‘Warfare’ review: graphic, gruelling proof that war is hell

A lex Garland’s Civil War surprised many film fans with its brutal portrayal of a fictional America tearing itself apart from within. Now the writer-director is back with a gritty, forthright exploration of real war. He’s teamed up with a  veteran of the Second Gulf War, Ray Mendoza, to make the film as accurate as possible. The results are startling.  

• READ MORE: ‘Shōgun’s Cosmo Jarvis on the gritty ‘Warfare’ and Christopher Nolan’s’ ‘Odyssey’: “There’s always more to do”

Warfare is based on Mendoza’s time serving in Iraq. The film starts on November 19, 2006, when his team of Navy SEALs take control of a house. Things begin quietly with a tense few minutes in which Mendoza – played here by D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai – monitors the local area using air support while Corpsman Elliot (Shōgun’s Cosmo Jarvis) keeps his sniper rifle trained on a nearby market. Officer In Charge Erik (Will Poulter) has to keep his team, including Petty Office Sam (Joseph Quinn in a role that continues to put space between him and Stranger Things) and their two translators focused and alert. 

Comings and goings at the house opposite get busier and soon the translators warn of an imminent attack. Then a grenade is lobbed into the troop’s commandeered house and the film erupts. There’s an intense shootout with Al Qaeda jihadists and the volume and anxiety doesn’t quieten back down until the end credits begin to roll. Elliot has been injured by the grenade attack and medical evacuation is called. There’s a nail-biting sequence of sweaty soldier close-ups and barked orders, leading up to the sniper’s evacuation before the ferocity and carnage step up yet another gear.

 While viewers watch this captivating war movie, they’ll be compelled to see what’s next. Warfare is rarely less than gripping. It’s mostly later that questions creep in. Evidently, this is an honest retelling of what happened on the day. But the whole narrative has been sourced from interviews with SEALs holed up in the house and is being directed by one of them. Garland and Mendoza are to be commended for trying to portray as accurate a vision of events as possible. But it’s only one side of the story.

What makes the singular perspective more believable than the kind of military propaganda we often see in war films, especially American ones, is how the characters fare. Any viewer who experiences this remarkable, bloody piece of cinema will certainly be in no hurry to enlist.

There are no heroes in Warfare, only survivors. It’s honest and unflinching, tough but not witless and, for the most part, an immersive, overwhelming sensory experience. It should be compulsory viewing for warmongers of all ages and young conscripts.