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Sag Harbor Cinema Arts Present Tense Cinema Series: “The Second Civil War” at Pierson High School
February 24, 2019 @ 3:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Free
Present Tense Cinema Series:
An adventurous mix of new releases, classics, documentaries and rarely seen subversive comedies, which speak in a variety of ways and styles to our present political and cultural time. Each screening is followed by a conversation with a featured filmmaker or writer.
The Second Civil War
3pm | Sun, Feb 24, 2019 | Pierson High School
With a Skype conversation with director Joe Dante
Set in the U.S. in the near future, Beau Bridges plays the governor of Idaho, Jim Farley, who orders the National Guard to shut down the borders of his state to keep out new refugees from Pakistan. The late comedian Phil Hartman is an inept American president that delegates all decision-making to his advisors. Bridges won a Best Supporting Actor (Miniseries/Specials) Emmy Award for the role. Cast includes James Coburn, Elizabeth Pena, Denis Leary and Janes Earl Jones. Political opportunism, terrorism, immigration, mass shootings, outsourcing, criticism against liberal media: in the words of Joe Dante himself, today this HBO feature “plays like a documentary.” Plus, of course, there is the mad cap humor and sharp satirical touch that defines the work of the Gremlins director. Together with his Cuban crisis comedy, Matinee, and the toy soldiers fantasy, Small Soldiers, The Second Civil War can be seen as a loose trilogy where funny characters and snappy dialogue offer a fresh take on political satire.