Two must-sees in 12 months - it's been a remarkable 2024-25 for writer-director Alex Garland. First came a warning from the near future in the searing road movie Civil War, and now we have a harrowing depiction of America's recent past in Warfare. But this time, Garland is co-writer and co-director alongside Ray Mendoza, a former US Navy Seal on whose memories of Iraq, and those of his comrades, Warfare is based.
The film takes us back to 19 November 2006 and the aftermath of the Battle of Ramadi when Mendoza and his platoon became trapped in a house in a residential area, waiting for reinforcements as insurgents gathered outside. What follows takes place in real time. Relentlessly.
Warfare has an excellent cast, but, in terms of characterisation, there is nothing in the way of backstories, and all the dialogue pertains to the tasks at hand. Thus, it feels more like a docudrama, and the reconstruction of events is noisy, unpredictable, and visceral.
Garland and Mendoza - an advisor on Civil War - make a formidable team whose diametric life paths somehow converged to bring this story to the world. Warfare's lived-through grit and aversion to jingoism leave a mark, a technical tour de force that is perhaps too troubling to watch again. That said, it would be a pity if its directors did not collaborate down the line. In the here and now, they have delivered one of the standout offerings of the year.
If this is the film for you, two other recommendations: Armadillo and Krigen (A War), a documentary and a drama, respectively, focusing on Danish soldiers in Afghanistan. Both deserve a wider audience.
