A Navy SEALs platoon tries to shoot their way out of danger in a scene from "Warfare." (Photo by Murray Close/courtesy of A24)
“Warfare” is a panoply of uncomfortable silences and deafening disruptions. The new combat film, set during the Iraq War, nails the disorienting fog one feels when a situation spirals beyond our control with unpredictable haste, and how, in the midst of escalating violence, those who find themselves in the same boat as you hold the key to finding your center.
Carnage, brotherhood, despair and the quest for order amid chaos. It sounds like a toxic cocktail, an invitation to glorify the United States' military prowess at a time when the rest of the world was questioning our actions, overseas and at home. And indeed, many on social media platforms in general and Twitter/X in particular have already written off this collaboration between filmmaker Alex Garland and decorated veteran Ray Mendoza as one-dimensional recruitment propaganda, sight unseen.
But that's not the way “Warfare” plays out. The film doesn't punch up its confrontations, which are predominantly limited to a city block in Ramadi, Iraq, for the audience's enjoyment like, say, Michael Bay did in “13 Hours.” Its only agenda, as far as this critic can tell, is to place you in the middle of this maelstrom, in order to give you a sense of what these men endured during a roughly 24-hour period where not much appears to happen, and then all hell breaks loose. Its anal-retentive fixation on authenticity, its relentless drive to narrow it down, is both its greatest asset and what holds it back from being a more resonant account of this turbulent period.
Michael Gandolfini as Lt. Macdonald, D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai as Ray and Adain Bradley as Sgt. Laerrus in a scene from "Warfare." (Photo by Murray Close/courtesy of A24)
The year is 2006, and on this mid-November night, the soldiers of Navy SEAL team Alpha One take control of a multi-story house, giving the family members who reside there the scare of their lives. Garland and Mendoza, who share a directing credit, show the action (and lack thereof) from the perspectives of various members of the platoon, some more prominent than others, but the lion's share goes to Mendoza himself, or rather his younger self, played by D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, the Emmy-nominated star of Hulu's “Reservation Dogs.”
A communications officer tasked with monitoring their position using air support, Ray is the eye in the sky for this team that suddenly finds themselves holed up in enemy territory. Garland and Mendoza trust viewers enough to linger in the dead spots, those moments of dead air when these military men are just biding their time. Until they pick up some movement across the street: a group of men going in and out of the building directly across from them.
Kit Connor as Tommy in a scene from "Warfare." (Photo by Murray Close/courtesy of A24)
What follows is a nerve-jangling, skillfully rendered depiction of post-9/11 combat. “Everything is based on memory,” reads the film's tagline, and it's clear Garland and Mendoza want to be as accurate as possible. If someone like, say, Tommy (“Heartstopper” star Kit Connor), the green soldier who finds he's not fully prepared for his first up-close exposure to the horrors of war, doesn't respond as quickly as he could when Alpha One find themselves under attack, “Warfare” wants to include it. If an otherwise efficient seasoned officer like Erik (Will Poulter) experiences a meltdown when confronted with the magnitude of their situation, “Warfare” wants to include it as well.
I won't go into further story specifics when it comes to this movie that is all about the specifics of this mission, but suffice it to say that these soldiers are engaging when they rise to the occasion, and they're engaging when showing they are all too human. Personality traits are nevertheless kept to a minimum, and that results in us feeling like we're being kept at arm's length from these men, even though we're in very close quarters with them. (Woon-A-Tai and the esteemed Cosmo Jarvis are the standouts here.) It's a testament to this uniformly solid ensemble cast that “Warfare” remains absorbing throughout, even if smoke and dust sometimes prevent us from telling who we are meant to be looking at.
Will Poulter as Erik in a scene from "Warfare." (Photo by Murray Close/courtesy of A24)
From a storytelling point of view, “Warfare” is beyond reproach: economical, taut, thrillingly bare bones. Garland (“Ex Machina,” “Annihilation,” the limited series “Devs”) tends to color his work with a worldview that sometimes comes across as cold and needlessly nasty, indulging in cruelty for cruelty's sake, but in last year's “Civil War” and in “Warfare,” he tamps down on those impulses and shows he is able to give a damn about his characters. One gets the sense that he's here to guide Mendoza's vision, to bring to fruition the war vet's guerrilla-vérité approach to the spartan narrative. The best thing Garland could have done was to stay out of the way.
“Warfare” doesn't quite rise to the level of superior combat movies like “Saving Private Ryan” or “Black Hawk Down,” but it's a competently rendered portrait of armed conflict from the inside out, and at 95 minutes, it doesn't throttle viewers with its glimpses of bloodied faces and fractured limbs. What emerges is a heartfelt tribute to the men who fought by Mendoza's side, who came through for each other when the going got tough. A closing montage of pictures of the real Alpha One team becomes even more haunting, not because of the faces you see, but because of the faces that have been blurred out. It's a striking coda to a film that earns its stripes by striving to tell us what really went down to the best of its ability.
Charles Melton as Jake in a scene from "Warfare." (Photo by Murray Close/courtesy of A24)
“Warfare” is now playing in wide release, including limited IMAX engagements at AMC Aventura 24, AMC Pembroke Lakes 9 and the AutoNation IMAX at the Museum of Discovery and Science in Fort Lauderdale.
