Warfare

A troop of Navy SEALS is on the move in Warfare (Distributed by A24)

Alex Garland started his directorial career with smart, philosophical, sci-fi, dabbled in horror, then moved into the intense “what if” realism of last year’s Civil War. He has now gone from terrifying alternate reality to chronicling a real-life experience from an actual war. The visceral, brutally realistic, drama Warfare is based on an event involving US troops in Iraq in 2006. It has been cowritten/codirected by Ray Mendoza, who was part of the attack and is one of the main characters in this story. There is an authenticity to it that makes it hard to watch at times.

These aren’t three-dimensional movie characters; they are young men trying to survive in a warzone. Fear, chaos, disorientation and death hangs over every frame. This isn’t a movie about a plot or a mission. It is about what these soldiers, as well as so many like them, go through in the name of their country. It is an uncomplicated, very tense, efficiently told, pro-soldier/anti-war movie. They say that art inherently argues for what it shows. I don’t see how you could watch Warfare and come away thinking this looks like anything but hell.

The premise is simple: the members of a Navy SEAL platoon in Ramadi, Iraq, try to hold their position while on the lookout for hostile locals with bad intentions. The screenplay doesn’t introduce anyone. We get their names, otherwise they are just some guys doing their dangerous jobs. We don’t find out about their lives back home, what they have been through or anything else about them. All that matters is this assignment and watching each other’s backs. The suspense is relentless from the start because the enemy is everywhere and could be anyone. There are no filmmaking tricks or editing cleverness. The situation is established immediately, trapping the audience in a single space with these men who just want to get out alive.

At only 90 minutes (not including the end credits) Warfare hits hard, without ever letting up. It can be a stressful watch, yet it is captivating. Its dedication to the memories of those involved, keeping its audience constantly in the moment as they assess their circumstances, is a strength. Besides relating this event, it doesn’t have any point it is attempting to make. That is both a positive and a negative. A positive because it allows for a focus on the immediacy of every decision. A negative because, underneath the intensity, there isn’t much there.

It feels strange to call this a thriller or to talk about the craftmanship behind the suspense. That makes this sound like exploitation, which it most certainly is not. However, in its barebones way, it is a thriller that wants us to witness the true horrors these people suffered through. Empathize with them, not because we know and like them (Garland and Mendoza do not even give us the opportunity to do so), but because we are human and can understand their pain. That feeling carries this through its runtime. Since the intimacy and unpredictability of the situation is basically all there is here, there is not a lot more to say. It does what it sets out to do and is very effective at it.

3¾ out of 5

Cast;

D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tai as Ray

Will Poulter as Erik

Cosmo Jarvis as Elliott

Joseph Quinn as Sam

Kit Connor as Tommy

Finn Bennett as John

Taylor John Smith as Frank

Michael Gandolfini as Lt Macdonald

Directed/Written by Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza