Product Details

• Actors: Beau Bridges, Joanna Cassidy, Phil Hartman, James Earl Jones, James Coburn
• Directors: Joe Dante
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Language: English, Spanish
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Hbo Home Video
• VHS Release Date: May 5, 1998
• Run Time: 96 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 630461862X
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #26,483 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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  #15 in	Video > Television > HBO > Comedy
  #98 in	Video > Comedy > Black Comedy

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
What happens when the Governor of Idaho decides to close his state borders to fight a wave of immigrants, but is caught up in a stormy love affair with his fiery Hispanic news reporter mistress? The answer may well be the start of THE SECOND CIVIL WAR.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Strangelove" Quality Political Black Comedy, November 25, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Graz, Austria) - See all my reviews

"The Second Civil War" accomplishes what "Wag the Dog" tried and failed to do. While the latter, despite great performances, becomes a stale one-joke movie, the former takes ever more outrageous twists and turns. And everything that happens is frighteningly within the realm of possibility! Best in-joke: James Earl Jones, the "voice" of CNN, plays a reporter for the CNN clone in the movie.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Awsome movie!, February 13, 2002

By A Customer

Directed by Joe Dante this brilliant black humor comedy satirizes everything, from racism, to imigration, religion, politics and the power of the media. In a near future, the governor of Idaho(Beau Briges) decides to close his state borders to protect the "american way of life", more precisely his own. The situation turns into a circus when a plane of pakistani refuges fleeing from a nuclear war tries to land in Idaho. And so starts this big mess that might lead to civil war. As the story progresses we see it from various points of view like the news network triyng to explore the situation for higher viewings rates, the imconpetent president and his advisors and governor Farley that sees himself in a situation where there is no turning back. Great performances from James Earl Jones and James Coburn.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unbelievable HBO Movie!!!, April 29, 2006

By	gardener97 (Atlanta) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Second Civil War (DVD)

Starts off funny, moves to hilarious and end up very disturbing. An incredible stellar cast. Made in 1997 and for a number of years HBO has pretended it never heard of this film and it is not for sale (today) in the HBO store. It was once sold for a very short time on laser disk and vhs. Then it was pulled and denied. Suddenly it has surfaced on dvd. I figure I'd grab a copy on dvd before it disappears again.

Excellent movie - well crafted and definitely not 'politically correct'.