The Assassination of Western Civilization
Director Nathan Suher and his frequent screenwriting collaborator, Lenny Schwartz, like to experiment with form. Their thriller, “The Assassination of Western Civilization,” covers a lot of ground narratively, and thematically, but not geographically. Taking place in a single office, we see the world through the eyes of Mark (Phoenyx Williams), a tabloid journalist approached by many people through the course of a day, but unable to shake a particular event he witnessed- the assassination of a senator. When the FBI comes to visit him about it, only then does the reality of that event snap into focus for him.
For much of the film’s first 20 minutes, Mark is silent as people enter his office, and we learn about him through the eyes of others. We see his editor chastise him about his latest piece, saying he has 24 hours to print to come up with something new. We see his secretary brief him on who he is meeting for the day. We see his wife come to try and work things out- she senses he has been distant, and worries he is having an affair- and we also see the woman he is having an affair with. It is when a photographer comes in about something that Mark really starts to come engaged in the moment, and that interaction sets off the rest of the movie when, shortly afterwards, two FBI agents come to his office, and the three of them really begin to lay out the truth of Mark’s situation.
Even though it came after this film in terms of when Suher and Schwartz’s filmmaking timeline, watching their pandemic film, shot during quarantine, before this one was actually a good primer for how they approach this film. Like their audience watching “Far From Perfect,” Suher and Schwartz cast Mark as an observer of these people coming in and out of his office, allowing them to fill in the blanks while Mark looks on, uncertain what to make of what they’re saying at times, while also finding moments to engage with them. The narrative is unfolding in front of his eyes. This is how it is for us in our digital, social media age of information, no? It feels like we’re simply observing life, and the world around us rather than engaging with it on a personal level, not because we don’t necessarily want to engage with it, but because we don’t even know where to begin. It isn’t until it becomes personal to us that we begin to take an active role. That’s how Mark is in this film, making him an ideal audience surrogate to the surreal series of events unfolding in front of him.
Suher and Schwartz have made a tense and smart thriller. By setting it in a single room, it keeps us focused on the situation. By not presenting another point-of-view beyond Mark’s, they keep us involved in the journey the character goes on as more and more information is thrust upon him. By making their story about shadowy forces that threaten the lives of good people like Mark, they give us a front row seat to the end of western civilization as we know it, and give us a chance to wonder what we might do to prevent it. It’s very similar to the situation a lot of us find ourselves in on a daily basis.
