Warfare (dir. Alex Garland & Ray Mendoza)

By: Adam Freed

The United States Military feels uncomfortably connected to the political football being kicked around America, as if supporting those who elect to serve the nation is in some way an endorsement of a singular ideology.  Lost in this binary mindset is the fact that the military isn’t a singular entity, it is however a collection of individuals, who for a diversity of reasons, agree to risk their lives and sacrifice the safety of their prime years to run toward uncertainty.  Warfare, the latest pulse-spiking war thriller from acclaimed director Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Civil War) and former U.S. Navy Seal Ray Mendoza, is the true story of such soldiers, who despite the debatable circumstances surrounding their presence in Ramadi, Iraq in 2006, paints a realistic and humanistic portrayal of the perilous nature of modern war. Warfare is the true story of Mendoza’s unit caught on the worst day of their deployment.  The film is told from the perspectives of a small group of soldiers positioned on a reconnaissance mission amidst the cluster of homes in the Iraqi city.   

Warfare is not for the faint of heart. In fact, the anxiety driven combat film is so intense that it risks rendering itself unwatchable by select audiences.  The realities of modern warfare are simply far too bitter a pill to swallow for civilians who choose to engage in far more mundane professions.  The secret sauce behind Warfare is observable in the technical and visual mastery that has become synonymous with the work of Alex Garland, superpowered by an infusion of gritty experience at the hands of Ray Mendoza.  Garland is at his unfettered best when his films act as cautionary tales, undoubtedly the case for his masterwork Ex Machina (2014), a flashing neon sign of the dangers of exploration into the world of artificial intelligence.  Here, Garland cautions against viewing war as a glamourous endeavor, while simultaneously admonishing those who view those who serve without a shred of empathy.  The A24 Studios release is hardly the first film to attempt to depict war as an unglamorous and unrelenting endeavor. Moviegoers expecting a patriotic Captain America themed retrospective on the war in the Middle East had better think again.  Instead Garland and Mendoza have authored a film that feels like the 21st century humanistic anti-war equivalent to Oliver Stone’s Platoon (1986).

As far as its story goes, Warfare is incredibly simple. So simple that at times the mission the soldiers are attempting to accomplish feels a little muddy.  Audiences are likely to yearn for more character depth, but are certain to be drawn to the unspoken magnetism that bonds those engaged in combat.  The ensemble cast is notably free from a single lead, rather leaning into the reality that there are no singular war heroes that dot the works of Hollywood history.  Instead, what Warfare provides is a realistic dose of the camaraderie with which the armed forces share, making even more gut wrenching the stark reality that those bonds are prone to be shredded at any given moment.  To this end, the chaotic realities of combat are captured in gritty detail within the monumental sound design employed by Warfare.  Garland masterfully weaves radio communication atop heart-stopping IED explosions draped in a parade of gunfire, all while filtering through the necessities of human dialogue to somehow make sense of the chaotic cacophony. Although it shouldn’t be a surprise that Alex Garland has helmed another technical marvel, it continues to impress.

Target Score 8/10 - Emboldened by the directorial acumen of Alex Garland, co-director Ray Mendoza’s story of a military mission gone wrong in Ramadi, Iraq is an anxiety spiking antiwar triumph.  The notably apolitical Warfare, features an ensemble cast that is thrown into a chaotic hellfire of unimaginable circumstances to allow audiences to experience the unimaginable.