No Glory, Just Grit: Warfare and the Brutal Truth of Combat

I’m not going to lie, when I first heard about Warfare, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. The movie was directed by the odd-couple filmmaking duo of genre veteran Alex Garland and a complete newbie to the director’s chair, so I was a bit hesitant about it. I’m a huge fan of Alex Garland, but rookie directors are notoriously hit or miss, so I really had no idea how the film would turn out. Would it be up to Garland’s typical standards? Or would his inexperienced co-director drag him down? I had no idea, but in a surprising twist, that uncertainty actually intrigued me. I just had to see this movie for myself, so when tickets went on sale, I booked an opening-weekend seat as soon as I got the chance.

Warfare was written and directed by Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland, and it stars D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Joseph Quinn, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Taylor John Smith, Michael Gandolfini, Adain Bradley, Noah Centineo, Evan Holtzman, Henrique Zaga, and Charles Melton. Like a lot of movies, this one is based on a true story, but unlike most of its cinematic peers, it’s made by one of the people who lived that story.

Co-director Ray Mendoza was a US Navy SEAL in Iraq, and Warfare recounts a particularly harrowing experience he and his platoon endured during their time together. When the film begins, the troops station themselves in a multi-story house in the middle of enemy territory, and not long afterwards, they come under heavy fire from hostile forces. They have to do everything they can to escape with their lives, but as you can probably guess, that’s much easier said than done.

From that brief plot synopsis, you might not think Warfare sounds terribly interesting, and in a certain sense, you’d actually be right. The story is just as straightforward as it sounds, so there aren’t too many surprises. Sure, you don’t know exactly how it’s all going to play out, but for the most part, nothing truly unexpected happens.

On top of that, Mendoza and his fellow warriors are all rather thinly drawn. In typical military fashion, these SEALS largely lose their individuality and function primarily as parts of a well-oiled fighting machine, so aside from a handful of familiar faces like Will Poulter and Joseph Quinn, it’s tough to remember who’s who in this platoon.

Those rigid, almost wooden qualities keep Warfare from being a traditionally good movie with memorable characters and a captivating plot, but don’t let that fool you. This is far from a bad film. In fact, if you leave your expectations at the door and accept the movie for what it is, you’ll be blown away by the experience.

And when I say “experience,” I mean it. The way I see it, the primary purpose of this film is to give those of us who’ve never served in the military an inkling of what armed combat is really like. It completely eschews the machismo and bravado we often expect from action movies, and the filmmakers don’t even give us a score or a soundtrack to remind us that we’re watching a fictionalized account.

In fact, the only time we ever hear any music is in the opening scene, when Mendoza and his crew hoot and holler while watching an overly sexualized music video (thankfully, these images aren’t on screen for very long). The rest of the time, we’re left to stew in the sounds of war and the near silence that precedes it, and that hyper-realism is genuinely breathtaking.

From the moment these troops set out to occupy the house, you’ll be on the edge of your seat. Even when nothing particularly thrilling is happening, the mere fact that this is a warzone is enough to crank the tension up to eleven, and when the fighting begins in earnest, it hits you like a ton of bricks.

Much like co-director Alex Garland’s last film, Civil War, this one doesn’t sugarcoat or glorify the disgusting reality of war. The deadly attacks these soldiers have to endure and the brotherly concern they demonstrate for one another show just how much of an affront to human life and human dignity war truly is, so you can’t help but hope and pray that you’ll never find yourself in a similar situation.

It’s a legitimately harrowing depiction of a scourge that’s plagued humanity for millennia, and for Catholics, the best thing I can compare it to is probably The Passion of the Christ. Granted, these two movies are very different, but they both use disturbing violence and gore to convey uncomfortable truths many people would rather ignore.

The Passion of the Christ highlights the horrific reality of Roman crucifixion and the suffering Jesus endured for us, and Warfare sheds similar light on the horrors of war. It’s not pretty (but it’s beautifully shot!), and it’ll probably be a “one and done” for a lot of moviegoers, but it’s well worth that one viewing. It brings us face to face with arguably the darkest part of the human experience, so this isn’t just one of the best films of the year so far. It’s also one of the most important.