When the trailer for Warfare, the latest feature from Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza, debuted, it was quickly met with criticism echoing a familiar sentiment: “Americans will bomb your country and then return 20 years later to make a movie about how sad it made their soldiers.” In short, many assumed it was just another piece of American propaganda. But once you see who’s telling the story, it’s clear that Warfare isn’t glorifying war, it’s condemning it .Based on the memories of those who served this mission, including director Ray Mendoza, Warfare creates a harrowing depiction of modern warfare. Set in the backdrop of the Iraq war, we follow a platoon of Navy SEAL’s during a surveillance mission in Ramadi, Iraq. What starts off as a routine operation, turns a quiet neighborhood into a blood stained warzone.
If you’re expecting Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza to deliver a clear-cut statement about America’s role in Iraq, you’ll likely be left wanting as Warfare is not interested in diving into the complicated politics of the Iraq war. Instead, Garland and Mendoza create an abstract and minimalist portrait of the Iraq war. We are given no details about the platoon’s mission, no insight into who they’re surveilling, and little sense of who these soldiers are beyond brief moments of causal banter. Most of the dialogue is terse military jargon, focused on relaying observations and coordinating with other units. But in this stark, stripped-down approach, Garland and Mendoza make their anti-war stance felt, emphasizing the senseless destruction and dehumanizing repetition of conflict, where meaning is lost and survival becomes the only objective.
Using techniques drawn from documentary filmmaking Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza waste no time plunging the audience into the Iraq War. Unfolding in real time, anchoring us besides the platoon as they’re hurled into the heat of the battle. When the soldiers are forced to take shelter in a civilian home, we’re trapped there with them, hemmed in by encroaching enemy forces. The tension tightens, the space closes in, and the atmosphere turns suffocating, an unbearable pressure cooker that threatens to break everyone inside. The sound of design is punishing as it shakes you to your core. Bullets whipsing past your ears, the thunderous roar of a F-18, and the sickening sounds broken bones, tearing flesh, and agonized screams of the wounded echoing through your head, Warfare is an assault of the sensories as you are dragged straight into the unforgiving trenches of modern combat. And by the end of the skirmish, what was accomplished other than a suburban block being destroyed and several men being wounded and dead. Perfectly encapsulating the pointlessness of war.
Led by a cast of some of the most prominent rising actors in Hollywood, including Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Charles Melton, Joseph Quinn, Kit Connor, Michael Gandolfini and many more, the actors understood the assignment. Whether it is taking command of a terrifying moment, freezing when you are so concussed that you can’t think anymore, or the gut-wrenching cries of being gravely wounded, each actor commits to the chaos. Where you don’t just witness their performances, you feel them in your bones as it is a perfect example of the power of a unified ensemble.
In the end, Warfare is anything but American propaganda, it’s a stripped-down, unflinching anti-war film that drops the audience into the chaos without explanation or agenda. By denying context and emphasizing the disorienting, traumatic experience of combat, Garland and Mendoza craft a haunting portrait of war’s senseless destruction. Alex Garland continues to prove himself as a director of vision and precision, while Ray Mendoza emerges as a vital new voice in the genre, bringing a level of authenticity and intensity that few war films achieve. Together, they deliver a harrowing and unforgettable experience.
My Rating: B+
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