Warfare

Grade: B

Being done with Warfare and back to my real life made me the most relieved I’ve been since I saw Fall. Before that, it was Saving Private Ryan – and Warfare was the most difficult to watch war movie since SPR. I’ve been meaning to search up some pictures/video of these folks smiling on the red carpet and partying after their premiere. Y’all good?

Though we know they are, it often isn’t all good for the kinds of people they portray in Warfare. You don’t get to be like “Hey, excuse me! Can we call time for a second? We have hurt people here.” The bullets, bombs, and grenades continue to fly. Nothing to do except continue to deal with it while a couple of your buddies scream and bleed out on the floor.

The writer/directors are Alex Garland, who did Civil War, and Ray Mendoza, who served as Military Advisor on Civil War and several others like it. Warfare is based on Mendoza’s memories and experiences of his time as a U.S. Navy SEAL, particularly on November 19, 2006 during the Battle of Ramadi. Not much happens in the first half. It’s a lot of hurry-up-and-wait, and me thinking this is an easy kind of movie to act in. Just be indistinguishable from your comrades in the same helmets/military gear, and be very serious when relaying instructions – I thought.

What The Hunt did so well five years ago was, on a few occasions, introduce characters that make the viewer assume that this is the primary one we will follow, only for them to abruptly get taken out of the equation. In Warfare, it’s sometimes too easily telegraphed who will be with us for the long haul, as the bullets conveniently keep missing them. The Alpha One platoon has taken control of a multi-story house. They manage to evade a grenade attack relatively unscathed, and a tank is on its way to rescue them. They almost make it on board, but on a Romeo and Juliet level of tragic timing, an IED explodes on the site, and all bets are off.

What follows is some of the grisliest, unsettling carnage I have ever seen. Characters beg for morphine, but I would be asking for something more permanent. The only actor I immediately recognized was Will Poulter, who will emerge as one of the great multitaskers of the year. He stole the show in Death of a Unicorn, and I will see him in another film later this week. In Warfare, he is mildly injured compared to others, yet when he says the familiar alternative phrase to “I’m messed up,” we know what he really means. The sound design is effective, often going muted and muffled, to bring to life the sense of confusion and disorientation of combat. This is a harrowing, gritty claustrophobic snapshot that had me pleading for it let up. Countless brave men and women have put themselves through this for centuries so other people can have the freedom to leave an air-conditioned movie, hop in their car, go do some work at the church, and then enjoy a little league game.

The ending features side-by-side pictures of the actors in costume next to the person they were playing, and sometimes we see footage of them meeting their real-life counterpart on set. Warfare doesn’t join the trio I always name as my three favorite war films (Enemy at the Gates, Hacksaw Ridge, 1917), but it’s compact at 95 minutes, is well-filmed, and the actors are committed, to say the absolute least. In a strange way, I left with an enormous amount of pride and compassion for all who serve or have served, so on that level, Warfare is a success. Do I ever want to see it again? That’s a big hell no.

Grade: B