Warfare Review: Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland’s Stripped-Down War Movie is Solely About the Visual and Sound Aura

The familiar “war is hell” adage takes centre stage in Warfare, where co-directors Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland strive to give us an idea of what it feels like when the soldiers are caught in the battle. Mendoza himself was a former US Navy SEAL with over a decade of experience and has been involved in some of the Hollywood movies as technical or military advisor from Act of Valor to Lone Survivor, The Outpost and last year’s Garland’s Civil War.

Warfare marks the first time he steps up as a co-director, and right from the start, the movie opens with a title card: November 19, 2006. Ramadi, Iraq. A Navy SEAL platoon takes sniper positions in support of a US Marines operation. Instead of filling the black screen with a typical based on or inspired by a true story in the title card, the movie “uses only their memories”.

After an uncharacteristically opening shot of an uplifting scene, it doesn’t take long before the movie gets down to business. Garland and Mendoza, who also co-wrote the screenplay, keep their story bare bones with none of the usual excess fat typically seen in a war movie. In other words, there are no obligatory pre-war moments where the soldiers spend their time or say goodbye to their loved ones. Or a scene of military debriefing before the soldiers set out for the mission.

The soldiers in question — the Navy SEAL platoon Alpha One — led by Erik (Will Poulter), are already on their mission as they sneak into a house in a quiet neighbourhood at night. From there, they rely on their Iraqi translators, Farid (Nathan Altai) and Noor (Donya Hussen), to tell the two families to cooperate and keep quiet. The Alpha One team then uses the house as their surveillance base, with lead sniper Elliott (Cosmo Jarvis) in his sniping position, monitoring if there is any unusual activity across the street using the telescopic sight of his long rifle set on the table through the window.

Warfare eschews the traditional Hollywood storytelling structure as Mendoza and Garland aim for a matter-of-fact direction. They want to show us a mission can be as tedious as Elliott the sniper keeping an eye at all times while Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) communications officer Ray Mendoza (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) is in charge of radioing the air support coordination. The first 30 minutes are spent waiting, waiting and waiting with only a few moments of the soldiers either striking up some conversations or giving the status updates.

Then, something happens out of nowhere: A grenade is thrown through the window and almost catches the soldiers off guard. Their enemy is aware of their presence, and the shooting starts. I figure a movie like Warfare, which sticks to realism, will resort to the standard shaky-cam aesthetics. But that’s not the case here, as Mendoza and Garland, with David J. Thompson serving as their cinematographer, maintain a steady hand during the combat sequence.

The action is visceral and the sound is immersive — loud, chaotic and shell-shocking. At one point, when a scene ends with a big explosion, causing multiple casualties, the movie doesn’t shy away from the agony and brutality of the war. One of the soldiers, who is still alive, finds himself suffering from tremendous injury, and he can’t stop screaming in pain throughout the movie.

Mendoza and Garland show us what it’s like when the soldiers, who are outnumbered and stranded in a house as their only cover. Their biggest chance of survival is to have a backup, but that takes time. Time which feels like an eternity with the enemy still present from outside.

Technically speaking, Warfare is a triumph, and while I understand the movie wants to be a non-Hollywood fare even with the casting of familiar faces (e.g. Will Poulter, Joseph Quinn and Charles Melton), the movie still lacks something to hold on to. Besides, a war movie that focuses on the technical and visual realism is nothing new. It’s more of a kind of good-but-not-great war movie.