Warfare captures the shock that can send soldiers into a paralysed state of fear, unable to process their thoughts as they struggle to regain the composure required to survive.
Warfare tells the story of a surveillance mission that goes wrong for a platoon of American Navy SEALs in insurgent territory within Iraq. It’s billed as an authentic account of an experience, writer and director Ray Mendoza endured during the Iraq War. With this film he has collaborated with Alex Garland who wrote and directed it alongside him.
This film primarily focuses on the experience of the soldiers amidst the chaos of war, where situations can spiral into unpredictable outcomes. It’s a tense film that is paced in a manner that feels grounded. The first act is slow but I didn’t find that to be an issue because it allowed for the downtime during operations to displayed. Usually moments like this wouldn’t make it into the script for a war film, let alone the final cut. It’s during this opening act that we get a very light introduction to the soldiers we will experience this story through.
These characters do feel a bit like caricatures. There’s the leader of the platoon. There’s the no nonsense solider that has more of an intimidating presence towards the others. There’s the slightly inexperienced and nervous solider and so on. The reason they feel a little generic at first is amplified by the fact that there’s no development given to the soldiers. It’s a film that acts like it’s presenting raw footage. It’s not concerned with plot and character development. Luckily the cast are up to the task and deliver performances that hold your attention and feel relatively realistic. Will Poulter, Joseph Quinn and Cosmo Jarvis are among the standouts.
Warfare captures the shock that can send soldiers into a paralysed state of fear, unable to process their thoughts as they struggle to regain the composure required to survive. It doesn’t shy away from the horrors of witnessing comrades having life threatening injuries inflicted upon them, and others getting killed in sudden acts of violence. The direction never loses sight of these elements and that’s due to one of the filmmakers being a man who experienced this event first hand. At no point does the events in the film or the execution of them feel sensationalised for the purpose of movie entertainment. Even if there are moments depicted that didn’t occur, I couldn’t tell when they might be. That being said, Warfare’s American military perspective is biased. It provides zero context to the troubled reality of the Iraq War, the devastation that was caused and who the true aggressors were.
The cinematography gives the imagery a pristine clarity that helps make this feel as authentic, as being on the ground alongside the soldiers. This aids the visceral sense of realism, and the lighting helps to convey this feeling with it appearing to be mostly natural in both day and night sequences. A smart decision was made to restrict the majority of the action to within the vicinity of the soldiers. The film never cuts away to the military personnel the platoon are contacting for rescue, nor does it focus in on those who are attacking them from the enemy perspective. This is clearly an intentional choice to ensure that this story remains limited to the perspective of the American soldiers in the heat of this confrontation.
The sound design is incredible and highly immersive, especially within a key sequence in which an explosion occurs that sends the operation into disarray. This sequence utilises visuals and sound perfectly to convey the disorientation of the attack from the soldiers point of view. From there it takes its time to sit within the aftermath, as they react to it in different ways which all carry a sense of believability. The injury detail is suitably graphic and even when it’s extreme it never felt over the top.
Warfare is a successful attempt at creating an immersive war experience, even though it’s from a strictly one sided perspective. It works in order to make a film that feels grounded and realistic, but it does require you to somewhat disconnect yourself from the reality of the war it depicts. This prevents it from becoming a truly profound war film.
★ ★ ★ ★
This review was written by Terrelle Graham.
Warfare. Starring D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor and Joseph Quinn. Directed by Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland. Runtime 95 minutes.