lot of the individual roles are good: Phil Hartman’s Simpsons-esque weak-willed president, Beau Bridges’ love-sick nativist governor, Dan Hedaya’s cynical news producer, Ron Perlman’s straight man, and Robert Picardo’s marginal technician. James Earl Jones tries to rescue the larger script with a sane lament for the idea of the melting pot, saying he’s forgotten whether his wife is Jewish, remembering only that they met on a bus—i.e. in a political protest for integration—but this doesn’t ring true under the ludicrous premises. A weaker alternative to Wag the Dog (1997).