‘War Game’ is J6 on steroids
In January 2025, the Nat´l Guard joins with the insurgents, this documentary is about a real war simulation the US govt did in 2023
youtube.com/watch?v=5n6xDGpZJ20
‘War Game’ is J6 on steroids
In January 2025, the National Guard joins with the insurrectionists.
Story by Michael O'Sullivan
Concerned by the increasing radicalization of members of the U.S. military in the wake of the January 6 insurrection, three retired generals wrote a December 2021 Washington Post opinion piece urging the Defense Department to “war-game the next potential post-election insurrection or coup attempt to identify weak spots.” Yikes! The next one?
Although Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has proposed policy changes to address the threat of extremism in the armed forces, little has been done. So a veterans advocacy group called Vet Voice Foundation accepted the invitation, organizing a live training exercise that took place on January 6, 2023.
Set in an all-too-easily-imagined future, during the election certification process of January 2025, the six-hour simulation would involve a bipartisan group of policymakers from government, the military and the intelligence community playing roles in the response to a mock insurrection at the U.S. capital — with the added twist that this time, members of the National Guard have switched sides, enabling the riot, not quelling it.
Documentarians Jesse Moss (“Boys State”) and Tony Gerber (“Full Battle Rattle”) got wind of the war game and asked for permission to film the unscripted six-hour operation. Vet Voice said yes. The filmmakers contributed Hollywood-style sets, makeup and lighting to what might otherwise have been an academic run-through.
Seated around this room is an incredible diversity of professional'War Game' follows a simulated insurrection on January 6, 2025
The result is the nail-biter film “War Game,” a strange hybrid of fiction and fact. Billed as a “docu-thriller,” it features real archival footage of Jan. 6, 2021, alongside such Washington celebrities as retired general Wesley Clark, former senator Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and FBI agent Peter Strzok — all playacting as officials from the White House, Pentagon, Cabinet and other government agencies.
‘War Game’ is January 6 all over again
The action takes place in the aftermath of a contested presidential election. The fictional incumbent, John Hotham (played by former Montana governor Steve Bullock), claims to have won. So does his opponent, Robert Strickland (actor Chris Coffey), fueled by misinformation spouted by an ex-military, Michal Flynn-like demagogue (actor Ralph Brown), dubbed the “patriarch” of a Christian nationalist organization called the Order of Columbus. The bad guys, or Red Team, led by Army veteran Kris Goldsmith, have six hours to derail the certification. The Blue Team, led by Bullock’s Hotham and a situation room full of advisers, must prevent a junta without overreacting.
As a simultaneously slick and provocative entertainment, “War Game” is chilling and a tad infuriating, offering a white-knuckle ride — “Civil War” for policy wonks — that may feel a bit too fresh in the memory for viewers who are still traumatized by the real thing.
But “War Game” is also meant as a teaching tool, not just a vicarious indulgence in dystopian fearmongering.
And that’s the problem. As bloodcurdling as the film’s fictional scenario is, the exercise is supposed to be a teaching tool. Yet no one who experiences “War Game” seems to be in a position to do something about the looming threat — least of all those of us sitting in the audience.
“War Games” raises some good questions, such as: How do you put down a coup without creating martyrs? The game’s organizers make clear that invoking the Insurrection Act, referred to in the film as the “nuclear option,” is a lose-lose proposition. As one of the film’s mock insurrectionists notes, the sight of U.S. troops gunning down self-described patriotic Americans is not a good look.
But there’s a bigger question that remains unanswered: Who will fix the problem? At the end of “War Game,” an on-screen title tell us that a confidential analysis of the exercise depicted on screen — a kind of cinematic postmortem, if you will — has been made available to officials in Congress, the White House and the Pentagon. It might be more persuasive if they just made them all watch the movie.
Unrated. At Landmark’s E Street Cinema. Contains strong language and scenes of violence. 94 minutes.
Story by Michael O'Sullivan
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/war-game-is-january-6-all-over-again/ar-AA1pDxw5