Stop me if you’ve heard this one before — a red-state governor, in the midst of a nationwide immigration crisis, defies the president and shuts down the state’s borders to prevent more immigrants from coming in. This leads other states suffering from the effects of mass illegal immigration to rally around the state defying the president, and they all send troops to the state’s borders. Incredibly, this is the plot of “The Second Civil War,” a made-for-HBO movie in 1997. The film languishes in obscurity despite its notable prescience. Which is a shame, because it’s also a surprisingly incisive, entertaining, and well-made film.
But for “The Second Civil War” to have a second life, first you’d have to know about the film. In my case, while staving off boredom at the gym, I listened to a ton of episodes of “The Movies That Made Me,” which is a podcast where they interview a number of actors and major film industry figures about the movies that most influenced them, hosted by screenwriter Josh Olson and director Joe Dante. In particular, Dante’s presence makes the podcast. He’s worked in Hollywood since the 1960s, and his memory of the industry is truly encyclopedic — if for some reason you need to know who the director of photography was on “Logan’s Run,” he can probably tell you off the top of his head.
And if Joe Dante’s name doesn’t ring a bell, his work probably should. He’s directed one classic film, “Gremlins,” and a handful of
