Warfare ★★★½

Last year, director Alex Garland delivered the brilliant and intense Civil War, a fictional account of a civil war in the United States seen through the eyes of war photographers. This year, he teamed up with former U.S. Navy Seal Ray Mendoza, an Iraq War veteran, to tell the story of a real conflict. Warfare, co-directed by Garland and Mendoza, focuses on one platoon as they perform overwatch duties on the ground in Ramadi. They take a local occupied two-story home as their base and begin the task of monitoring local hostile build-up in the area around them. As they soon discover, they are right in a hotbed of activity with danger all over and their position in an increasing amount of danger. Based on the experiences of Mendoza with real-life parallels for all of the characters in the film – most with their names changed – Warfare is an edge-of-your-seat nail-biter.

Warfare is refreshingly free of dramatics and exposition. It gives a little introduction for the men, opening with them rowdily watching Eric Prydz’s ‘Call on Me’ music video to demonstrate their bond and vitality, and then drops them into Ramadi with a brief on-screen text revealing their purpose. From there, it trusts the audience to follow along through jargon and chatter, all while these young men go about their work. A couple of them are peeking through windows to keep an eye on things outside. Two are posted as snipers, one actively looking through a hole created in the wall. A few are monitoring the radios and air support to stay in constant dialogue with the resources they have throughout the town and sky. One can practically be lulled into relaxation. There is an ease with which everything happens. There is the tension of being in enemy territory and having the occupants of this home not too pleased with American soldiers using their home as a base, but nothing violent happens for a long time. Hours pass. The men swap duties. They are keeping an eye on a few notable people outside and they can start to see weaponry arrive at a nearby compound, while a call over the town airwaves instructs the locals to get ready to kill Americans. Something is bound to happen, but when?

Garland and Mendoza manage the rising tension terrifically, never rushing through the build-up and then suddenly dropping these men into violent terror. The initial attack is surprising enough. The massive attack later on is so shocking that I genuinely jumped out of my seat. The ensuing cloud of smoke, gunfire, and screams of agony create a cacophony of horror that drops one right into this makeshift battlefield, feeling all of the disorientation and fear of these men. From there, it is a constantly thrilling and nerve-wracking experience with these men trying to mend – as best they can, and it is no easy task – their wounded, while trying to find a way out of this house. The blood curdling screams of the injured and the graphic imagery of their mangled legs, the severed limbs out in the street, and their panicked and coated-in dirt faces, make for startling sights that give a hauntingly unblinking nature to Warfare. Mendoza never shies away from the gory reality of war, juxtaposing the brotherhood of watching ‘Call on Me’ with the brotherhood of men huddling together, trying to save their fellow soldiers’ lives and refusing to leave them behind even when the odds are long. 

The sound of Civil War was one of its best aspects and Garland again teamed up with that film’s sound editor Glenn Freemantle to create the sound for Warfare and his technical brilliance shows itself throughout, but especially in the second attack sequence. Men’s screams fade out into deafening silence, bullets flying and zipping all around, the noise coming and going as these soldiers recover from having their bell rung and cope with the initial shock of everything that has happened. On a few occasions, they call in a “show of force” from their air support which is, essentially, a close fly-by that will kick up all of the dirt in the street and create a sound tornado of sorts. The effect is wonderfully realized by Freemantle and his team, adding to the impressive list of technical accomplishments in Warfare.

Though none of the characters are considerably fleshed-out, Warfare does benefit from the authentic performances of a very impressive ensemble cast. Will Poulter, Joseph Quinn, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Charles Melton, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Michael Gandolfini, Finn Bennett, Taylor John Smith, and Adain Bradley are the headliners here and all do very well in the moments their characters get. Quinn and Jarvis have two of the more intense roles, Sam and Elliott, respectively, and nail every emotion overtaking their characters. A moment after the bloodshed involving Gandolfini’s Lt. McDonald is hysterical with his timing and delivery of the accidental moment, breaking some of the tension, and allowing the audience to breathe during some of the most intense scenes in the film. Poulter’s Erik, the officer in charge, struggles after the men blow up a claymore to get some of the enemy combatants off of this home’s roof. Poulter’s ability to capture the concussion-like symptoms that Erik is going through offer both credibility and further intensity as he tries to work his way through his brain scramble while still capably leading the men.

Warfare, a true story from the experiences of co-director Ray Mendoza’s time serving in the Iraq War, is an intense and thrilling story. It is not concerned with the why’s of being in this war. It is just about their experiences in Ramadi and their attempts to extract themselves safely. Warfare does not offer both sides, nor does it try to offer any political understandings of the motivations behind the Iraq War. This is a story of brothers fighting side-by-side, trying to get home, and trying to fulfill the mission they have been given. Perhaps this will be too streamlined for some, but it makes for a propulsive and haunting experience that brings this war to life and enables the audience to hear, see, and feel what these men felt when they were surrounded by the enemy.