Warfare Review
Unbelievably tense, and incredibly well made, Warfare is an amazing war movie that leaves more questions than answers; but perhaps that’s the point.
A platoon of Navy SEALs embark on a dangerous mission in Ramadi, Iraq. When shit goes sideways, the chaos and brotherhood of war standout.
Written and directed by Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza, Warfare seems to star every young up and coming actor you’ve ever heard of. And they are all fantastic.
The performances on display here are top tier. From Charles Melton’s in-command Jake, and Will Poulter’s at sea Erik, to Kit Connor as rookie Tommy and Joseph Quinn as the screaming Sam, everybody on screen is doing A+ work. Let’s not forget Cosmo Jarvis, who is stunning and who once again (as in nearly everything he does), outshines everybody.
Visually, Warfare is at times super bleak. It’s blood streaks on the ground, severed legs in the street, greys and sandy tones throughout, light streaming through curtains into damaged rooms. It’s wonderfully shot, but it certainly isn’t a luxurious watch. Some of the clarity of foreground elements also felt interesting - light poles stood out in some early street sequences, and had us questioning what sort of camera was used. But this gave way once the story got underway.
This is a film that masterfully plays with tension for the first 40 or so minutes, until a crazy moment hits the audience with such surprise that everybody jumped. It’s not that you aren’t expecting something to happen; it’s just that expecting it didn’t help at all. After that, the film is one non-stop feverish adrenaline rush for the rest of its merciful 95 minute runtime.
There are moments in here that will stick with you forever. Garland and Mendoza don’t shy away from the horrors of the situation, and hearing Joseph Quinn scream over and over and over again is rough. But also there are moments of levity throughout, and these help you through.
The film is wrapped up in a relatively tidy bow in terms of the American occupiers of the house, but in some respects it does leave more questions than answers. The filmmakers never really explore the ‘enemy’ here; there’s no context given to why they are in the house, nor context to who these people are who are trying to kill them, why the American’s are spying on them, or indeed what happened afterwards. It’s all opaque, and that feels like a deliberate decision from Garland and Mendoza; perhaps that is the point, that for these soldiers, they went through that horrific experience only to never have the context of why their brothers died, or were wounded, for that. One must hope, because otherwise it’s a tragic whitewashing of the experience of the occupied.
