Once more we look to A24—whose output continues to be entertainingly varied as usual. Just recently alone we run the gamut from Zambian family dramas to killer unicorns (no kidding), and now finally we return once more to Alex Garland, touching on matters of modern conflict. I found last year’s Civil War from him a somewhat mixed bag, but there was enough technical chops on display there that I was curious about this one—and here, Garland plays into his strengths more with something that focuses purely on the brutal experience of warfare with, well, Warfare.
Set in 2006 Iraq, we have here a very straightforward scenario of a platoon of SEALs seizing a house in Ramadi, and the skirmish that soon ensues. In comparison to Civil War, there’s very little to do with politics—to quote Black Hawk Down, ‘once the first bullet goes by your head, all that shit goes out the window’. Our group of soldiers here aren’t hugely glamorized or villainized—we instead get just a group of young men who feel perhaps just a bit on over their heads, and all the people around them. There’s of course Iraqi translators who also are trying their best to get through every moment of tension, and through it all, the family living in the home to be caught in the crossfire—for whom perhaps the greatest sympathy may come.
So, what I did appreciate—and what may be a dealbreaker for some—is the focus on pure mood. It’s said in many accounts across conflicts is that most of the experience of war is boredom punctuated by sheer terror, and that is mostly aptly captured here. Once things do very abruptly kick off, it’s an assault on the senses as such things are—helped by the excellent sound design, which punches your eardrums as much as any assault rifle fire would.
There’s no shying away from the horrors either—there’s little Hollywood heroism when an IED goes under your feet, and while some around you might be doing their best to get you out alive, others might literally be stepping over you. It’s that kind of pure adrenaline and turmoil that’s the focus here—the characterization isn’t the deepest, there’s none of the grand adventure structure of other films, but simply the moment itself, captured in real-time.
If that all sounds like your kind of ride, Garland pulls it off most adeptly here—it’s certainly no casual watch for a Sunday afternoon. Still, for but a taste of what may happen when the world turns upside down for some—and that’s something looming over far too many in this day and age—this one seems like it captures that well enough…
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