Warfare, from Writer-Director (and Iraq War Veteran) Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Civil War), is a towering achievement in cinema. Following in the footsteps of many great “War is Hell” movies, Warfare may just be the most hellish depiction yet.
Set in 2006, Warfare embeds viewers with a platoon of Navy SEALs in enemy territory, in real-time, as they deal with a rapidly escalating fight for their lives. Warfare is carefully (and cleverly) described in the opening sequence as based on the memories of those who were there.
Memory is famously fallible, and so the exact sequence of events may not be entirely accurate. Warfare isn’t setting out to retell the exact and specific occurrence, instead, it’s intending to make viewers feel how the SEALs felt. On that front, it’s a tremendous success.
Warfare Review
Warfare opens with the music video for Eric Prydz’ millennial classic “Call on Me.” As the video of scantily clad women plays, it’s revealed that the platoon is watching the video on base. Slowly, the joy and thrill of the video builds until it explodes with the men jumping around, high-fiving and rocking out to the tune and the video. It’s the one moment of true levity in Warfare, and it happens right up front. It’s as if the filmmakers are saying, ‘It’s all downhill from here. ‘
The music video serves some other purposes, too. First, it reveals that while these men are trained soldiers in enemy territory, they are also young men. Too often, we think of soldiers as old men because that’s how we have always seen Veterans. But in 2006, when this mission was taking place, these Navy SEALs were young men, in their 20s, with their whole lives ahead of them. The juxtaposition of them joyfully dancing to “Call on Me” to the rest of the film highlights just how alien the theatre of war is.
Secondly, the choice of “Call on Me” is more than just about it being a hit song at the time. The music video features a room full of attractive women, in skimpy workout gear, taking part in an exercise class. Amongst them is one solitary man. In the video, he is in enemy territory, outnumbered, outgunned and fighting just to keep up. He is distracted from all angles and surrounded. Escape for this man seems slim. The big difference here is that you’re supposed to think the man in the video is going to fuck. The Navy SEALs are instead, fucked.
After this opening sequence, Warfare shifts into full “War is Hell’ mode and from then on plays, essentially, in real-time as the platoon takes control of a house to observe and report. Once we’re inside the house with the SEALs, we spend the majority of the movie there, in close quarters, feeling caged and claustrophobic.
After the initial action of taking the house from the residents, Warfare slows right down and takes a while to get going. We sit with the SEALs as they make notes, radio in reports and discuss the operation. It’s very dry and almost, almost, boring, but it’s designed that way. The platoon has to sit around doing their job, in the calm before the storm, so we sit with them. We feel what they feel, and so boredom and weariness set in.
It’s not long, though, before Medoza and Garland start to turn the temperature up. It’s a slow burn at first. The SEALs notice some MAMs (Military Aged Males) entering a nearby building. They hear chatter about another group heading their way. They spot the same men multiple times, talking on their phones and milling about. We see a lot of this action through a sniper scope, increasing the implied violence without a shot being fired. Eventually, a PA system starts playing a message telling the residents to evacuate the streets, and that’s when all hell breaks loose.
Once the attack starts and the bullets start flying, Warfare never lets its foot off the gas. We watch as the SEALs desperately radio for assistance and exfiltration. We see them deal with shellshock and life-threatening injuries, and the fear that grips a man amid war. Unlike your usual action movies, when the men in Warfare are shot or blown up, they don’t stoically and silently carry on. One particularly harrowing sequence sees Joseph Quinn’s Sam being dragged back inside after taking flak from an IED. His response is to scream and cry out in agony in terror, and his guttural and visceral response is genuinely hard to watch and listen to.
Warfare isn’t interested in a glossy, Hollywood portrayal of war and combat. It wants audiences to see what it looks and feels like. After 90 minutes, you’ll leave the theatre thoroughly drained, but undeniably entertained. I wouldn’t label Warfare an enjoyable experience, but it’s certainly a worthwhile one and thoroughly engrossing. You’ll want to look away, but you won’t be able to.
Across the board, Warfare includes brilliant performances from its cast, with D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Joseph Quinn, and Kit Connor all playing their roles with believability and vulnerability. You see each of these men as just that, human beings. They’re not superheroes, and they’re not your stereotypical action stars. What they are is frightened, tired, young men facing the horrors of war and their mortality. Each performance captures this in its way, and as a whole, the cast is phenomenal.
What also helps to drive Warfare’s claustrophobic and harrowing portrayal of war is the direction from Mendoza and Garland. It almost has a handheld, documentary feel, but not quite. This is still a movie, but the way it’s shot almost makes it feel like real footage. It certainly helps dovetail with the reasoning that the film is entirely based on memory, so the way it’s shot can give you a feeling of being there and that this is your memory of events.
One startling feature of Warfare is the lack of score. I certainly didn’t notice one while watching, and while I may be mistaken, my memory of the film is that it plays without score. The only music that appears is “Call on Me” at the very beginning, and this lack of score, again, pulls you closer into the screen and sits you right in amongst the action. Without the ebb and flow of a score and the manipulation of your emotions that music can achieve, Warfare rests entirely on the visuals and dialogue and again, toys with the idea of memory. Nobody remembers a score underneath their own life, so of course, there isn’t one in place for the duration of Warfare.
Warfare is an unflinching, harrowing, claustrophobic, nightmarish vision of war and how it feels to be there. “War is Hell”, indeed, and Warfare wants you to see with your own eyes. You’ll want to look away, but won’t be able to.
Leo Stevenson attended a screening of Warfare as a guest of A24.
Warfare releases nationally on 17 April 2025.
