Reviews

You may think you know what to expect from the war genre these days, but nothing can prepare you for how realistic and brutal Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza’s Warfare is.

This film, co-written and co-directed by Ex Machina’s Garland and Iraqi war veteran Mendoza, is a faithful re-enactment of what happened to Mendoza and his platoon of U.S. Navy SEALs in Ramadi, Iraq on 19 November 2006.

Mendoza – portrayed here by Reservation Dogs star D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai – and his team – including Sam (Joseph Quinn), sniper Elliott (Cosmo Jarvis), newcomer Tommy (Kit Connor) and leader Erik (Will Poulter) – are tasked with a surveillance mission.

They take over a family home to keep watch on possible threats – but the insurgents discover their location and launch an attack.

After the initial opening sequence (featuring a music video you wouldn’t expect in a war film), the rest of Warfare plays out in real time, meaning the 90 minutes of the movie are a recreation of the 90 minutes they experienced inside that building.

Because of this device, the story is quite slow and dull to begin with because the men are just keeping watch and there’s not much else happening. But that changes in a shocking instant, and from then on, it’s a relentless barrage of harrowing sounds and images.

Thanks to the incredible sound design, you are immersed in the experience and feel as if you’re inside the house with them, which makes it feel even more horrifying.

Warfare feels like a rebuttal to fictionalised war films that often glorify war. There are no frills here – all the bells and whistles have been stripped away to present viewers with an accurate portrayal of what happened.

Because of its dedication to realism, there are no well-defined characters or story arcs, or even a score. It is purely focused on retelling the events exactly as the team remember them.

As a result, the characters blur into one and you don’t have anyone to particularly invest in. This could have been detrimental to our emotional connection with another story, but what happened to Mendoza and co. is so bleak, intense and haunting that you care anyway.

Warfare presents an unflinching portrayal of the reality and brutality of war. You will be thinking about it for many hours afterwards.

In cinemas from Friday 18th April.

By Hannah Wales.

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