Warfare (2025)

By: Mike Ward on Friday, April 11

R Running Time: 95 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

  • Places viewers directly into what feels like an intense and untenable situation, recreating a mission in the Battle of Ramadi during the Iraq War in 2006.

  • Unflinching, and claims to present an apolitical take on war and the impacts it leaves on our soldiers.

  • From award-worthy sound design, precise editing, and immersive cinematography, Warfare is an astonishing film from a technical standpoint.

NO

  • While it positions itself as an apolitical film, I’m not so sure that’s a fair statement.

  • Lacks character development, which is intentional, but also keeps an emotional connection at an arm’s length.

  • Not for the squeamish and likely a trigger for combat veterans. The film contains constant bloody, grisly images for the last two-thirds of the film and at least one person had to step out of the theater during my screening of the film.


OUR REVIEW

Bertrand Russell, the British philosopher, once said - “War does not determine who is right, but only who is left." 

In Warfare, we endure a visceral, unflinching recreation of a 2006 insurgent attack on Navy SEALs in Ramadi, Iraq. Written and directed by Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland (Civil War, Ex Machina), and based on the memories of the soldiers directly involved in the attack, the tandem create a vivid and bold cinematic experience.

Warfare is designed to be a loud, overwhelming, immersive journey. The sound design crackles with anxiety-inducing bangs, pops, and gunfire. Silence is used both as a warning of what’s coming and as a brief reprieve from terror. Mendoza and Garland embed us with the platoon. For nearly the full 95-minute run time, we are stuck in a small, two-story residence, commandeered by the SEALs as a defensive control point.

Mendoza lived through this situation firsthand. Portrayed by a terrific D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tai (“Reservation Dogs”), he serves as the communications lead, sharing intel with his commanding officer (Will Poulter) and a sniper (Cosmo Jarvis) strategically stationed across the street from an increasingly active building.

While we know violence will occur, we don’t quite know when or fully understand the scope of what these soldiers will endure. Once a grenade lands through a window, everything changes. In the immediate impact, the soldiers survive with a couple of relatively minor injuries. They decide to collapse their location, as a Bradley Fighting Vehicle (a massive yellow tank) is called to retrieve the soldiers. As the Bradley arrives and the soldiers begin to exit the home, an IED detonates, gravely injuring the sniper, Elliot, and Sam (Joseph Quinn), the team’s medic. Two Iraqi translators are killed, their grisly remains left in the street which separates the insurgent location and the soldiers’ residence.

Warfare is not jingoistic. Nor is the film celebratory propaganda for the military. This is a gut-wrenching viewing experience. Suffocating at times. A film that shows both the bravery and sacrifice these soldiers make for their country, but also the damaging impacts of war. A24, Mendoza, and Garland insist that Warfare is apolitical. I disagree. Any film documenting war is inherently political, since war is a political act.

This platoon believes in the mission. Yet, Mendoza allows us to see soldiers wrecked with fear, guilt, and confusion. He reminds us that human beings wear the camouflage, make these decisions, and bear the burden that every decision they make could potentially end someone’s life. Trained to not be concerned with the enemy, Warfare shows us next to nothing of the Iraqi men who initiate conflict with this group of SEALs. They seem almost robotic. They congregate. They brazenly walk in the open, then duck behind doors and walls.

By positioning itself in this way, we still tilt the scale towards the American side of the equation. And we should - this is Mendoza’s lived experience and his platoon’s story matters in understanding trauma and the toll these conflicts place upon those who serve.

Warfare does miss the mark on establishing an emotional connection to what we are witnessing. This is by design - we intentionally are confused and learn things in real time with the soldiers as they adapt to events unfolding around them. However, without meaningful character development, we are witnessing what feels, at times, more like a very realistic simulation than a fully realized narrative.

Garland and Mendoza’s approach is certainly commendable. One cannot help but react to the stark images and sounds placed in front of us. Yet emotionally, we are kept at a distance. And while Warfare does not need a plucky hero to save the day or a swelling musical score to make us feel pride, we just need something, or someone, to connect with.

Warfare may not fully achieve its goals. Images will stay with you. Moments will be hard to shake. The spectacle of Warfare leaves no doubt that war devastates everything it touches.

The intent is to educate viewers on the horrors of war, while holding to an apolitical stance. I simply fail to understand how a story can have it both ways. While intense, striking, and powerful to watch on screen, there’s a reason why war movies have lasting impact with audiences. We have characters to identify with - Captain Miller in Saving Private Ryan, Pvt. Joker in Full Metal Jacket, Sgt. Elias in Platoon, to name a few.

We may remain in awe of what we have seen. Without that human connection, Warfare, in many ways, becomes the very spectacle it desperately wants to avoid.

CAST & CREW

Starring: D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Ti, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Joseph Quinn, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Charles Melton, Taylor John Smith, Michael Gandolfini, Adain Bradley, Noah Centineo, Evan Holtzman, Henry Zaga, Alex Brockdorff

Director: Ray Mendoza, Alex Garland
Written by: Ray Mendoza, Alex Garland
Release Date: April 11, 2025
A24