Written by Sonny Ngo - Images courtesy of TriplePR
Warfare thrusts its audiences in the midst of a gripping life-or-death mission that lets them experience first-hand the immense pain, chaos, and agony that strikes soldiers and citizens alike in times of conflict.
A24’s Warfare is based on memories, and memories are a complicated thing. They’re not quite like videos or photographs, nor are they like letters or postcards. Memories move with time, they slowly change as sand trickles down the hourglass. They are affected by trauma, stress, and concussions. Memories are indeed complex and layered, said acclaimed film director Alex Garland. In conversation with Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza, who has co-directed and co-written this movie, the two present a uniquely twisted take on traditional military action features in the form of a location-based thriller.
Set in 2006, we follow a navy SEALs platoon as they take hold of an Iraqi household and try to escape a deadly counter-strike. With heavy hitters like Cosmo Jarvis and Will Poulter, along with fan favourites Kit Connor and Joseph Quinn, the film is supported by an ensemble cast of both established and rising talent. But that full range is rarely shown here. There are no three-dimensional characters in this film. While the soldiers do occasionally portray a wide array of emotions, especially when tensions start to rise, we don’t get any feasible background on who they are. The film instead aims to highlight the tense dynamics of being on the battlefield. It is an unconventional approach, but somehow it oddly works. The movie is only slightly north of 90-minutes and its tight timing only adds to the strained atmosphere. There is no room to flesh out characters, because just like a real-time mission, we are in the centre of an agonising pressure cooker.
Even still, the actors are nothing short of extraordinary – they embody the anxious and ferocious duality of soldiers perfectly. Charles Melton shines particularly bright with his portrayal of a confident, down-to-earth leader, while D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai captures the troubled mind of a young coms soldier all too well. It is in this layered and multitude depiction of soldiers that the cast has its moments in the limelight. While the characters themselves lack depth, the back-and-forths between them makes it seem as if we were following an actual platoon that has grown to rely on each other. And this isn’t just in the emotionally explosive scenes, on the contrary, it is in the mundane silences where the most personality is displayed.
When every needle-drop can mean fatality, sound indeed has to be of utmost importance. The movie opens with an intoxicating party-esque scene, after which we are immediately thrown in the dead of night. It's juxtapositions like these that carry the entire movie. One moment, we are sitting in monotonous quietness, and the next we have our ears ringing from crying outbursts of gunfire. These uncertainties of the war reflect and add to the spine-shivering feelings that slowly creep up on us during the whole of the film. Besides, they make the unpredictable surges of energy all the more volatile. There is one particular scene that sent shockwaves throughout the audience at my screening; it climaxes without a moment's notice and leaves you absolutely breathless.
I do wish, however, that Garland and Mendoza took more time to expand on the flip side of the story: the Iraqi citizens struck by the destruction. Even though they do hint at the people’s feelings near the end of the movie, during the film itself this mostly remains an afterthought. While it is true that Warfare doesn’t glorify war, as many initially feared when the trailer dropped, it still remains a one-sided story – and that just isn’t interesting enough for me. I had hoped for a more nuanced take on the conflict, for the most part because we know what Garland is capable of. His last year’s Civil War, which was also distributed by A24, hit a sweet spot that quite frankly, I missed here. But perhaps this is an unfair comparison – afterall, Warfare is based on the memories of U.S. soldiers, and I suppose that only leaves so much room for exploration. Despite this, however, the movie is well crafted with vast attention to detail. It is intense, all-consuming, severe, and brutal. And most certainly worth seeing in theatres, if only for the visceral sensations it leaves you with.
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