A One Mann’s Movies review of “Warfare” (2025).
Having complained recently that the normally ultra-reliable A24 seemed to be losing their way a bit – through the releases of “Opus” and then “Death of a Unicorn” – they then come back with “Warfare”. Wowzer! It’s an astonishing 90 minutes of cinema that MUST be seen on the big screen. It’s early in the year still, but I think this could be a strong Best Picture contender for next year’s Oscars.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
“Warfare” Plot:
It’s just another day for a US Navy SEAL unit in the Iraqi city of Ramadi in November 2006. But penned within a two-storey property, things are about to get horrifically real for the men of the company.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Strong injury detail, violence, language”)
Talent:
Starring: D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Joseph Quinn, Aaron Mackenzie, Alex Brockdorff, Finn Bennett, Evan Holtzman, Michael Gandolfini, Joe Macaulay.
Directed by: Alex Garland & Ray Mendoza.
Written by: Alex Garland & Ray Mendoza.
Running Time: 1h 35m.
“Warfare” Summary:
Positives:
- Hyper amounts of armrest-clenching real-time tension for 90 minutes.
- The nearest you hope you ever get to the realities of war.
- Brilliant sound design.
- Great editing.
- Superb choices as regards to music and cinematography.
Negatives:
- “Nothing much happens”.
Review of “Warfare”:
An ‘authentic’ view of warfare.
I don’t normally do this before writing my review, for fear of bias. But I was so intrigued by this film that on the way home I listened to the Simon Mayo interview with Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza on the Mayo and Kermode “Take” podcast. I didn’t actually realise that co-director Ray Mendoza was indeed the “Ray” in this film, played by D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai. At one point he comments that people keep coming up to him and telling him how “authentic” the film is and he replies “how would you know”! It’s a fair point, but given that the team interviewed as many of the participants as possible to piece together their – often fragmented and concussed – recollections, it’s a fair bet that this is the closest to reality of the gritty truth about armed combat in the field that you are ever likely to get.
The build up.
For “Warfare” is an astonishing attack on the senses. 90 minutes, in real time – give or take a few slo-mo sections – of the build up and then the attack against the holed-up troops.
We start the film in WTF style with the sexualised music video to “Call on Me” by Eric Prydz as a way of introducing the men. They are all avidly watching the ‘action’ with one liberally distributing tissues! But then we see the build-up to the occupation of the residential building which is (as Kermode aptly puts it) wonderfully “procedural”. The way in which the men protect their ‘six’ with the penultimate man tapping the rear-guard on the shoulder when it is time for him to move demonstrates the skill of their training. Then the way in which they occupy the building, moving the residents (two separate families with young children) kindly but firmly into the downstairs room. (It is one of the big tensions in the film for me, the fate of the innocent civilians within the building.)
We then spend a good 30 minutes of the film watching the build-up of the enemy forces. Iraqis watched through a gun-scope, some going about their day-to-day business; others acting more suspiciously.
When the action hits, it hits hard.
When the firing starts, it comes, fast, hard and very VERY loud. It is one of the magnificent reasons why this is a film that you MUST go out and see in the cinema. Because a star of the film is the sound design. When the heavy machine-gun starts firing inside the enclosed room, you feel the sound of every round hammering your body. When there is a “show of force” through air cover, the noise and the impact is palpable: you can almost taste the dust that is blown up. The year is yet young, but at the moment I would predict a nomination and possibly a win for the Oscar Sound award.
And it gets visceral. Very visceral. You of course remember the first 15 minutes of “Saving Private Ryan“? This is like 60 minutes of that. Relentless. Because it is a real-time, when you get men wounded, they stay wounded – screaming in agony with the most horrific wounds. You just want it to stop. But it doesn’t. The editing of all of this (by Fin Oates) is superb: I’d predict another Oscar technical nomination.
It’s the details that make it real.
This is based on memories of a real incident. Before the end-titles, we get to see the faces (many of them blurred) of the real-life counterparts of the actors depicting them in the film. And what makes the film so good are the tiny details dropped into the story: spitting water back into the drinking bottle; the accidental self-injection of morphine; the excruciating moment a foot gets caught by a door jamb. You feel all of these moments in the script coming out of the mouths of the people who were there.
“Nothing much happens”.
I love to earwig other cinemagoers as they exit a showing. This was the comment made by the female partner of a middle-aged guy (who clearly seemed to love the film). And she is right in a way. In terms of a ‘story’ there is little to it. It’s more of a character and mood piece showing how this tight band of comrades react in desperate circumstances. But I was 100% in for that.
Alex Garland (who used Mendoza as a technical advisor on the all too prescient “Civil War“) is a master film-maker, and you see his hand at work in some of the film’s more stylised moments. Following a grenade blast, and then again after an IED explosion, many of the team are concussed and we see and hear events through their concussed eyes and ears. The cinematography (by David J. Thompson) assumes a wonderfully woozy, other-worldly quality.
It’s also a really interesting choice not to have any music at all in the whole film. Garland lets the natural sounds (and the sounds of distant battles in other parts of the city) speak for themselves.
Triggers
I’m sure that this doesn’t need saying, but the realism employed in this movie will, I think, make this film very triggering for any veterens with past active experience in the armed forces.
Summary Thoughts on “Warfare”
War is hell and glorified war movies are themselves hellish. This doesn’t do that for one moment. It shows a single incident in a whole war of hellish incidents, in real-time and in a manner which starts to make you appreciate – regardless of your political views on the righteousness or otherwise of the conflict – just what service these brave fighters gave for their country. I predict that this one will feature strongly in the Oscars. Highly recommended.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “Warfare”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JER0Fkyy3tw.
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