A review of the stunning new film “Warfare”
The word unique is overused and usually misused, but “Warfare” is a unique film. The nearest work to it is Ridley Scott’s 2001 “Black Hawk Down”. Both films depict actual firefights in which American soldiers struggle to stay alive in a messy combat with the cinematography presenting a brutally visceral depiction of the violent conflict. This time, the scene is Ramadi in Iraq in 2006 as Navy SEAL platoon Alpha One stakes out a residential area.
But “Warfare” is different from “Black Hawk Down”: there is no context or narrative, virtually all the scenes are in one apartment building, the action is represented in near real time, dialogue is minimal and mostly military terminology, and one barely sees the enemy. In short, this is an utterly immersive experience. Sound is critical: there is no score, just the cackle of radio communication plus endless and pounding gunshots, explosions and screams at fever pitch.
The film was both written and directed by Alex Garland, who made the recent “Civil War”, and Ray Mendes, who was Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) in the SEAL team, and the script is based entirely on the memories of the team members. It is a stunning addition to the ‘war is hell’ canon.