Warfare
Will Poulter in Warfare. Photo: Murray Close
If you’re expecting rousing speeches and noble flag-waving, Warfare will chew you up and spit you out. Ray Mendoza (a former Navy SEAL) and Alex Garland’s gripping new war action film drops you headfirst into the smoke, confusion, and dread of modern combat with no cinematic safety net or Hollywood polish.
Told entirely in real time, Warfare is a boots-on-the-ground fever dream based on Mendoza’s firsthand experience as a US Navy SEAL during the 2016 Battle of Ramadi. The film doesn’t depict war, it dumps you into the thick of it, pulsing with the blood-pounding tension of every footstep, glance, and radio squawk.
Real-Time Terror: The Horror of Not Knowing
The genius of Warfare lies in its relentless, minute-by-minute tension. It traps you inside the action, syncing your heartbeat to the ragged breathing of soldiers navigating a mission that slips out of control.
As the SEAL platoon attempts to survive in insurgent territory, the distinction between enemy and civilian blurs to near-invisibility. That constant unease with the possibility of death around every corner feels suffocating. The real-time storytelling doesn’t just immerse, it suffocates.
The sound design is a character in itself: radio chatter fractures into unintelligible noise, gunfire erupts without warning, and the eerie silence between firefights is just as nerve-wracking as the explosions. Chaos isn’t just visual here; it also smacks you in the face sonically, only compounding the sense of dread. You don’t get time to catch your breath, and that’s exactly the point.
Joseph Quinn, Michael Gandolfini, Joe Macaulay, Henrique Zaga, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Kit Connor, Noah Centineo, Taylor John Smith, Adain Bradley, Cosmo Jarvis, Charles Melton in Warfare. Photo: Murray Close
Brotherhood in the Fire
Despite the sheer intensity of the experience, Warfare finds space to reveal its heart: the soldiers themselves. Will Poulter commands as Erik, a grounded and haunted officer, while Cosmo Jarvis’ Elliot Miller brings gravity as a wounded sniper. Joseph Quinn and Michael Gandolfini round out a cast that portrays not stoic warriors, but fractured men clinging to each other amidst chaos.
The film’s commitment to realism is also its biggest hurdle. By the final act, the constant tension borders on punishing. Some viewers may find themselves numb rather than moved, questioning whether the film’s intensity sacrifices deeper storytelling.
Still, for those who can stomach it, Warfare is unlike any war movie before it. It doesn’t just show you war, it makes you live it. Mendoza and Garland (Ex Machina, Civil War) don’t offer easy answers. Their camera lingers in the discomfort, the disassociation, and the impossible choices.
War movies don’t get much more visceral than Warfare. It’s brutal. It’s brilliant. And for that, for better or worse, it won’t soon be forgotten.
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