Warfare
In November of 2006, a team of Navy SEALs were divided into 3 groups. Op 1, led by Officer in Charge Erik (Will Poulter, "We're the Millers") and accompanied by two Iraqi scouts Heider Ali and Nathan Altai), embedded in a Ramadi duplex to surveil the area. Cowriter/directors Alex Garland ("Men," "Civil War") and veteran of the event, Ray Mendoza, drop us into their position for a first hand experience of "Warfare."
Laura's Review: B+
Be forewarned - while the film's first half documents the strange combination of tension and tedium experienced during a surveillance mission, once our protagonists come under attack, the action is brutal, gory and unrelenting. The filmmakers begin on another note entirely, though, opening with a grainy copy of Eric Prydz's 2004 'Call on Me' music video depicting an aerobics class as simulated sex. Gradually the POV changes to the monitor and we view all the SEALs of these three ops groups raucously cheering, some twitching to the moves (two soldiers will later 'dance' to each other from across a street, a nod to their earlier levity before sheer horror sets in).
Robin's Review:
Cut to a densely populated Iraqi town and we see soldiers barge into a home. Finding a wall at the top of the stairs, they're told, via their Iraqi translators, that another family lives behind it. They sledgehammer through, herding the terrified family of four into a bedroom while their sniper, Elliott (Cosmo Jarvis, FX's 'Shogun'), positions himself in a supine, elevated position at a second floor window overlooking the street. For the longest time, he'll focus on comings and goings across the street, beads of sweat trickling down his forehead, as communications officer Ray Mendoza (D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, FX's 'Reservation Dogs') keeps lines open with the other groups and Erik paces, giving the other troops updates.
After sustaining his position squinting through a gunsight for an extended period of time, Elliott needs to take a break, so in steps Frank (Taylor John Smith, "Where the Crawdads Sing"). The timing couldn't be worse. A vehicle pulls up, four men get out and Frank sees one of them carrying a PK machine gun, but he cannot get a shot off. 'Weak' is the reply when he reports what he's seen. 'Weak' says Elliott when he returns to take back his position. But as soon as he has, a grenade is lobbed into their space and Elliott is injured. A call is made for an evacuation tank, but when it arrives and men file out to get Elliott on board, an IED goes off.
This is where we get into the literal fog of war, the film's sound design suggesting the aftereffect of the bomb, smoke obscuring our sight. We'll see one man blown apart, his torso trailing entrails, a leg some distance away. At first, we can't even be sure of Elliott's condition, but leading petty officer Sam (Joseph Quinn, "A Quiet Place: Day One") is screaming, his legs mangled and on fire. A dazed Erik arrives to tamp them out.
Garland and Mendoza decided to recreate this event when Mendoza acted as a consultant on Garland's "Civil War," telling him about his friend Elliott. The screenplay was developed from not only Mendoza's memory, but others on the team, Elliott himself remembering little of that day. The entire cast was put through boot camp and taught to speak in military lingo, Woon-A-Tai effecting calm amidst chaos for communications clarity. And in this instance, we are speaking two men critically injured, one screaming, both bleeding out as the assault continues. With the evacuation tank having moved out, another is requested along with 'shows of force,' or fighter jets diving so close to the ground they rattle foundations and stir up immense clouds of dirt, a jaw dropping effect. The method does work viscerally, although narratively we are often left trying to fill gaps with little to go on.
Cinematographer David J. Thompson and editor Fin Oates keep us spatially grounded, capturing interior intimate moments and exterior formations in real time (the film runs an economical but overwhelming 95 minutes). We'll see another group of SEALs led by Officer in Charge Jake Wayne (Charles Melton, "May December," exhibiting confidence, compassion and range), head in as drones overhead check for enemy movement on rooftops. By the time they arrive, Erik asks Jake to 'take point,' too overcome by events of the day to retain command and when Jake is informed that a new evacuation tank will need to be approved by a CO, he orders his comm guy to become one. These men define brothers-in-arms.
"Warfare" plunges us into an experience inconceivable to most, one which traumatizes thousands of young American troops, and does so with utter realism.
A24 releases "Warfare" in theaters on 4/11/25.
