After last year’s extraordinary anxiety-ridden CIVIL WAR, Alex Garland joins Ray Mendoza to write and direct the incredibly intense war drama, WARFARE. Based on the memory of the people who lived it, WARFARE is 95 minutes of real time following a platoon of American Navy SEALs in 2006 on a surveillance mission in dangerous Iraq territory that goes terribly wrong.
WARFARE opens up with a rockin’, 90’s work-out video that then cuts to the platoon ogling and cheering at the cheesy, yet provocative footage. This choice wisely considers an upbeat, positive jolt of humor to open the film and unites the team in a single frame for the audience before spending the rest of the horrifyingly visceral film praying for their survival.
Without divulging too much, the platoon full of some incredibly young actors, including: Will Poulter, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Joseph Quinn, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Taylor John Smith, Michael Gandolfini, and many others, as they get locked down in a building with enemy firing all around them. Their bravery and brotherhood amidst the deadly chaos is awe-inspiring.
In a lot of ways, WARFARE reminds me of a condensed version of the immersively intense 2001 film, BLACK HAWK DOWN from Ridley Scott. The action is heart-pounding creating a realistic tension as the location is tightened within limited spaces, which creates a claustrophobic, unbreathable situation with little hope of success. Ray Mendoza is one of the Navy SEAL’s who helped co-write and co-direct the film, who I can only imagine, was able to give the actors and filmmaking the breath of authenticity that helps make WARFARE so powerful.
Not for the faint of heart, WARFARE has some strong violent imagery, showing people in high distress situations to say the least. Perfectly edited to a shorter runtime and keeping the story within its true to life time frame, WARFARE is a brilliantly crafted war thriller that should bring a new appreciation to military veterans and their harrowing experiences.
