Warfare – Review. By Daniel Rester

Warfare is the latest film to address the conflicts in the Iraq War. It comes from directors Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland. Mendoza was a military advisor on Garland’s previous film, the exceptional Civil War (2024). The two then decided to make Warfare together, which is based on Mendoza’s actual experiences as a U.S. Navy SEAL. 

Set in 2006 in Ramadi, Warfare follows Mendoza and the other members of team Alpha One. They take control of a family’s house and use it as a base to monitor the neighborhood around them. After noticing suspicious activity from some men across the street, Alpha One is hit by a grenade. As they try to evacuate their wounded in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the team is heavily assaulted by Iraqi forces. 

After an opening scene of the Alpha One members bonding (with great use of a song from the 2000s), the film moves into their mission. It then stays in that house and the surrounding neighborhood for the rest of the film. The plot is essentially just them fighting to survive, and the characters are just names and faces with the same goal. Warfare abandons any sense of usual character or plot development in favor of authenticity. As executed, this is both a negative and a positive at the same time for the film. 

Mendoza and Garland deliver a war film that is intense and realistic in design and language. The first thirty minutes or so after that opening scene are quiet and suspenseful. The directors capture the endless boredom and heat that soldiers often faced in Iraq in this section. The second half with all of the action is effective too, but it is less interesting and more monotonous than the first half. 

The cast assembled here is impressive. Mendoza is played by D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai. Surrounding him are Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Joseph Quinn, Kit Connor, Michael Gandolfini, Charles Melton, and more. With no depth given to these characters on the page, it is up to the actors to breathe life into them. Thankfully they all feel like real soldiers in both their movements and speech. Quinn perhaps has the most challenging role as he has to do a lot of screaming. 

The real star of the film is the sound design. While the cinematography and editing choices are mostly fine but sometimes confounding in Warfare, the sound work is consistently masterful. Mendoza and Garland assault the audience with every noise the soldiers experience, from radio chatter to cracking gunfire to IED explosions to shows of force by jets. The directors’ sound team is up to the task, and the film should certainly be considered for a Best Sound Oscar nomination. 

Warfare begins great but eventually becomes repetitive. The lack of character depth makes it feel aloof too. The attention to detail and authenticity is undeniable though. 

Rating: 7.5/10

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