Right off the back of depicting a fictional war torn United States in last year's phenomenal Civil War, Alex Garland returns to the war genre with the help of veteran Ray Mendoza to take audiences to the very real war torn Iraq of 2006 in Warfare. The film is an autobiographical account of Mendoza's experience on a mission which saw himself and his platoon of fellow Navy Seals pinned down in a house they had taken as an outpost for reconnaissance when they're overwhelmed by enemy fire. The film follows the events in real time as the platoon try to get out of the house and transported to safety.
Alex Garland makes a big deal of the fact that this film was written from interviews of all the real soldiers that are depicted by the cast and it's no surprise as the authenticity is transparent from the offset. The film opens with the platoon sharing a brotherly moment as they all salivate over the overtly erotic music video of Eric Prydz's Call On Me. This scene would seem somewhat out of place in a film about the horrors of war but in fact it builds character, it feels like a genuine memory, a moment that someone would remember fondly in a period where good times were hard to come by. Most importantly though, the scene shows who these soldiers really are, young boys forced to be men.
The authenticity doesn't just improve character but it also enhances the beat for beat action, all the characters truly feel like real soldiers with their every movement. The cast, made up of all of Hollywood's young up and comers (like Will Poulter, Kit Conner and Joseph Quinn) lose their actor persona and embody their roles as trained military men. The film revels in this being a true to life depiction of war rather than a jingoistic cliche of valour while putting the audience into the boots of a gritty, modern combat unit. This isn't as wholly new and unique as Garland would have you believe, with films like The Hurt Locker and Black Hawk Down having a very similar style long before this, though it's never unwelcome when done in such magnificent fashion. Those who enjoyed the final act of Civil War will be happy to see a return to Garland's new found skill of grounded military action.
Where Warfare truly succeeds is it's depiction of the reality of war, as honestly it isn't a classic war film in the sort of outdated traditional sense and is in fact a claustrophobic horror where this group of young men are surrounded by unseen forces that seek only to kill them. The vast majority of the film takes place in one room with masterful sound design and direction to build the tension and fear that builds faster and faster throughout the brisk ninety minute runtime. While the gunshots and explosions are brilliantly realised by the sound team, the real achievement lies in terror inducing scenes where all you can hear are the overwhelming sounds of panicked and busy radio chatter or simply the pained and terrified screams of a wounded man. Garland and Mendoza use these quite simple sounds to create an atmosphere that is far scarier than most films to come out of the modern horror genre these days.
Warfare is quite simply a masterpiece of immersive terror. It is far from nationalistic propaganda and instead serves as a horrifyingly gripping tale of the true face of war. Its fast pace and the nature of the story can sometimes leave a little empty space when it comes to individual character development but that's made up for with the transparent faithfulness to real lived experience that creates a film that's not just a motion picture but a literal slice of life in the face of death.
★★★★1/2
Warfare releases in UK Cinemas on April 18th
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