Warfare Review: The Real Brutality of Combat

Step into a different kind of war film with Warfare. Based on the real-life recollections of director Ray Mendoza during his time as a U.S. Navy SEAL during the Iraq War, the film chronicles one event during his deployment. The film features the recollections of other platoon members on November 19, 2006, presented in real time beginning from the main title. If you have been looking for a film that strips all of Hollywood’s glamor off of war, this is for you.

Check out our Warfare review below, and remember, spoilers ahead!

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Warfare Review – Breaking Down Plot, Setting, Characters

Plot

While the beginning of the film starts off light-hearted with the platoon Alpha One dancing and singing to the Call on Me music video from Eric Prydz, it immediately drops into solemn and serious undertones. The Navy SEAL Alpha One platoon takes control of a multi-story house, keeping tabs on the families in the home as well as the neighborhood market across the street.

All is silent, with the men changing guards, writing down incoming information, and throwing jibes at one another, until a grenade is thrown into the room where sniper Elliott Miller is positioned. Things kick up a notch as the team radios in a Bradley to evacuate Elliot, but instead meets the business end of an IED which kills one of the translators as well as seriously wounding both Elliott and Petty Officer Sam.

The frazzled team must regroup inside the house, trying to save their platoon-mates while also radioing for help in the form of Alpha Two and more Bradleys. Fighting adrenaline, shock, and injuries, Alpha One manages to get help from Alpha Two as they await Bradleys sent for Elliott and Sam.

The group manages to get them safely on board, then waits for two final Bradleys to extricate the remaining soldiers from enemy fire. Once gone, dust settles over the courtyard as enemies pour out of houses, listening to the faint rumble of the Bradleys retreating.

From start to finish, I was hooked, the plot driving the movie forward to the point where I was waiting for more as the screen blackened. While I haven’t watched a ton of military movies, this one stands apart from the others not only for the strictly real accounts but the shedding of music or other tactics to make it more “Hollywood” than realistic.

While I didn’t get all the Navy lingo, you didn’t have to to understand the message of the film.

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Setting

Warfare took place during the Iraq War on November 19, 2006, in the wake of the Battle of Ramadi. The two Alpha platoons are stationed in Ramadi, Iraq, shacked up in houses and surveilling the town around them.

Throughout the film, the streets are mostly bare, with the main movement coming from Navy SEALs or enemies with guns slung across their backs. There is also several families in the film, from the one in the house the SEALs took over to those visiting the market.

The movie does a great job of dropping the viewer right into the Middle East, complete with the war-torn houses, dirt-covered streets, and the constant foreboding feeling of something bad about to happen. At the end, the film even highlights comparison pictures from the actual house that was ambushed, and they look nearly identical. The crew did a great job of recreating the setting, and making feel as real as possible.

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Characters

While the setting and plot bring this movie together, the characters bring each scene to life as you wait to see what fate will befall Alpha One and Two. Each actor embodies the Navy SEAL mentality, going through the motions and gun-handling like they were truly soldiers out in the field.

The best part was the little intricacies for each character, such as Tommy staring out into space after experiencing the grenade, Erik freezing after his platoon suffers horrible injuries, or Mendoza suffering bouts of deafness as he tries to process the situation. Sam screaming after one of his legs is torn up by an IED blast was the most gut-wrenching. I can still remember the agony in each of his screams.

I connected emotionally with every character right from the beginning and wanted them to survive the horrors that enveloped them. They were able to show the true cost of war on soldiers, and why so many who return home have trouble adjusting to normal life or suffer life-altering injuries.

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Prominent Actors in Warfare

The cast of Warfare is full of star-studded actors who have appeared in several hit films and TV series. Check out some of the main stars below:

• Will Poulter – The Maze Runner, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, We’re the Millers
• Kit Connor – Heartstopper, Rocketman, The Wild Robot
• Joseph Quinn – Stranger Things, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, A Quiet Place: Day One
• Charles Melton – May December, Riverdale, The Sun Is Also a Star
• Cosmo Jarvis – Shōgun, Peaky Blinders, Lady Macbeth
• D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai – Reservation Dogs, Hell of a Summer, Only the Good Survive
• Michael Gandolfini – Ocean’s Eight, Cherry, The Many Saints of Newark
• Finn Bennett – A Banquet, Kiri, Hope Gap
• Noah Centineo – The Recruit, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, The Perfect Date
• Adain Bradley – Tarot, Wrong Turn, Butter

Warfare Review: Final Thoughts

All in all, I thought this A24 film was incredible. I felt deeply invested in the events that unfolded and in the soldiers in the platoon from start to finish. Each scene was full of anxiety, gunshots, and action, showcasing exactly what happens to the soldiers who travel away from our shores. I wish filmmakers created more war movies this way because then they wouldn’t glamorize war as much as it is today.