Warfare

The saying goes that war never changes, but after seeing this one, it’d be nice if it did. Co-directed and co-written by Ray Mendoza, a real ex-Navy SEAL who was boots on the ground in Iraq, and Civil War director/writer Alex Garland, Warfare retells the story of Mendoza and his platoon after they occupy a local Iraqi home in November 2006 and are subsequently caught up in an intense firefight that endangers everyone involved. Shot in real time and adapted from the accounts of Mendoza and his colleagues, Warfare is an unflinching look at a true event that shows the impact American troops had in Iraq, and whether or not being there was a good thing at all. Filmed in a single location but featuring close to a dozen soldiers and civilians throughout, Warfare benefits from a script that doesn’t shy away from the more horrifying aspects of war, with Garland’s guidance no doubt smoothing out the rough edges of a film that needed to be as harsh but fair in its storytelling as possible. Painting its many military characters as flawed heroes, oblivious villains, or simply regular people in way over their heads, Warfare does a great job of making audiences feel something, with my takeaway being that war is pointless and what we do in its name is equally as bad. Using the medium of film to enhance an already harrowing experience, Warfare utilizes its audio, claustrophobic environment, and hard-hitting action sequences to the fullest, putting audiences directly in the line of fire. And while the movie doesn’t overstay its welcome, many of my complaints stem from the lack of character development regarding the Navy SEALS, as we learn only enough about each soldier to grasp their general personalities and roles in the plot. Additionally, the family caught in this unnecessary conflict could have used a little more attention themselves because, to me, their minimal role became a statement unto itself, as the entire point of this movie seems to be about these soldiers wrecking these people’s lives while barely paying attention to their plight from the start. Though others may take away something different from this experience compared to what I did, I think Warfare’s harrowing depiction of war, the vague reasons for waging it, and the impact it has on the innocent people who get lost in between is well represented here, with its many uncomfortable moments, constant brutal violence, and compelling filmmaking giving me something to think about while I tried to make sense of why we do these terrible things to each other.