Coming off Civil War‘s success, Alex Garland partners with Ray Mendoza on Warfare for a tense 90 minutes of hell based on the memories of veterans from a 2006 mission in Iraq. Mendoza takes his own experience as a veteran and the combined memory of the men who fought with him to craft the story. Unfolding in real-time, Warfare doesn’t give us or the characters more than a few seconds to breathe. Many movies brand themselves as the singularly accurate and gruesome depiction of what war is really like, and though Warfare isn’t perfect, it’s committed to playing the part.
To describe Warfare as “fun” or “entertaining” would be incorrect and borderline offensive. However, it holds your attention. Warfare doesn’t struggle to keep you on the edge of your seat as soon as the narrative turns and the action gets going. It’s a тιԍнт script and contained story, which elevates Mendoza’s intention to keep us directly in the line of fire. Warfare doesn’t need to tell us about the breadth and impact of the Iraq War; the effects are still felt today. Instead, the film narrows the scope and zooms in so we can see how the violence plays out.
Warfare Is For The Soldiers First & Foremost
It’s Impossible To Misinterpret Warfare’s Message
If there’s one thing that can’t be denied about Warfare, it’s that it’s immersive, and there’s no escape from the onslaught of sound, gore, and anxiety that pervade the film. The film does a good job of almost tricking you at first, beginning with the long, slow hours of waiting that define modern military action. This gives us a chance to see the group’s dynamic and suss out the tiny details Warfare provides about these young men in between the military jargon they’re throwing around. When we meet them, they’re a decently-oiled machine, but they’re never emotionless.
Boasting a large ensemble cast, the actors bringing Warfare to life have a little trouble disappearing into their roles. Their faces are all a little too familiar for me to fully believe these young men could be the veterans they’re portraying. However, the unbearable youth of the cast is paramount to Warfare‘s success. D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai is a highlight, playing Mendoza himself with Will Poulter and Cosmo Jarvis, also differentiating themselves among the sea of characters.
If it were a different kind of movie, I might have wanted to spend more time with the men and get to know their dynamics. However, you don’t have to know much about the characters to see that they would die for each other. Even when they’re making the hard choices and the stakes of their decisions are literally life and death, you can see their humanity. Though Woon-A-Tai’s Mendoza is generally the focal point of the significant emotional beats, it’s truly an ensemble piece. This, like all parts of Warfare, reflects the truth of a military unit.
Warfare intentionally disorients and muddles the senses, making it as hard for us to focus as it is for the men onscreen.
Warfare is not for the squeamish or sensitive, as we get plenty of head-on sH๏τs of bodies blown in half and injuries that will make your stomach turn. The sound design is fantastic and does some of the heavy lifting of putting you directly in the heat of the moment, and it gets exhausting after a while. Warfare intentionally disorients and muddles the senses, making it as hard for us to focus as it is for the men onscreen. It’s a harrowing movie, made all the more upsetting as it becomes increasingly clear that these people are considered expendable.
Warfare makes only a brief commentary about the effects the soldiers’ actions have on the family whose home they invade and destroy, with the Iraqi family being kept out of sight in a side room for almost the entire runtime. Neither Mendoza nor Garland can speak to the horror and brutality faced by the civilians, with the filmmakers intending to make a movie about the soldiers.
Making the story a political commentary about the American military machine would’ve confused the narrative that Garland and Mendoza set out to make. Many fans of Garland’s work or A24 might engage with the film hoping to see a cultural and social condemnation of the war, and while Warfare is far from pro-war, its intention is to be pro-veteran above all. It’s helpful that Warfare is vicious in its depiction of violence and employs such disorienting cinematic choices, as this lets Warfare land on us as the movie it is, not on the one we might want it to be.
Warfare Doesn’t Reinvent The War Movie, But Its Message Is Timeless
Mendoza Uses Filmmaking To Grapple With The Memories That Haunt Him
Warfare shows its hand in the last few minutes of the film when we see the real Elliott Miller, and the blurred pictures of the men Mendoza fought alongside stare us in the face. Many of the veterans Mendoza based the characters on chose not to have their faces revealed, and it’s interesting that Warfare still includes them and the ghosts of their stories in the film. These aren’t memories people want to relive and rehash, but forgetting isn’t on the table, either.
Warfare is good, but it’s not as original as Mendoza and Garland are making it out to be. Most movies about war in the 21st century are gritty and about the needless sacrifices of young lives. It’s gripping and effective but doesn’t have anything new to say. However, I don’t think it necessarily needs to alter our perspectives with a never-before-seen take on war. Mendoza wants to grapple with what he’s seen and the few short moments that changed a group of people’s lives forever. If Warfare is how he chooses to exercise these feelings, who are we to deny him?
