- WARFARE
- Starring: Will Poulter and Cosmo Jarvis
- Directed by: Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza
- Rated: R
- Running time: 1 hr 35 mins
- A24
Director Samuel Fuller helmed “The Big Red One” and “The Steel Helmet” and also served in World War II. In the press book for the former movie, he observed that “To make a real war movie would be to fire at the audience from behind the screen.”
Without putting a viewer in actual danger, Alex Garland (“Ex Machina”) and Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza capture what a tense and frightening 95 minutes in Mendoza’s life was like.
Except for a brief moment where the troops ogle young women in a rather vigorous workout tape, “Warfare” follows them as they take over a building for surveillance. They see lots of potential attackers, but a lot of they people they’re watching are simply trying to get on with their days. As false alarms keep ringing, it’s still a shock when a real grenade explodes in their midst.
They have taken casualties, but getting back to base is challenging now that the enemy have decided to stop waiting patiently. Hostile fire is coming from unexpected directions. Getting the team out of the lethal quagmire borders on being a suicide mission.
Shot and edited in what amounts to real time, “Warfare” drops a viewer into urban combat and the horror it entails. Every shot or explosion reverberates around the auditorium. The dialogue is loaded with military jargon, and when vehicles are six minutes from the scene, you could potentially set your watch accordingly.
During these moments, “Warfare” brims with tension, but Garland and Mendoza don’t do much to orient the audience into 2004 Iraq or explain the banter. The characters and their relationships are also sketchy. We don’t know who is in charge of whom or why occupying a building that seems to be an obvious target would be such a smart move.
The cast, which includes solid performers like Will Poulter (“Detroit”), but we barely learn anything about Poulter’s Eric or his life outside the war zone. D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai plays a character clearly based on Mendoza himself, but we barely get to know him or how he and his unit interact.
If we knew more about they guys in the unit, it would be easier to get involved with their struggles and to care if they survive. The situation is inherently compelling, but “Warfare” misses some of its potential because it loses its energy whenever the lethal fireworks stop.
The Iraqi family inside the building are a little better drawn than in earlier films on the War on Terror and its era. Unlike, say “Blackhawk Down,” Garland and Mendoza express concern over what happens to the residents once the occupying armies are gone. “Warfare” features a coda where one of Mendoza’s former comrades in arms visits the set. It’s one of the rare moments in the movie where emotions other than fear come into play. “Warfare” succeeds at immersing viewers in Mendoza’s tour of duty, but it might have had more impact if he and Garland had come up for air more often.