After collaborating with acclaimed director Alex Garland (“Ex Machina,” “Annihilation”) on 2024’s “Civil War,” military veteran and film advisor Ray Mendoza built a creative partnership that would evolve into a co-director effort in “Warfare.” The film delivers one of the most visceral and authentic war films in recent memory, based on Mendoza’s actual experiences as a Navy SEAL during the 2006 Battle of Ramadi. Bold choices like having no score and having the story unfold in real time creates an unprecedented level of immediacy to this moment in history when life and death were on the line every second.
Before diving into the full review, here is the heart-stopping trailer.
As mentioned above, the film focuses on a single harrowing incident on November 19, 2006, when Navy SEAL platoon Alpha One occupied a strategic house to provide overwatch support for a Marine operation. What begins as a routine mission rapidly deteriorates into a desperate fight for survival when the position is compromised. Mendoza’s insistence on historical accuracy—drawing exclusively from the testimonies of the platoon members who lived through the event—eliminates the narrative shortcuts and dramatic embellishments that typically undermine the genre.
Joseph Quinn (“A Quiet Place Day One,” “Stranger Things”) delivers a gut-wrenching performance as Sam, a Leading Petty Officer whose grievous leg injuries become the focal point of the team’s increasingly desperate situation. D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai portrays Mendoza himself with remarkable restraint, capturing the psychological toll of combat as his character dissociates while attempting to apply a tourniquet to his wounded comrade. Will Poulter brings quiet authority to Erik, the Officer in Charge whose calm decision-making proves crucial as options dwindle.
What separates “Warfare” from its contemporaries is its unflinching portrayal of the realities that accompany combat trauma—the shaking hands that prevent a medic from applying a tourniquet, the bureaucratic roadblocks to medical evacuation, and even impersonating superior officers to save lives. These moments of vulnerability showcase the human dimension of modern warfare that recruitment posters and action films deliberately obscure.
The directors craft claustrophobic tension throughout, with the confined spaces of the occupied house creating a pressure cooker atmosphere as danger mounts from all sides. The film’s technical aspects are flawless, with naturalistic lighting and immersive sound design, which is heightened by the fact that there is no score in the film. The documentary-style camera work combining to create a sensory experience that never feels artificially heightened for dramatic effect.
Perhaps most striking is the film’s final sequence, showing the actual SEALs depicted in the film participating in its production—a powerful testament to their support for the project’s commitment to authenticity. This meta-textual ending serves as both validation of the film’s accuracy and a poignant reminder that the harrowing events we’ve witnessed represent lived experiences rather than fictional constructs.
“Warfare” stands as a definitive document of the Iraq War experience, witnessed through the minute-by-minute reality faced by those who fought it. By narrowing its focus to a single incident and refusing to sensationalize the combat experience, Mendoza and Garland have created a war film that honors its subjects through unvarnished truth rather than a patriotic lens.
Letter Grade: B+