Warfare: Film Review
We’ve been conditioned to expect certain things from the war genre over the years, and now Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza‘s Warfare is here to offer a rebuke to those fictionalised Hollywood combat films.
Warfare, co-written and co-directed by Garland with war veteran Mendoza, is a recreation of what happened to Mendoza and his team of U.S. Navy SEALs in Iraq on 19th November 2006. They take over a family home to run surveillance on possible threats, but the mission goes massively wrong when insurgents discover their location and coordinate an attack.
This feature runs counter to the fictionalised war films we’re used to seeing that often glorify or fetishise war. There are usually character archetypes, story arcs and a rousing score. Warfare has none of that. Accuracy is king here, and the story is a hyper-realistic re-enactment of the platoon’s memories. There are no bells and whistles; this is an unflinching depiction of what really happened. It is told in real time from the title card, meaning the 90 minutes that you see on screen mirror their 90 minutes inside that house as closely as possible.
Soon after an amusing opening sequence that instantly establishes the platoon’s camaraderie, the action in the house begins. Because it is told in real time, it’s actually a bit slow and dull at first as there isn’t much happening beyond surveillance. But from the attack onwards, it is a relentless onslaught of horrifying sounds and images. Warfare is such an immersive experience that you feel like you’re in the house with them, witnessing the chaos and hearing the constant screams of pain. The sound design is spectacular and I even jumped a couple of times!
This film stars a whole host of in-demand young actors like Will Poulter, Kit Connor, Joseph Quinn and Charles Melton, as well as D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai as Mendoza and Cosmo Jarvis as Elliott Miller. All of the actors play real people but only those two identities have been disclosed. Because of the dedication to realism, we don’t learn much about our characters, and they almost blur into one. Some still stand out more than others, though, like Connor as the baby-faced newbie Tommy, Jarvis as the sniper, and Poulter as their leader.
Warfare is a bleak, sobering movie that brings us closer than ever to the reality and brutality of war. I was stunned to silence and needed a while to process what I’d just witnessed after the credits rolled!
In cinemas from Friday 18th April