Warfare
review by Bobby Blakey
Director Alex Garland came off of writing duties on the hit zombie flick 28 Days Later to step into the directors’ chair for Ex Machina to critical acclaim. Since then, he has delivered some great films including Annihilation, MEN and more recently Civil War. Now he is diving back into the frontline teaming up to share directing duties with Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza for Warfare starring D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Taylor John Smith, Michael Gandolfini, Adain Bradley, Noah Centineo, Evan Holtzman, Henrique Zaga, with Joseph Quinn, and Charles Melton.
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Warfare follows a platoon of American Navy SEALs in the home of an Iraqi family, overwatching the movement of US forces through insurgent territory. A visceral, boots-on-the-ground story of modern warfare, told like never before: in real time and based on the memory of the people who lived it.
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War movies are usually intense all their own, but this film is something altogether different. The film is an easy set up story wise and drops the audience right into this specific mission that these real-life heroes were a part of. For a decent amount of time, we are literally just sitting in almost silence with the team outside of the radio communications. Despite not a lot happening there is a subtle tension building and stressful knowing anything could happen at any time and it does.
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Even if you didn’t know that the real-life team worked to put this story together it is very obvious from the dialogue and way they deploy and fight. It is a very specific style of movement and language that most don’t know
outside the military. You hear things like this in a lot of war themed movies, but this was almost impossible to understand for anyone outside the know and further adds the realism and tension of it all. There is very little action of any kind initially, but once that first attack happens it brings a whole other level of stress and tension that never lets up until the very end of the film.
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The action is well executed and chaotic just as you would imagine warfare would be. It not only pays homage to these guys and what they went through to defend the world we live in, but also to remind you that it’s a different kind of breed of man that can do it. I loved the showcase of seeing the way they were affected by the attack the humanity and fears of war. No matter what they did, what most of us could never do and it shines through here in all its destructive beautiful horrific glory.
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Grab your copy of Warfare available now on 4K and Blu-ray from A24.