Warfare
Filled with raucous laughter and bravado, the opening scene of Warfare – a group of young men huddled around a small screen, watching a cheesy 80s workout video – could easily be mistaken for a scene from a frat party if they were not dressed in tactical gear. It is a striking juxtaposition to the looming chaos that awaits in the film, co-written and co-directed by Alex Garland and former US Navy SEAL Ray Mendoza, based on a harrowing real-life encounter experienced by Mendoza and his platoon on 19th November 2006, in the aftermath of the Battle of Ramadi.
The military hierarchy is ever-present as the soldiers operate under a system of complex codes, codenames and orders that at times overwhelm the viewer. The lack of trust between the soldiers and their Iraqi translators – all of whom are risking their lives for this mission – adds a particularly complicated layer of tension and a darker note to the camaraderie of the American soldiers. It’s this distrust, however, that brings depth to the portrayal of combat: the horror of war is not just in the firefights.
Perhaps most striking about Warfare is its refusal to provide a central, heroic figure, not even of the obvious choices – the calm, observant Mendoza (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) or the nervous newcomer Tommy (Kit Connor). Nor does the movie make a patriot of any one soldier, such as Elliot Miller, portrayed by Cosmo Jarvis, the platoon member to whom the feature is dedicated. Instead, the soldiers are viewed collectively as cogs in an unforgiving machine, bound not by any sense of valour or individual heroism, but by survival instincts and mutual dependence.
Warfare’s precision extends well beyond the immediate events. Mangled bodies lie where they fell, blood staining the earth long after the gunfire falls silent. The screams linger, too, pushing the audience past shock into discomfort. The sun is suffocating, made all the more unbearable still by the weight of the Navy SEALs’s armour. Sunlight catches on sweat-drenched faces, while the air thickens with ash and debris, kicked up by explosions, smoke grenades and the military’s “show of force”: low-altitude flyovers by US fighter jets that are part spectacle, part threat. By the end of its 95-minute run, the film leaves a haunting imprint, with a lingering sense of horror and exhaustion that clings like smoke and blood.
Christina Yang
Warfare is released nationwide on 18th April 2025.
Watch the trailer for Warfare here:
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