TMS Movie Review: Warfare

(DNA / A24)

A whole year following the action-packed political commentary of Civil War (2024), writer-director Alex Garland is already back with another war themed feature: Warfare. Set in real-time in the middle of the Iraq War, the new film is co-directed and co-written by Ray Mendoza, who was the military supervisor on Civil War. The two synched so well, they immediately began crafting a second project before the previous hit was in theaters. Like with Civil War, the tone tries to be mainly apolitical and non-partisan. But whereas Civil War was almost too subtle to fully work for me, Warfare ends up feeling more pro-soldier than necessarily pro-war or anti-war.

Told in a single 90 minute period in 2006, a group of Navy SEALs (portrayed by Will Poulter, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Cosmo Jarvis, Joseph Quinn, Kit Connor, Michael Gandolfini, Taylor John Smith and Charles Melton) are attacked right after they occupy a multi-story house in a Ramadi neighborhood. With serious injuries, shock and a delay from their air support, the group of men are forced to defend themselves while they wait for back-up and make sure every man makes it out alive.

(DNA / A24)

Besides partnering for both the direction and screenplay, Warfare is based on Mendoza’s own personal experience serving in Iraq and is fictionalized in the film through Woon-A-Tai’s character. As has been noted by fans and critics, Garland & Mendoza’s picture shares a lot of DNA with Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down (2001), only set a decade later in Ramadi instead of Mogadishu, Somalia. Both films take place in short time frames where a team of military men are unprepared for a surprise attack, anxiety driven and feature a cast with a lot of British actors playing American servicemen. The Scott-ification of Garland via beginning his career with horror and sci-fi to gradually crossing over to political dramas and epics suddenly makes sense once you notice the parallels between the two Englishmen. So with that mind, Warfare would probably be best experienced as a double feature with either Civil War or Black Hawk Down. The message isn’t really anything we haven’t received before in Hollywood war flicks, but Warfare is executed well enough visually, along with outstanding sound mixing and a tight cast to make for a memorable viewing.