Thrilling. Harrowing. Grueling. Depressing.
These are just a few of the adjectives that could be used to describe long-time director Alex Garland and newcomer Ray Mendoza‘s collaboration, Warfare. Based on the experiences of Mendoza, an Iraqi War veteran, and fellow members of his platoon, the film takes an unflinching look at the brutality of the Iraq War through a small-scope, faithful recreation of a military skirmish in Ramadi, Iraq.
Garland comes fresh off of another war film, Civil War. That movie was a good display of Garland’s skilled capture of large-scale military scenes, even if the final product was uneven. But working with Mendoza, Garland uses his clear skills as a director authentically recreate the events of this film.
Warfare may be light on character and writing. There are no big attempts at character arcs, communicating any sense of place or objective, or even providing ideas of thematic relevance. The biggest criticism that can be leveled at the movie is that it is focused almost to a fault.
But this is a minor blemish, if it can be considered one. The singular focus is largely a boon to the impact of Warfare. Without any excess, the film can focus on its primary mission: placing the audience into an authentically horrifying experience.
The movie does not shrink from depicting the utter brutality of armed conflict. Every detail of the filmmaking, from the dialogue to the sound design to the cinematography and set design, is carefully refined and crafted to rattle the audience. This is a film that must absolutely be experienced in a theater to attain the full effect. Warfare is centered on never blinking or looking away. The loudness, the graphic gore, and the noticeable choice to ditch a musical score all fray your nerves and make this movie the thrill ride that it is.
Despite all of these potentially flamboyant descriptions, Warfare is not just loud and grinding. The film utilizes silence over and over across the runtime to punctuate moments and scenes. The movie’s humble beginnings are quite quiet, featuring idle chatter between the soldiers and rote mission information. One could say this is a film deliberately trying to lull you into a false of security, but it helps provide humanity. Though Warfare is not big on overt themes, part of the movie’s smartly delivered commentary is how these are just normal young men thrust into circumstances far more awful than any person should have to endure.
This idea is also communicated through depictions of soldiers in the fallout of attacks. Rarely do films ever showcase how rattling these moments of intense violence are for real people. Bigger-budget action movies almost never show their heroes and soldiers meaningfully affected by the horrors of war. Captain America, Ethan Hunt, and Jason Bourne don’t have time for that. Even more serious war films seldom sit with shellshock the way Warfare does.
Most of the drama comes from one soldier suffering a simple injury and the ensuing fallout and attempts to rescue him. Wills are broken. Pain is real. One characters spends most of the film standing around clearly out of his depth. Not one juvenile joke is made about that. Their lives will not be the same. This is the reality of warfare and of Warfare.
There is an excellent young cast playing these men. While the entire cast is worth highlighting, special accolades must be given to D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Cosmo Jarvis, and Will Poulter. These three each have different journeys as characters, but all of them nail it as anchoring weights for the varying perspectives the film adopts. There is no arbitrary triumphant moment or heroic speech, but each character displays true heroism. All endure and hold on in various ways and bring us into the realism of the situation.
Mendoza and Garland have, simply put, made one of the best war films of all time. This is not a grand-scale war epic like Gettysburg, Saving Private Ryan, or a satirical commentary like Full Metal Jacket or Apocalypse Now. It is instead a contender for the most realistically-depicted modern warfare film made to date. The movie is an absolute triumph at what it tries to achieve and sets a high mark for the 2025 cinematic year.
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