A Riveting, Brutal War Drama Devoid of Clichés: Warfare's Raw Take on the Iraq War
Battle Analysis: 'Warfare' - A meticulous portrayal of militaristic strife
By Jake Coyle / AP
The Iraq War-set film Warfare, helmed by Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland, is strikingly distinctive not for what it is, but for what it isn't.
In this gritty depiction, there's no chatter about high-level strategies or strategies. The American Navy SEALs we accompany on this seemingly routine mission remain enigmatic, with barely a glimpse into their backstories. There's no sentimental nostalgia for mom's cooking or speculation about post-war plans. There's not even a cinematic close-up.
Warfare aspires to simply be war. Viewers are thrust into the midst of a platoon, participating in a presumed minor mission in Iraq in 2006. As a group, they cautiously navigate a Ramadi street at night, while one soldier muses, "I like this house." Under the cloak of darkness, they storm an apartment building to set up their position, keeping the family trapped inside hush. Come dawn, their sniper, lying on a lofted bed, drips with sweat and tense focus, scanning the streets below through crosshairs as jihadists mobilize around them.
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Warfare, raw and unrelenting, has excised most war-movie tropes, offering a visceral, brutal immersion into a single, harrowing moment of the Iraq War. Haloed by smoke from IEDs and cries of torment, Garland and Mendoza's work projects a visceral reality, anchored solely by the faces of SEALs. Dialogue is sparse, limited mostly to official Navy jargon. The mission ends violently and quickly, leaving behind only a blood-chilling, unanswered scream from a terrified woman watching her home crumble to rubble, "Why?"
One year after Civil War, a movie that delivers the horror of war onto American soil, Garland has returned with a film even more determined to challenge fanciful notions of combat by bringing it terrifyingly close. Mendoza, an Iraq War veteran who served as a consultant on Civil War, co-writes and co-directs Warfare from his own first-hand experiences. The movie claims to be based on the memories of the soldiers involved, and Warfare delivers on its promise of unflinching authenticity.
That doesn't mean Mendoza and Garland's work lacks compassion. In the midst of sonic turmoil, the initial thrumming coursing through Warfare comes from the 2004 music video for Eric Prydz's "Call on Me," as the battalion boogies in unison to the shaking women on screen.
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On the battlefield, they are no less choreographed. Though the genre may lean towards showcasing the folly of war, the SEALs of Warfare - somewhat reminiscent of the music video - maintain a level of strategic precision. When things go awry, it's not due to inattention or carelessness on their part.
The film follows sniper Elliott (Cosmo Jarvis), Eric (Will Poulter), Tommy (Kit Connor), Sam (Joseph Quinn), and Ray (D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai). We glean no biographical details, only their steadfast loyalty to their fellow soldiers and their readiness to do whatever is necessary, even when surrounded by heavy gunfire.
The film's sound design, handled by Glenn Freemantle, thrums with the rumble of explosions. Whether Warfare is the most accurate war film ever made or not, its audio offering is undeniably immersive, offering a cinematic experience of battle. After an eruption sends the men reeling, the movie rocks, dizzy and disoriented, mirroring the characters' disarray. The film's craft, generally, is commendable, with production designer Mark Digby's recreation of Ramadi earning praise.
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Despite the film's efforts to distance itself from conventional war movie clichés, one trope proves impossible to avoid: the Behind-the-Scenes montage. The end credits scroll alongside photographs of the real SEALs (some face blurred), along with on-set footage of the actors and filmmakers. While paying tribute to the real men is, of course, commendable and necessary, the behind-the-scenes tone of the epilogue grates against the film's intense atmosphere.
The message of Warfare seems to belay this final touch, eschewing tribute in favor of exposing combat for what it truly is: a chaotic, grueling ordeal devoid of fairness. The only villains to be found in "Warfare" are not on either side of the conflict, but in the detached, impersonal perspective from a US plane overhead that relegates every person to shallow pixels on a screen.
In this unflinching, forensic portrayal of war, the only means to remain untouched by the carnage is to remain too far removed from it. As François Truffaut famously said, there's no such thing as an anti-war film because movies inherently glamorize war. Warfare, however, sets out to challenge this notion.
- In the gritty depiction of Warfare, viewers are kept at arms length from the SEALs' personal lives, barely given a glimpse into their fidelity to their backstories.
- The unspectacular world of entertainment often overlooks the raw realities of war-and-conflicts, but Warfare aspires to bring such brutal immersion into a single, harrowing moment of the Iraq War.
- While the фиlm tends to lean towards showcasing the folly of war, the SEALs in Warfare maintain a level of strategic precision, hardly facing criticism for their performance amid heavy gunfire.
- During a time when politics and general-news are often dominated by warfare, movies-and-tv have a unique opportunity to shed light on the true nature of war, challenging the glamorization that François Truffaut spoke of.
- Warfare excises most war-movie tropes, offering a portrayal of warfare that leaves one questioning the fidelity we have to romanticize such unrelenting and unspectacular violence.
